[lbo-talk] Why Metadata Matters

Eleutherios Rizooto eleutherios.rizooto at gmail.com
Wed Jul 31 13:39:23 PDT 2013


Wojtek is dead wrong on this (although he is often insightful), meta-data is deeply revealing and the government does pernicious things with the information of the likes I don't see coming from business. It kills people, many of them innocent and regardless no longer is there due process, and has always used its surveillance abilities to monitor and quell dissent but never has it had the ability to monitor the entire population that it has now --and which it exercised against Occupy. Yet, it's true that businesses collect vast amounts of sensitive data, Acxiom is a longtime example but there are ever more (especially in recent years). Much of the data that NSA (and even its predecessors) has obtained from the beginning has been procured from the networks of private companies through secret collusion, all of which was detailed in the Edge/FAZ and NY Review of Books pieces I originally shared. It's also true that there is anti-government reflex deeply conditioned in the US, but that doesn't make untrue or excuse nefarious activity by the government.

Indeed, if one wants the government to have the support to be able to do good, then it's helpful to not let it discredit itself so bluntly and pervasively. It makes it harder to argue against libertarian and similar perspectives, or to get support from the average "non-ideological" lay person, given so much of what government actually does. Thankfully, it does appear that some reform is finally on the horizon http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/07/25/reform-of-nsa-surveillance-is-probably-inevitable/, but I don't think it'll change the overall trajectory that we're on; and given the potential of the technology, deep consideration is necessary (I'm quite thankful for Snowden et al's disclosures http://pressthink.org/2013/07/the-snowden-effect-definition-and-examples ). Those that didn't read the Dyson piece really should do so http://www.edge.org/conversation/nsa-the-decision-problem .

Major new revelations are out today from Greenwald/Snowden: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/31/nsa-top-secret-program-online-dataIt divulges that content is indeed collected in concert with meta-data, as previous disclosures showed: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2013/aug/15/nsa-they-know-much-more-you-think/.

None of this is to minimize that Facebook especially as well as Google and the less visible data collectors shouldn't also be held to account. To whatever degree possible, that is, it's difficult to control the technology and it requires attention and discussion which is sorely lacking. I don't doubt that rat bastard Zuckerberg would hesitate to rat fuck with the information at his disposal and an underappreciated aspect to CIA Director Petreaus' downfall was the power available to Google/GMail (fully exploited or not at this juncture). Yet, that, some targeted ads, some insider trading and corporate espionage, pales in comparison to what the government can and demonstrably does with the data it collects directly or via clandestine partnerships with business that come with the convenient aspect of requiring far less if any oversight. For those that believe in reform then this is one area to pursue. For those that believe in government, and it demonstrably can be accountable to and benefit the people given favorable circumstances, these issues cannot be ignored.

On Wed, Jul 31, 2013 at 2:25 PM, Shane Mage <shmage at pipeline.com> wrote:


>
> On Jul 31, 2013, at 3:07 PM, Arthur Maisel wrote:
>
> Could you clarify who you're trying to insult, Andie or Woj?
>>
>
> Neither. Just that it was Andie who, by condescending to point to the
> obvious, was (deservedly) insulting Woj.
>
> ______________________________**_____
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/**mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk<http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk>
>



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