Take A Break From The Snowden Drama For A Reminder Of What He's Revealed So Far

[intaglio]

99. Nice misinterpretation

Shame it misses the point entirely.

Everything you do online or using a cellphone generates metadata. This is NOT the content of the message but details describing where the message is going and where it is from. This metadata is absolutely required by the mechanisms that allow you to use these services. It is analogous to the envelope of a letter.

Now let us say you are writing to your old Aunt Maude in Snohomish, the Postal Service looks at that envelope and the return address, looks at the stamp showing how much postage you have paid. The US Postal Service also weighs the letter to ensure it is not overweight for the postage paid, probably passes it through metal detection, checks the routing data (surface or airmail) and may X-ray and submit it to other examination if the letter seems suspicious. Do you object to any of this?

Another letter recovered from the same postbox is addressed to Saif al-Adel at an address in Egypt, do you for one second think that such a letter should be passed on without even greater examination and investigation than a letter to your Aunt Maude? Do you believe that the USPS should not pass this letter over to the NSA?

The analogy can be carried even further. The USPS passes most mail through some form of optical scanner and the data about that letter is held in a database so that mail distribution can be optimised. Large increases in mail volumes to a particular area may mean that resources may need to be reallocated. Let's sat that those records, metadata, show that many people are writing to an Aunt at that address in Snohomish. Metal detection show that some of these letters may contain cash do you think that the information stored should not be used to launch an investigation into possible fraud?