NSA: Since Metadata is usually attached/embedded in Content, what is the procedure to separate it? [View all]

[usGovOwesUs3Trillion]

Last edited Wed Jul 31, 2013, 11:12 AM - Edit history (3)

Metadata is big news these days, and even though many more folks know about this term than did say 10 years ago, thanks to mp3 players and 'smart'-phones, most people still do not have a deeper knowledge of what it is exactly, and how it is used.

In short, it is extra data/information used to describe the primary data/information (e.g. content/file like an image, mp3, video, document, etc.)

For example, when you take a picture on your phone, not only will the software save that picture (content/file) to your computer/disk, it will also add/attach extra information (often hidden) to the image file, e.g. location, timestamp, camera settings etc. automatically, usually to help categorize it.

Same thing with our mp3 files, we have software (e.g. iTunes) that helps us manage/organize all these files, and the most popular way to do this, is by adding extra information to the mp3 file itself, e.g. title, description, genre, year, cd, artist, album, etc. The software basically uses the same technique it used with photos, it adds/attaches metadata (extra information) about the mp3 (content) to the mp3 file itself.

This information is usually embedded/hidden in the file itself, and therefore always travels with the file, otherwise it would not be of much use.

Anyways, considering all this recent news, and especially the gov primary defense, "we are only harvesting and storing metadata" (nothing to see here, move along) it got me to thinking (smell the smoke) about it... and being a software professional, who relies on metadata daily to do my job, I could not help but be concerned about how they go about separating this metadata part of the file from the main file.

And then, how do they join it back together again once they have a suspect?

Knowing what I know about people, and the government, from my 50 miraculous years on this beautiful planet, I know that they will usually take the path of least resistance, and it begs the question if they even do separate it.

Either way, I think these questions need to be understood by our leaders on the hill, and then be asked to help us get to the truth of what is really going on.

Does the government force all these private companies to generate all these custom reports of JUST metadata on all their content? And then who stores the actual content that all this metadata references, the government, or the private companies?

If you see where I am going with this, I don't think it makes sense for this separation/joining of data, as it starts to get complex very quickly considering all the disparate data from all these different companies.

I think that the government is harvesting it all up (metadata and it's content) and then analyzing the metadata to decide what actual content to take a closer look at, which of course is right there in their possession as well.

Another question that needs to be addressed is the cost of all this, how can we afford to spy on the whole world when we can not even afford to fix our roads, bridges, schools, etc. nor find full employment for all of our people?

What does DU think, are they just harvesting the metadata, and having the companies store all the content for later retrieval, or are they sucking it all up?

UPDATE: Just got a ton of docs that answers a lot...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=3378381