General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: NSA: Since Metadata is usually attached/embedded in Content, what is the procedure to separate it? [View all]shawn703
(2,712 posts)The technology does actually keep the metadata separate from the actual location - so you would have ~10PB for example of actual data "in the cloud", and in your local gateway you would have only a tiny fraction of that in metadata. When you look at the properties of what is presented locally, it would appear that you have 10PB of data there but it's only the metadata "stubs". Once you try to access the data, it gets pulled in from the cloud and you're good to go. If the actual data isn't available, disconnected etc., you would still see the metadata but just couldn't pull down the actual data. So yes it can be separated and still be available for searching of properties.
I wasn't aware that there was a claim that the government could "reattach" the data to the metadata. When I was reading it, I had the impression that they could search the From fields of emails for people who are receiving messages from a known terrorist, then at that point they could get a FISA warrant or whatever and start collecting all the data on those people. Did they say they could go back and get emails etc., that were transmitted prior to them turning up in a search?