At least 80% of all audio calls, not just metadata, are recorded and stored in the US, says whistleblower William Binney

At least 80% of all audio calls, not just metadata, are recorded and stored in the US, says whistleblower William Binney ( theguardian.com )

submitted 2014-07-11T08:15 by Zenof

8 comments

glugglug 2014-07-11T14:32

The article says they plan to collect 966 exabytes/year. According to this article , that is roughly the total HDD manufacturing capacity per year, worldwide.

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Fnordpocalypse 2014-07-12T01:44

That's only what they admit to.

Is it out of the realm of possibilities that the government has a special deal with a company or even their own manufacturing facility?

Or maybe they are already using hard drives several generations more advanced.

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glugglug 2014-07-12T02:33

There are two hard drive manufacturers still in business. The R&D/entry barriers to become competitive are steep even by government standards.

An on the surface even more Earth-shattering possibility, but perhaps more plausible, is that the govt has a deal with either HP or Samsung to get first dibs on their now-overdue memristor-based solid state drives, which are supposed to make a petabyte in a typical drive form factor a reality Real Soon Now™

HP memristors

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KrakNup 2014-07-11T08:30

I don't understand why they collect all this useless data or what it could possibly be used for. Seriously, they want to know about my dental appointments and list of groceries to pick up?

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sharpie 2014-07-13T05:45

I don't see what's hard to understand. They've already been caught snooping on Senate staffers investigating them.

The effects of this should be obvious. Unless things actually change, politicians should assume they are being monitored closely. As should every citizen.

Think that through. If nothing clicks, reboot your system.

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sharpie 2014-07-12T22:02

It's the implied threat. Designed to make us self-censor.

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TheVeryWiseOwl 2014-07-11T17:27

With enough data you can essentially study, manage and analytically predict the actions or perspectives of the majority (or even to know the extent of what people are aware of). This can hold various similarities to psychological studies, and with that also holds the ability to manipulate through mass media or other outlets in which the 'test subjects' are exposed to. I can understand it is better for them to have a majority than not enough, but it by no means offers any justification towards their actions (and lack of restraint)

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Zenof 2014-07-11T09:31

They are most likely listening to people talking about how much they like their rights and the like.

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