Your Information Is Swimming
On Wednesday, Wired’s Ryan Singel reported the FBI’s National Security Branch Analysis Center (NSAC), a datamining center, has collected 1.5 billion records on citizens and noncitizens alike for use in domestic criminal investigations.
It's easy to lose track of big numbers. To put this in some perspective, I have to remind myself there are only 300 million people in the U.S. 1.5 billion is about 1/6th of the world's population.
Back to the number of records: to find how many records per person that comes out to, divide 1,500 by 3. Yup. 500 records per capita. For use in criminal investigations.
Apparently, the way it works is, if you happened to be staying at the same hotel or renting a car the same day as someone currently under FBI investigation, your private information is swept up and kept by the NSAC.
Even though I just read exactly what that acronym stands for, I forgot already. I think the "N" stands for "nuggets," of information, or, "nuts," like something a squirrel would gather. The "SAC" then makes sense. That's something you put your nuts into. The "Nut Sack" is holding about 1.5 billion little bits of info. Yeah, that sounds about right.
Your personal information is swimming through the government pipeline, where it then fertilizes the FBI investigators. Soon, the pitter-patter of little court case briefs will be filed. these court cases go on to spawn records of their own. Ah, the circle of litigation. Cue the Elton John.
It's easy to lose track of big numbers. To put this in some perspective, I have to remind myself there are only 300 million people in the U.S. 1.5 billion is about 1/6th of the world's population.
Back to the number of records: to find how many records per person that comes out to, divide 1,500 by 3. Yup. 500 records per capita. For use in criminal investigations.
Apparently, the way it works is, if you happened to be staying at the same hotel or renting a car the same day as someone currently under FBI investigation, your private information is swept up and kept by the NSAC.
Even though I just read exactly what that acronym stands for, I forgot already. I think the "N" stands for "nuggets," of information, or, "nuts," like something a squirrel would gather. The "SAC" then makes sense. That's something you put your nuts into. The "Nut Sack" is holding about 1.5 billion little bits of info. Yeah, that sounds about right.
Your personal information is swimming through the government pipeline, where it then fertilizes the FBI investigators. Soon, the pitter-patter of little court case briefs will be filed. these court cases go on to spawn records of their own. Ah, the circle of litigation. Cue the Elton John.