#doublefacepalm

The unlimited nature of the records being handed over to the NSA is extremely unusual [..] The order directs Verizon to “continue production on an ongoing daily basis thereafter for the duration of this order”. It specifies that the records to be produced include “session identifying information”, such as “originating and terminating number”, the duration of each call, telephone calling card numbers, trunk identifiers, International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) number, and “comprehensive communication routing information”.

The information is classed as “metadata”, or transactional information, rather than communications, and so does not require individual warrants to access.

Nice

BTW metadata does not mean transactional. Meta in this context means “descriptive”, meaning “data that describes data”. For instance you could have a file with thousand lines with one column that says “temparature”. The name of that column, temparature which is its decription, would be metadata. It is usually expected metadata is smaller than data itself, and changes less often, and perhaps.. less important. The story makes much more sense this way because they are almost trying to say “hey it’s just some descriptive stuff on the side you know, it’s not thaaat important”. By some word shuffling, they managed to label the more important data as “supportive”, and get regular updates of it. Sneaky.

Al Gore

Is it just me, or is secret blanket surveillance obscenely outrageous?

It is