"We kill people based on metadata"

[thewayne]

Thus spoke General Michael Hayden, former director of the NSA and the CIA. Metadata is information about information, in this case, collecting metadata about phone calls. It knows A called B on a certain date and time and for a certain amount of time. It then can go out 2-3 hops, A<->B is one, B then calls C is 2, C calls D E and F for three. So A never talks to F, but they are indelibly associated, so if one is labeled a terrorist, there's an extremely high chance the other is. But maybe it's just a neighborhood pizza joint that delivers.

And with every drone strike we radicalize more people to become terrorists, and we've given them an exceptionally bright and clear target: the USA. I guess winning hearts and minds is too wussy these days.

http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2014/may/10/we-kill-people-based-metadata/