From the «dickwads on wheels» department:
Title: Phone Metadata Suddenly Not So ‘Harmless’ When It's the FBI's Data Being Harvested
Author: admin@soylentnews.org
Date: Sat, 01 Feb 2025 22:42:00 +0000
Link: https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=25/02/01/1359255&from=rss

upstart[1] writes:

Phone Metadata Suddenly Not So 'Harmless' When It's The FBI's Data Being Harvested[2]:

The government's next-best argument (after "Third Party Doctrine yo[3]!") in support of its bulk collection of US persons' phone metadata via the (now partly-dead) Section 215 surveillance program was this: hey, it's just metadata[4]. How harmful[5] could it be? (And if it's of so little use to the NSA/FBI/others, how is it possible we're using it to literally kill people[6] ?)

While trying to fend off attacks on Section 215 collections (most of which
are governed [in the loosest sense of the word] by the Third Party Doctrine), the NSA and its domestic-facing remora, the FBI, insisted collecting and storing massive amounts of phone metadata was no more a constitutional violation than it was a privacy violation.

Suddenly — thanks to the ongoing, massive compromising[7] of major US telecom firms by Chinese state-sanctioned hackers — the FBI is getting hot and bothered about the bulk collection[8] of its own phone metadata by (gasp!) a government agency. (h/t Kevin Collier on Bluesky[9])

[...] The agency (quite correctly!) believes the metadata could be used to identify agents, as well as their contacts and confidential sources. Of
course it can. That's why the NSA liked gathering it. And that's why the FBI liked collections it didn't need a warrant to access. (But let's not pretend this data was "stolen." It was duplicated and exfiltrated, but ATT isn't suddenly missing thousands of records generated by FBI agents and their contacts.)

The issue, of course, is that the Intelligence Community consistently downplayed this exact aspect of the bulk collection, claiming it was no more intrusive than scanning every piece[10] of domestic mail (!) or harvesting millions of credit card records[11] just because the Fourth Amendment (as interpreted by the Supreme Court) doesn't say the government can't.

[...] The takeaway isn't the inherent irony. It's that the FBI and NSA spent years pretending the fears expressed by activists and legislators were overblown. Officials repeatedly claimed the information was of almost zero utility, despite mounting several efforts to protect this collection from
being shut down by the federal government. In the end, the phone metadata program (at least as it applies to landlines) was terminated. But there's
more than a hint of egregious hypocrisy in the FBI's sudden concern about how much can be revealed by "just" metadata.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Original Submission[12]

Read more of this story[13] at SoylentNews.

Links:
[1]: https://soylentnews.org/~upstart/ (link)
[2]: https://www.techdirt.com/2025/01/23/phone-metadata-suddenly-not-so-harmless-when-its-the-fbis-data-being-harvested/ (link)
[3]: https://www.techdirt.com/2014/08/18/ron-wyden-its-time-to-kill-third-party-doctrine-go-back-to-respecting-privacy/ (link)
[4]: https://www.techdirt.com/2013/07/08/anyone-brushing-off-nsa-surveillance-because-its-just-metadata-doesnt-know-what-metadata-is/ (link)
[5]: https://www.techdirt.com/2017/03/31/how-little-metadata-made-it-possible-to-find-fbi-director-james-comeys-secret-twitter-account/ (link)
[6]: https://www.techdirt.com/2014/05/12/michael-hayden-gleefully-admits-we-kill-people-based-metadata/ (link)
[7]: https://www.techdirt.com/2024/12/17/att-verizon-fail-to-inform-customers-about-major-salt-typhoon-hack/ (link)
[8]: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-01-16/fbi-has-warned-agents-it-believes-hackers-stole-their-call-logs (link)
[9]: https://bsky.app/profile/kevincollier.bsky.social/post/3lfuyz476x22j (link)
[10]: https://www.techdirt.com/2024/07/08/for-whatever-reason-the-us-post-office-is-still-running-its-mail-cover-surveillance-program/ (link)
[11]: https://www.techdirt.com/2013/09/16/nsa-is-also-grabbing-millions-credit-card-records/ (link)
[12]: https://soylentnews.org/submit.pl?op=viewsubsubid=64865 (link)
[13]: https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=25/02/01/1359255&from=rss (link)

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 02 Feb 2025 13:36:10 GMT, Retrograde <fungus@amongus.com.invalid>
wrote:

Phone Metadata

\
Jun 2, 2016

The word "metadata" achieved buzzword status in 2013. That's when
whistleblower Edward Snowden leaked documents exposing a National
Security Agency program that collected telephone metadata in bulk --
along with other surveillance schemes deemed unsavory by electronic
rights watchdogs. Since then, metadata collection has been invoked in
court proceedings, innumerable opinion pieces and an Oscar-winning
documentary as one of the most egregious violations of personal
privacy. On Monday, former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said
Snowden "performed a public service" -- albeit an "inappropriate and
illegal" one -- by sharing the secrets.

Yet, most people couldn't describe, step-by-step, how metadata are
used to piece together personal secrets.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/your-phone-metadata-is-more-revealing-than-you-think

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 02 Feb 2025 13:36:10 GMT
Retrograde <fungus@amongus.com.invalid> wrote:

From the «dickwads on wheels» department:
Title: Phone Metadata Suddenly Not So ‘Harmless’ When It's the FBI's Data Being Harvested
Author: admin@soylentnews.org
Date: Sat, 01 Feb 2025 22:42:00 +0000
Link: https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=25/02/01/1359255&from=rss

upstart[1] writes:

Phone Metadata Suddenly Not So 'Harmless' When It's The FBI's Data Being Harvested[2]:

[]

Now look, it's clearly OK if the US does it; it's nasty foreigners doing it that's bad.

--
Five Eyes says hiya!

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

This message is in MIME format. The first part should be readable text,
while the remaining parts are likely unreadable without MIME-aware tools.

Ahhhh... what goes around, comes around. Beautiful! Thank you for sharing!
=D

On Sun, 2 Feb 2025, Retrograde wrote:

From the «dickwads on wheels» department:
Title: Phone Metadata Suddenly Not So ‘Harmless’ When It's the FBI's Data Being Harvested
Author: admin@soylentnews.org
Date: Sat, 01 Feb 2025 22:42:00 +0000
Link: https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=25/02/01/1359255&from=rss

upstart[1] writes:

Phone Metadata Suddenly Not So 'Harmless' When It's The FBI's Data Being Harvested[2]:

The government's next-best argument (after "Third Party Doctrine yo[3]!") in support of its bulk collection of US persons' phone metadata via the (now partly-dead) Section 215 surveillance program was this: hey, it's just metadata[4]. How harmful[5] could it be? (And if it's of so little use to the NSA/FBI/others, how is it possible we're using it to literally kill people[6] ?)

While trying to fend off attacks on Section 215 collections (most of which are governed [in the loosest sense of the word] by the Third Party Doctrine), the NSA and its domestic-facing remora, the FBI, insisted collecting and storing massive amounts of phone metadata was no more a constitutional violation than it was a privacy violation.

Suddenly — thanks to the ongoing, massive compromising[7] of major US telecom
firms by Chinese state-sanctioned hackers — the FBI is getting hot and bothered about the bulk collection[8] of its own phone metadata by (gasp!) a government agency. (h/t Kevin Collier on Bluesky[9])

[...] The agency (quite correctly!) believes the metadata could be used to identify agents, as well as their contacts and confidential sources. Of course it can. That's why the NSA liked gathering it. And that's why the FBI liked collections it didn't need a warrant to access. (But let's not pretend this data was "stolen." It was duplicated and exfiltrated, but ATT isn't suddenly missing thousands of records generated by FBI agents and their contacts.)

The issue, of course, is that the Intelligence Community consistently downplayed this exact aspect of the bulk collection, claiming it was no more intrusive than scanning every piece[10] of domestic mail (!) or harvesting millions of credit card records[11] just because the Fourth Amendment (as interpreted by the Supreme Court) doesn't say the government can't.

[...] The takeaway isn't the inherent irony. It's that the FBI and NSA spent years pretending the fears expressed by activists and legislators were overblown. Officials repeatedly claimed the information was of almost zero utility, despite mounting several efforts to protect this collection from being shut down by the federal government. In the end, the phone metadata program (at least as it applies to landlines) was terminated. But there's more than a hint of egregious hypocrisy in the FBI's sudden concern about how much can be revealed by "just" metadata.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Original Submission[12]

Read more of this story[13] at SoylentNews.

Links:
[1]: https://soylentnews.org/~upstart/ (link)
[2]: https://www.techdirt.com/2025/01/23/phone-metadata-suddenly-not-so-harmless-when-its-the-fbis-data-being-harvested/ (link)
[3]: https://www.techdirt.com/2014/08/18/ron-wyden-its-time-to-kill-third-party-doctrine-go-back-to-respecting-privacy/ (link)
[4]: https://www.techdirt.com/2013/07/08/anyone-brushing-off-nsa-surveillance-because-its-just-metadata-doesnt-know-what-metadata-is/ (link)
[5]: https://www.techdirt.com/2017/03/31/how-little-metadata-made-it-possible-to-find-fbi-director-james-comeys-secret-twitter-account/ (link)
[6]: https://www.techdirt.com/2014/05/12/michael-hayden-gleefully-admits-we-kill-people-based-metadata/ (link)
[7]: https://www.techdirt.com/2024/12/17/att-verizon-fail-to-inform-customers-about-major-salt-typhoon-hack/ (link)
[8]: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-01-16/fbi-has-warned-agents-it-believes-hackers-stole-their-call-logs (link)
[9]: https://bsky.app/profile/kevincollier.bsky.social/post/3lfuyz476x22j (link)
[10]: https://www.techdirt.com/2024/07/08/for-whatever-reason-the-us-post-office-is-still-running-its-mail-cover-surveillance-program/ (link)
[11]: https://www.techdirt.com/2013/09/16/nsa-is-also-grabbing-millions-credit-card-records/ (link)
[12]: https://soylentnews.org/submit.pl?op=viewsubsubid=64865 (link)
[13]: https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=25/02/01/1359255&from=rss (link)

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)