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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMetadata Surveillance Didn’t Stop the Paris Attacks
=http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/11/17/metadata-surveillance-didnt-stop-paris-attacks
There are a number of reasons why the dragnet might not work as planned. Some important metadata may be missing, perhaps even from the PlayStation 4 consoles some terrorists have used to communicate, which Belgiums Interior Minister said has posed particular problems in the days before the attack. (Though theres no evidence PS4s played a role in this attack.) Some metadata, especially that scraped from content, may be increasingly unavailable if the content itself is encrypted. When individuals keep their online identities rigorously separate, that too makes the dragnet less useful, as it makes it hard to identify a terrorist network. Finally, it may be that the triage process doesnt always measure the importance of communications effectively.
In any case, news reports on the investigation into Fridays attacks have suggested that some of the terrorists involved in the attackeven a figure identified as the possible plannerhave had some of their communications analyzed already. If so, enough metadata was available to partially map out this network. If investigators know about these communications now, they could have known about them on Thursday, before the attack. And if they did, investigators might have been able to bypass whatever encryption the terrorists did use.
The terrorists who conducted Fridays attack may well have been using encryption. But if so, it appears that the metadata dragnet failed well before agencies got to any encrypted communications.
NightWatcher
(39,343 posts)Does not help prevent.
underpants
(182,834 posts)There are obviously more than that in their operation but that is still a really small number.
edhopper
(33,590 posts)KittyWampus
(55,894 posts)When something happens or someone is apprehended, they can then go into data and track people/money/information.