WONDERING WHAT HARMLESS ‘METADATA’ LIKE THE NSA COMPILES CAN ACTUALLY REVEAL? GERMAN POLITICIAN SHOWS YOU

◼ The term “metadata” has been tossed around lately, especially after the leak about the NSA’s classified programs last month. It’s a collection of allegedly harmless — and nothing too specific — data from phone and Internet companies. But what if that’s not quite true? - Liz Klimas/The Blaze

Prior to leak about the NSA, TheBlaze detailed just what this information could show about an individual when the government investigating phone records of Associated Press reporters and editors was a hot button issue. But now a German politician has taken it a step further, using six months of his own metadata to give a visual of what this information really depicts.

“We combined this geolocation data with information relating to his life as a politician, such as Twitter feeds, blog entries and websites, all of which is all freely available on the internet,” Zeit Online wrote. And when all this is taken together, it reveals a lot.

Spitz explained as much in an op-ed in the New York Times Sunday about it titled ◼ “Germans Loved Obama. Now We Don’t Trust Him.”

◼ Tell-all telephone - Zeit Online

◼ NSA slides explain the PRISM data-collection program - Washington Post

The top-secret PRISM program allows the U.S. intelligence community to gain access from nine Internet companies to a wide range of digital information, including e-mails and stored data, on foreign targets operating outside the United States. The program is court-approved but does not require individual warrants. Instead, it operates under a broader authorization from federal judges who oversee the use of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Some documents describing the program were first released by The Washington Post on June 6. The newly released documents below give additional details about how the program operates, including the levels of review and supervisory control at the NSA and FBI. The documents also show how the program interacts with the Internet companies. These slides, annotated by The Post, represent a selection from the overall document, and certain portions are redacted....

◼ Poll: Public wants congressional hearings on NSA surveillance - Scott Clement and Sean Sullivan/Washington Post
◼ For secretive surveillance court, rare scrutiny in wake of NSA leaks - Peter Wallsten, Carol D. Leonnig and Alice Crites/Washington Post
◼ US data surveillance worries German expert - dw.de