A Simple Question for the NSA Snoops and the Obama Administration


(Featured image above from Gizmodo.)

This blog is about technology, including its use and misuse.  During the past few weeks we have learned the NSA is collecting telephone data on everyone in the U.S.  “But we only collect metadata,” is the reply.  Those who buy this story do not understand what’s in the metadata.  For example, if you’re using a cell phone, chances are excellent that your location is part of the metadata package.  Are you really comfortable with the NSA tracking your daily movements?

But I have a simple question for the NSA snoops and the Obama administration.  You’ve been collecting this data for seven years. Why couldn’t they stop the Boston Marathon bombers?  There were tons of signals that something was going on there, but somehow the NSA, CIA, and every other TLA agency in Washington managed to miss them.  If it makes you feel any better, apparently NSA and the other clowns are great at collecting data, but not so good at analyzing and understanding it.  Cold comfort indeed.


About Tony Lima

Tony Lima has been working with technology, economic modeling, forecasting, and market research for 40 years. His background makes him uniquely qualified to navigate this varied landscape. Begin with his education: B.S. in chemical engineering from M.I.T. , M.B.A. from Harvard, Ph.D. in economics from Stanford. His day job was professor of economics at California State University, East Bay. He retired in 2016 to devote his time to consulting and writing. But he has found time to: write (eight books and over 100 articles ranging from wine economics to detailed analyses of meta-language code generators) consult with companies ranging from Microsoft to CEDEX keep his expertise up-to-date, constantly reading and sorting through the avalanche of information available daily maintain three blogs: Wine Research, Wine Economics, and Economic Policy Local policy analysis: Los Altos Politico.com

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