From Fresh Air from WHYY on NPR
Calling It 'Metadata' Doesn't Make Surveillance Less Intrusive
by Geoff Nunberg
"This is just metadata. There is no content involved." That was how Sen. Dianne Feinstein defended the NSA's blanket surveillance of Americans' phone records and Internet activity. Before those revelations, not many people had heard of metadata....
"Metadata" was bound to break out sooner or later, riding the wave of "data" in all its forms and combinations. "Big data" and "data mining" are the reigning tech buzzwords these days, and university faculties are scrambling to meet the surge in demand for courses in the hot new field of data science. It's as if "data" is usurping "information" as a byword....
Whether or not you think the government should be sweeping this stuff up, calling it metadata doesn't make the process any less intrusive.... Why don't we just let the word "metadata" sink back into the nerdy cubicles it came from? When it comes to privacy, the "meta-" doesn't matter. In the post-information age, it's just data all the way down.