Yes the UK and US have sold the world on Engima like units for crypto and told them to always trust the skilled US gov staff setting and testing US standards.
Reality has now set in and many other contractors, nations, mil, groups within govs, cults, oligopolies, duopolies, cartels, faiths, criminals seem to be able to buy the same 'keys' for their own ends.
The other aspect is who is testing all the countries crypto internally... how did all this US/UK crypto junk get passed the testing of top gov staff around the world for their daily political use?
Can tens of nations with many billions in defence spending really keep trusted mil/gov crypto staff on that useless over decades?
Nations have seen their embassy plain text in the press in the 1980's yet still go back to the same brands...
Lets hope Snowden has allowed many nations to re think their use of expensive imported crypto junk and grow their own domestic brands.
As for infected networks, lets hope a lot of admins rethink networking and understand air gaps.
That would make a great sci fi book, short movie or movie plot. A clean war where every frame is re rendered back to a contractor at a base in the UK or US.
They sleep well at night as every double tap drone strake is 'clean'.
The only real aspect is flight control and targets, everything else is real time art work.
Medals and pay, with all the strikes been reported as domestic ground war efforts.
The classic are we over Laos and Cambodia from a past war:)
Re A government could order human soldiers to shoot their fellow countrymen and they would likely rebel.
East Germany was really the wake up for many govs on that. You had special forces with ammo and trucks/small tanks waiting to clear the streets.
At a political and military command level orders where given and nothing much happened. Slow, countermanded, ignored, lost...
How would a modern government find its special 'troops' who will always obey in any domestic situation?
You test them in local law enforcement uniforms on very risky local raids. Anti gang, gun shop, drug missions encountering a lot of military like weapons.
Then over years with profiling, questions, testing and repeated missions in local or federal law enforcement uniforms a gov can slowly build up a database of reliable soldiers who enjoy all aspects of domestic operations.
Drone staff would be the same, watch a property with legal paperwork, less paperwork, no paperwork, over a city, follow protesters.
One mission you get to "stop" a car on a remote property. The same testing until the correct domestic drone staff are found.
The drone is really like a post ww2 infantry weapon. A lot of cheap/expensive power in the hands of one contractor.
The real new option is a political 'ok' to be seen for the double tap strike to kill rescue workers. Later autonomous loitering with a command to go after anything moving in an area will be an option.
Drones really allow govs to explore what the UK did during later parts of the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Boer_War#British_response
A "blockhouse" system with drones to divide up a country and kill anything that moves.
Camps for the "civilians" - total death outside the camps.
Over time counter measures will be found. The link to the drone or how to fool the software in the drone to expend fuel, ammo or just fly around.
It really depends where the US is wrt the "planned for and created" vs prototype that can be sold to the US gov vs what the US gov wants to risk.
All the US gov needs is a tool to watch, soak up signals and use for double tap missile strikes.
All the US export market needs is a tool to watch, soak up signals and to enjoy ongoing 'parts' and 'service' contracts.
The contractors are happy with every sale, the long term contracts, the missions work out and US gov risks little in the way of new tech with any crash.
If the US where to add shielding, extra signal protection (hardware and software) the price in any crash goes up and a lot of 'new' systems would have to be changed.
So you have a lot of tech out in the market place built to a price, built to use existing tech and for export/other gov/other country use.
The US telcos got retroactive immunity.
The banks pay small fines over their huge 'accounts' of people of interest to US law enforcement.
Severe consequences tend to be used on people to get them to 'turn' - evidence, entrapment or informant.
In the past the NSA/GCHQ would try and shape encryption as an international standard.
Prevent, break, buy out, or pain text any efforts outside the US/UK.
That old trick seems to still be working as the willing US brands show via Snowden.
The manner courts would want to see would be something like:
Is the person a goat herd? Picked up for a 'cash' or just making up the 'quota' by another friendly intelligence 'service'.
Picked up for a 'cash' over some local dispute.
Was the person tortured? What does their defence team have to present?
Good lawyers can present their facts and most courts can handled most criminal and legal situations....
The US has few options - get the UK to clear to the building - the junta option.
A CIA/NGO backed colour revolution in Ecuador would be useful.
As for the trial - if its open the media gets to report. The US is sure of the optics of a show trial.
A closed trial with cleared lawyers talking in a sealed court room would be bad optics for a person not from the USA without a US security clearance.
I would say a change of EU and South American politics would be the long term US option.
Reduce the embassy cover and let the UK 'move'.
A show trial in the EU for the US creates a political persona not seen since the 1970-80's Soviet Union and their court system.
A security trial in the US creates a political persona not seen since the 1970-80's Soviet Union and their court system.
The only real option for the US is long term trying to make any 'news' aspect go away.
End of a conflict against a tactic.... be a long wait for that one..
The US has a court system and its still working.... and US law and international treaty obligations are clear, get people before a real court.
They know he gets everything given to entry CIA cleared contracting staff, they can rebuild his work and all the other tasks.
They know what the press has released so far and can project the political side to and tech of future releases.
The main issue for the NSA is it this did not happen to MI5/6/the CIA/GCHQ. The NSA could always use that position to ensure others had to understand the NSA way and know the best data might just stop.
The other aspect is the staff under compartmentalisation now know. No amount of 'don't read' 'don't search' 'any project terms found on your computer is..." helps.
Finally the tame US press, academics, telcos, lawyers under compartmentalisation now know too.
The final issue is file compartmentalisation, air gaps, physical sites and real clearances should have stopped all of this and been in place decades ago.
Long term the CIA will rebuild its own networks for global data collection and storage to support its staff globally.
The CIA does not trust the pure digital product the NSA offers.
The CIA understands the rest of the world is slowly understanding a US "Enigma version 2.0" and what the NSA gets is not going to be so useful years from now.
Long term the NSA will just move to a vast database like front end for visiting political leaders and a more robotic workforce to keep contracting hardware staff numbers down.
The rest of the world will move to much more air gapped data storage, away from the US cloud and US peering telco deals.
The NSA product will be like what was offered at times from the Soviet Union. China when the one time pads and other issues made the data out difficult.
Re 'Those working in sensitive positions will probably be watched over permanently by the NSA."
The useful staff pool to get smart workers from is getting interesting for the US. So many staff are now suspect by family origin, faith (conscientious or sharing everything with other their "real" country), reading material, contacts, politics, press, cash flow, legal or other court related issues.
The Soviet Union fixed such issues with internal passports and special zones with good new housing and pay. Less travel, less contact with the outside world and less outside 'press' entering the minds of staff.
The NSA will go with an extra layer of hardware and software with new testing for all staff.
The CIA will win back political power by reminding the US political elite that they need real human spies again.
The other question is who gets to run cyber wars... the NSA does not want that aspect shared anymore.
Its all about the term "to better manage the debate".
The US sock puppets on slashdot are reduced to trying to play catch up and then LOL comments start every time as new Snowden news sets them back.
The world now understands the domestic US legality of a massive ongoing surveillance network network.
The world now understands the international US relationships of a massive ongoing surveillance network wrt to their own mil, staff, lawyers and telcos.
A lot of countries now understand their top tech staff will give their own political staff junk encryption over generations and could do so without question.
The US public now understands the domestic US legality of a massive ongoing surveillance network wrt to their few remaining colour of law domestic freedoms..
The NSA grew very fast in the past 10 years and has build much political power.
So the "to better manage the debate" could also just be for internal US political consumption. They need calls for law reform and topics such as credit card tracking, or a.. "warrant can apply to millions of records and millions of individuals" to be quickly forgotten http://www.paul.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=1031
The NSA also has to think about long term future hiring and gov staff retention. The hire trusted CIA cleared, private contractors did not have gov meets private enterprise and entrepreneurship results expected.
Yes you can see the sock puppets all over slashdot still trying the same old tricks to shift the truth.
Its legal, think of the hardware needed for storage, others do it... you still have most of your rights most of the time...
The next step with be many more http://rt.com/usa/smith-mundt-domestic-propaganda-121/ type news options with in the USA.
From a domestic spy network to domestic lies on all networks:)
No cold, the world now understands the internet encryption is junk, that US brands can't be trusted and the US telco system is a trap, that ordering a US book can get you tracked...
After Snowden the world can move onto fixing crypto and rebuilding the telco systems.
What the NSA has always done, is doing and will do was always in magazines, books, the press. Snowden was an ex CIA worker with a file that was cleaned at some point and then passed to a contractor who the NSA 'trusted' or 'needed'.
So don't worry the good academics will fix the internet, US law reform will begin and who/why/when/where the CIA file was adjusted will be looked into.
Its a Soviet condition thats taken over the hiring systems.
They can't trust their own countries staff due to the generational orders and tasks.
On the first rejection do you go back to family and friends and talk of the interview you failed? Start reading up on how/why you failed?
Or report back after some rest and try again?
The other issue is the rapid intake of linguists, support contractors and other cleared teams in the US over the past 10 years.
Can a person reporting to another country, faith, cult, peace group, press, contractor be as calm as a person totally loyal to their own gov during that first test then over 5 years, 10 years, 20 years?
The UK would have found yes, the personality would be the same and would test the same. A totally dedicated person who is happy to help would drift past - cleared.
The US seemed to be more trusting in the individual and the tech.
Yes MI5, MI6 and the GCHQ found that out in the early 1980's when all this US junk tech was going to be sold to the UK gov.
They where going to fail too many good, skilled people and the bad people (on average) would be given an extra layer of security cover.
As for the USA, welcome to Soviet library where paperwork is kept on each book requested.
Just having the material presented in open court is the 'win', the press is aware, law reformers can quote it, people see it on the news.
Maps, colourful charts, cross examination, witnesses, clearances, front companies, funding, tax, laws... contracts, who knew what and when... who pulled a "national security" and will not be attending court?
The daily acts of 'not recalling' and that hardware 'team' been cleared by 'someone' and 'sometime'... all makes for great optics.
If you win the case its a "win"
If you lose, the gov's where in collusion to block/stop any more traction on the issues and its still a "win":)
If the funding can be raised a stream of outside experts who present well in a court setting could speak to the history of crypto, weakened junk crypto, govs and academics who do nothing, telcos and isp's who did nothing. The fact that the crypto keys are now in many hands for many reasons, for sale. That in a public, historical and legal setting.... vs a gov legal team that wants the court closed to the public, that all court staff are security cleared if the case is to be allowed to continue?
You would have to have a few front companies to work on the hardware in country. Cleared and with 24/7 unescourted hardware/software install/fixing contracts.
The fun part about slashdot is the time factor. Days, weeks, years, decades of history or already published news get added to by people and cute sock puppets.
Even the AC's are very careful and broad on most interesting topics.
A job site listing project names to boast about past clearances and attract new work would be a very logical entry point.
Does slashdot shape stories? The wider press pick up days after?
Yes just as the telcos and big US brands seem to link back to one source so do some of the active 'fronts'.
Left, right, NGO, freedom, big brands, small brands, new staff and old contractors.... all in the mix and getting the perfect keys just in time for very public or private results.
Workers at telcos and ISP's would just see a list of court ordered requests to watch accounts for different reasons and task forces.
A trusted person tells them its legal and its just another day at the office entering telco/isp codes.
The counter signing and paperwork surrounding each request would ensure no worker would ever feel it was not legal, had not been seen by many other cleared staff. Any 'questions' been picked up at an early stage - well before the ISP/telco level to ensure a sound conviction.
That would allow super computer to do the rest via dedicated hardware.
The evolution of the GCHQ is basically a set by growth 'jumps' with emerging US tech.
First you can only watch Soviet mil and have to be exact in what you extract from the telco system. Then you can only watch all international calls. Then you can only watch all international and domestic calls. Then you can only watch aspects of the internet. Then you can only watch the full internet for days....
Budgets and hardware prices did hold the GCHQ back post ww2 till the 1980's in some areas. The skill set and total understanding of crypto and the entire global telco network was always waiting for new hardware.
A file can be very compact. A call list, friends and family, the hop to all their friends and family. Any phone number of interest/fax/email/bank accounts/instant messenger users/ip/web sites noted, political interests, voice print, photo, travel, crime, languages, faith, thought crime - could all be compressed and be very searchable and easy for a super computer to track and add to.
Most of the above are just simple strings or link back to very complex files and operations. Until you make the wrong call, visit the wrong site, the instant messenger has the wrong IP/keywords, your bank/voice print/holiday pops up and your file grows:)
Then you need a real human or linguist.
Loss leader and branding was the story told. That until the CPU, GPU, RAM, storage, bandwidth was 'usable' at the consumer end. It was better to build the brand at the server end - to be ready in 1-5-10 years and their newer interactive PC's.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes the UK and US have sold the world on Engima like units for crypto and told them to always trust the skilled US gov staff setting and testing US standards.
Reality has now set in and many other contractors, nations, mil, groups within govs, cults, oligopolies, duopolies, cartels, faiths, criminals seem to be able to buy the same 'keys' for their own ends.
The other aspect is who is testing all the countries crypto internally... how did all this US/UK crypto junk get passed the testing of top gov staff around the world for their daily political use?
Can tens of nations with many billions in defence spending really keep trusted mil/gov crypto staff on that useless over decades?
Nations have seen their embassy plain text in the press in the 1980's yet still go back to the same brands...
Lets hope Snowden has allowed many nations to re think their use of expensive imported crypto junk and grow their own domestic brands.
As for infected networks, lets hope a lot of admins rethink networking and understand air gaps.
That would make a great sci fi book, short movie or movie plot. A clean war where every frame is re rendered back to a contractor at a base in the UK or US. :)
They sleep well at night as every double tap drone strake is 'clean'.
The only real aspect is flight control and targets, everything else is real time art work.
Medals and pay, with all the strikes been reported as domestic ground war efforts.
The classic are we over Laos and Cambodia from a past war
Re A government could order human soldiers to shoot their fellow countrymen and they would likely rebel.
East Germany was really the wake up for many govs on that. You had special forces with ammo and trucks/small tanks waiting to clear the streets.
At a political and military command level orders where given and nothing much happened. Slow, countermanded, ignored, lost...
How would a modern government find its special 'troops' who will always obey in any domestic situation?
You test them in local law enforcement uniforms on very risky local raids. Anti gang, gun shop, drug missions encountering a lot of military like weapons.
Then over years with profiling, questions, testing and repeated missions in local or federal law enforcement uniforms a gov can slowly build up a database of reliable soldiers who enjoy all aspects of domestic operations.
Drone staff would be the same, watch a property with legal paperwork, less paperwork, no paperwork, over a city, follow protesters.
One mission you get to "stop" a car on a remote property. The same testing until the correct domestic drone staff are found.
The drone is really like a post ww2 infantry weapon. A lot of cheap/expensive power in the hands of one contractor.
The real new option is a political 'ok' to be seen for the double tap strike to kill rescue workers.
Later autonomous loitering with a command to go after anything moving in an area will be an option.
Drones really allow govs to explore what the UK did during later parts of the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Boer_War#British_response
A "blockhouse" system with drones to divide up a country and kill anything that moves.
Camps for the "civilians" - total death outside the camps.
Over time counter measures will be found. The link to the drone or how to fool the software in the drone to expend fuel, ammo or just fly around.
It really depends where the US is wrt the "planned for and created" vs prototype that can be sold to the US gov vs what the US gov wants to risk.
All the US gov needs is a tool to watch, soak up signals and use for double tap missile strikes.
All the US export market needs is a tool to watch, soak up signals and to enjoy ongoing 'parts' and 'service' contracts.
The contractors are happy with every sale, the long term contracts, the missions work out and US gov risks little in the way of new tech with any crash.
If the US where to add shielding, extra signal protection (hardware and software) the price in any crash goes up and a lot of 'new' systems would have to be changed.
So you have a lot of tech out in the market place built to a price, built to use existing tech and for export/other gov/other country use.
The US telcos got retroactive immunity.
The banks pay small fines over their huge 'accounts' of people of interest to US law enforcement.
Severe consequences tend to be used on people to get them to 'turn' - evidence, entrapment or informant.
In the past the NSA/GCHQ would try and shape encryption as an international standard.
Prevent, break, buy out, or pain text any efforts outside the US/UK. That old trick seems to still be working as the willing US brands show via Snowden.
The manner courts would want to see would be something like:
Is the person a goat herd? Picked up for a 'cash' or just making up the 'quota' by another friendly intelligence 'service'.
Picked up for a 'cash' over some local dispute.
Was the person tortured? What does their defence team have to present?
Good lawyers can present their facts and most courts can handled most criminal and legal situations....
The US has few options - get the UK to clear to the building - the junta option.
A CIA/NGO backed colour revolution in Ecuador would be useful.
As for the trial - if its open the media gets to report. The US is sure of the optics of a show trial.
A closed trial with cleared lawyers talking in a sealed court room would be bad optics for a person not from the USA without a US security clearance.
I would say a change of EU and South American politics would be the long term US option.
Reduce the embassy cover and let the UK 'move'.
A show trial in the EU for the US creates a political persona not seen since the 1970-80's Soviet Union and their court system.
A security trial in the US creates a political persona not seen since the 1970-80's Soviet Union and their court system.
The only real option for the US is long term trying to make any 'news' aspect go away.
End of a conflict against a tactic.... be a long wait for that one..
The US has a court system and its still working.... and US law and international treaty obligations are clear, get people before a real court.
They know he gets everything given to entry CIA cleared contracting staff, they can rebuild his work and all the other tasks. ..." helps.
They know what the press has released so far and can project the political side to and tech of future releases.
The main issue for the NSA is it this did not happen to MI5/6/the CIA/GCHQ. The NSA could always use that position to ensure others had to understand the NSA way and know the best data might just stop.
The other aspect is the staff under compartmentalisation now know. No amount of 'don't read' 'don't search' 'any project terms found on your computer is
Finally the tame US press, academics, telcos, lawyers under compartmentalisation now know too.
The final issue is file compartmentalisation, air gaps, physical sites and real clearances should have stopped all of this and been in place decades ago.
Long term the CIA will rebuild its own networks for global data collection and storage to support its staff globally.
The CIA does not trust the pure digital product the NSA offers.
The CIA understands the rest of the world is slowly understanding a US "Enigma version 2.0" and what the NSA gets is not going to be so useful years from now. Long term the NSA will just move to a vast database like front end for visiting political leaders and a more robotic workforce to keep contracting hardware staff numbers down.
The rest of the world will move to much more air gapped data storage, away from the US cloud and US peering telco deals.
The NSA product will be like what was offered at times from the Soviet Union. China when the one time pads and other issues made the data out difficult.
Re 'Those working in sensitive positions will probably be watched over permanently by the NSA."
The useful staff pool to get smart workers from is getting interesting for the US. So many staff are now suspect by family origin, faith (conscientious or sharing everything with other their "real" country), reading material, contacts, politics, press, cash flow, legal or other court related issues.
The Soviet Union fixed such issues with internal passports and special zones with good new housing and pay. Less travel, less contact with the outside world and less outside 'press' entering the minds of staff.
The NSA will go with an extra layer of hardware and software with new testing for all staff.
The CIA will win back political power by reminding the US political elite that they need real human spies again.
The other question is who gets to run cyber wars... the NSA does not want that aspect shared anymore.
Its all about the term "to better manage the debate".
The US sock puppets on slashdot are reduced to trying to play catch up and then LOL comments start every time as new Snowden news sets them back.
The world now understands the domestic US legality of a massive ongoing surveillance network network.
The world now understands the international US relationships of a massive ongoing surveillance network wrt to their own mil, staff, lawyers and telcos.
A lot of countries now understand their top tech staff will give their own political staff junk encryption over generations and could do so without question.
The US public now understands the domestic US legality of a massive ongoing surveillance network wrt to their few remaining colour of law domestic freedoms..
The NSA grew very fast in the past 10 years and has build much political power.
So the "to better manage the debate" could also just be for internal US political consumption. They need calls for law reform and topics such as credit card tracking, or a.. "warrant can apply to millions of records and millions of individuals" to be quickly forgotten
http://www.paul.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=1031
The NSA also has to think about long term future hiring and gov staff retention. The hire trusted CIA cleared, private contractors did not have gov meets private enterprise and entrepreneurship results expected.
Yes you can see the sock puppets all over slashdot still trying the same old tricks to shift the truth. :)
Its legal, think of the hardware needed for storage, others do it... you still have most of your rights most of the time...
The next step with be many more http://rt.com/usa/smith-mundt-domestic-propaganda-121/ type news options with in the USA.
From a domestic spy network to domestic lies on all networks
No cold, the world now understands the internet encryption is junk, that US brands can't be trusted and the US telco system is a trap, that ordering a US book can get you tracked...
After Snowden the world can move onto fixing crypto and rebuilding the telco systems.
What the NSA has always done, is doing and will do was always in magazines, books, the press. Snowden was an ex CIA worker with a file that was cleaned at some point and then passed to a contractor who the NSA 'trusted' or 'needed'.
So don't worry the good academics will fix the internet, US law reform will begin and who/why/when/where the CIA file was adjusted will be looked into.
Its a Soviet condition thats taken over the hiring systems.
They can't trust their own countries staff due to the generational orders and tasks.
On the first rejection do you go back to family and friends and talk of the interview you failed? Start reading up on how/why you failed?
Or report back after some rest and try again?
The other issue is the rapid intake of linguists, support contractors and other cleared teams in the US over the past 10 years.
Can a person reporting to another country, faith, cult, peace group, press, contractor be as calm as a person totally loyal to their own gov during that first test then over 5 years, 10 years, 20 years?
The UK would have found yes, the personality would be the same and would test the same. A totally dedicated person who is happy to help would drift past - cleared.
The US seemed to be more trusting in the individual and the tech.
Yes MI5, MI6 and the GCHQ found that out in the early 1980's when all this US junk tech was going to be sold to the UK gov.
They where going to fail too many good, skilled people and the bad people (on average) would be given an extra layer of security cover.
As for the USA, welcome to Soviet library where paperwork is kept on each book requested.
Just having the material presented in open court is the 'win', the press is aware, law reformers can quote it, people see it on the news. :)
Maps, colourful charts, cross examination, witnesses, clearances, front companies, funding, tax, laws... contracts, who knew what and when... who pulled a "national security" and will not be attending court?
The daily acts of 'not recalling' and that hardware 'team' been cleared by 'someone' and 'sometime'... all makes for great optics.
If you win the case its a "win"
If you lose, the gov's where in collusion to block/stop any more traction on the issues and its still a "win"
If the funding can be raised a stream of outside experts who present well in a court setting could speak to the history of crypto, weakened junk crypto, govs and academics who do nothing, telcos and isp's who did nothing. The fact that the crypto keys are now in many hands for many reasons, for sale.
That in a public, historical and legal setting.... vs a gov legal team that wants the court closed to the public, that all court staff are security cleared if the case is to be allowed to continue?
You would have to have a few front companies to work on the hardware in country. Cleared and with 24/7 unescourted hardware/software install/fixing contracts.
A US court document that made it to the press might make interesting reading:
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20131019/02322924936/accidentally-revealed-document-shows-tsa-doesnt-think-terrorists-are-plotting-to-attack-airplanes.shtml
Think of an internal and external papers please checkpoint for any other "legal" issues you have with your nation.
The fun part about slashdot is the time factor. Days, weeks, years, decades of history or already published news get added to by people and cute sock puppets.
Even the AC's are very careful and broad on most interesting topics.
A job site listing project names to boast about past clearances and attract new work would be a very logical entry point.
Does slashdot shape stories? The wider press pick up days after?
Yes just as the telcos and big US brands seem to link back to one source so do some of the active 'fronts'. .... all in the mix and getting the perfect keys just in time for very public or private results.
Left, right, NGO, freedom, big brands, small brands, new staff and old contractors
Its not just the codes used, its the US branded: OS, file systems, "bugs" and files sent.
Workers at telcos and ISP's would just see a list of court ordered requests to watch accounts for different reasons and task forces. :)
A trusted person tells them its legal and its just another day at the office entering telco/isp codes.
The counter signing and paperwork surrounding each request would ensure no worker would ever feel it was not legal, had not been seen by many other cleared staff.
Any 'questions' been picked up at an early stage - well before the ISP/telco level to ensure a sound conviction.
That would allow super computer to do the rest via dedicated hardware.
The evolution of the GCHQ is basically a set by growth 'jumps' with emerging US tech.
First you can only watch Soviet mil and have to be exact in what you extract from the telco system. Then you can only watch all international calls. Then you can only watch all international and domestic calls. Then you can only watch aspects of the internet. Then you can only watch the full internet for days....
Budgets and hardware prices did hold the GCHQ back post ww2 till the 1980's in some areas. The skill set and total understanding of crypto and the entire global telco network was always waiting for new hardware.
A file can be very compact. A call list, friends and family, the hop to all their friends and family. Any phone number of interest/fax/email/bank accounts/instant messenger users/ip/web sites noted, political interests, voice print, photo, travel, crime, languages, faith, thought crime - could all be compressed and be very searchable and easy for a super computer to track and add to.
Most of the above are just simple strings or link back to very complex files and operations. Until you make the wrong call, visit the wrong site, the instant messenger has the wrong IP/keywords, your bank/voice print/holiday pops up and your file grows
Then you need a real human or linguist.
Loss leader and branding was the story told. That until the CPU, GPU, RAM, storage, bandwidth was 'usable' at the consumer end. It was better to build the brand at the server end - to be ready in 1-5-10 years and their newer interactive PC's.