Why Metadata Matters, Greenwald explains

During a 30+ minute interview last month with VICE, Glenn Greenwald really zeroed in on a key feature of the whole NSA debate. If the government isn’t collecting the content of our calls and emails (let’s pretend they aren’t for the moment), what’s the harm in collecting metadata? You can watch the full interview here.

This claim that collecting metadata is harmless and not a breach of privacy is simply laughable to anyone with knowledge about databases. Here’s a refresher on how powerful metadata is. You can create a timeline of a target’s habits: