Some new news in the article and comment: - [security expert] "This [logs without timestamps] isn’t one of their main databases; it is metadata on who is conta

Some new news in the article and comment: - [security expert] "This [logs without timestamps] isn’t one of their main databases; it is metadata on who is contacting who. Its only real use is to know who is contacting whom and how many times." - [commenter] "I have a theory that this call log was being used for a national security investigation. Otherwise why would this rise to the level of public safety/national security exemption?" [with two DOJ-approved 1-month delays for disclosure] So, someone set up a separate Snowflake instance with mostly May-Oct 2022 AT&T data (90% former customers) apparently for that purpose. And left it up. Will anyone in Congress (e.g. Sen Ron Wyden) ask who did and why? (Another commenter on HN pointed out that Roe v Wade was overturned 6/2022, presumably that was not the intent of the original national-security investigation, but there's a potential for privacy abuse by the hackers' customers beyond everyday spam) - In early 2023, Snowflake set up a unit especially for Telco data. But when you read the blurb (below), this product is not aimed at the telco's use-case; coincidentally this was also around the time Snowflake was touting integration with GenAI. "Unlocking the Value of Telecom Data: Why It’s Time to Act" https://www.snowflake.com/blog/telecom-data-partnerships/ https://www.snowflake.com/blog/telecom-data-partnerships/ "Telecoms are the connecting tissue of the modern economy. They run everything... growing importance... hyperconnectivity. What makes telecom service providers unique is that they have access to consumer location data. For most other industries, a consumer can go into their phone’s privacy settings and turn off the location access in the smartphone app. But in the world of telecom, as long as the phone is connected to a network, the telecom provider can use triangulation to find the approximate location of a consumer. This is why there is an emerging trend of companies [which ones?] building partnerships with telecoms to power use cases across multiple industries from competitor intelligence, alternate credit scoring, hyper-targeted marketing and more. ... Yet, despite the importance of telecommunications for society and in connecting industries, network operators are not yet fully embracing the value of the data they have at their fingertips" But the value of this data (90% former customers) was clearly not to the telco itself... so who is the unnamed partnership and who is the end-customer? And was one of Snowflake's AI partners involved?