5 ms·

I reject calling it metadata. It's actual data.

acqq 13y ago
Correct. Those should be simply referred as "records of who electronically contacted whom and what, including when and how." Then it doesn't sound so unimportant. "Metadata" is a real-life Newspeak word, just like Orwell writes, chosen so that "a thought diverging should be literally unthinkable, at least so far as thought is dependent on words." http://www.newspeakdictionary.com/ns-prin.html http://www.newspeakdictionary.com/ns-prin.html
- marvin 13y ago
  "Metadata" as commonly used in this context would conceivably include the URL of a web request, right? So that would include all of your search history and all web pages you've ever visited, for instance.
  - acqq 13y ago
    Yes, we should say "records of who electronically contacted whom and what, including when, how and from where, including the search history and visited web pages" and never use "metadata" for that. It almost scary to me to type it in that exact form.
MichaelGG 13y ago
Certainly there's a difference, in say, NetFlow data containing just IPs and protocols/ports and the full contents of a message? Similarly, storing the request line of an HTTP request is far different than the entire request header and response. Same for email headers, EXIF data, etc. I think it's rather reasonable for someone collecting information to delineate and make it clear they aren't keeping the full contents. Sure, it's also part of the spin, but it's hardly making up a new term.
- acqq 13y ago
  It is different from "everything" but it's still "the complete records of who electronically contacted whom and what, including when, how and from where, including the search words and visited web pages."
greenyoda 13y ago
That's very true. The content they're collecting in their databases (e.g., what URLs were accessed by person X) would be the actual data. The metadata is data about that data, e.g., who authorized its collection, or what other agencies it was shared with, or the schema that describes the database fields. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metadata https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metadata

acqq 13y ago

Correct. Those should be simply referred as "records of who electronically contacted whom and what, including when and how." Then it doesn't sound so unimportant. "Metadata" is a real-life Newspeak word, just like Orwell writes, chosen so that "a thought diverging should be literally unthinkable, at least so far as thought is dependent on words." http://www.newspeakdictionary.com/ns-prin.html http://www.newspeakdictionary.com/ns-prin.html

marvin 13y ago
"Metadata" as commonly used in this context would conceivably include the URL of a web request, right? So that would include all of your search history and all web pages you've ever visited, for instance.
- acqq 13y ago
  Yes, we should say "records of who electronically contacted whom and what, including when, how and from where, including the search history and visited web pages" and never use "metadata" for that. It almost scary to me to type it in that exact form.

MichaelGG 13y ago

Certainly there's a difference, in say, NetFlow data containing just IPs and protocols/ports and the full contents of a message? Similarly, storing the request line of an HTTP request is far different than the entire request header and response. Same for email headers, EXIF data, etc. I think it's rather reasonable for someone collecting information to delineate and make it clear they aren't keeping the full contents. Sure, it's also part of the spin, but it's hardly making up a new term.

acqq 13y ago
It is different from "everything" but it's still "the complete records of who electronically contacted whom and what, including when, how and from where, including the search words and visited web pages."

greenyoda 13y ago

That's very true. The content they're collecting in their databases (e.g., what URLs were accessed by person X) would be the actual data. The metadata is data about that data, e.g., who authorized its collection, or what other agencies it was shared with, or the schema that describes the database fields. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metadata https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metadata