The Big Brother Thread

[jmm99]

Petabytes (Wiki)

1000 kB kilobyte
1000^2 MB megabyte
1000^3 GB gigabyte
1000^4 TB terabyte
1000^5 PB petabyte
1000^6 EB exabyte
1000^7 ZB zettabyte
1000^8 YB yottabyte

A billion 1MB scans = 1 petabyte; so, 160 billion scans per year at 1MB per scan = 160 petabytes. Hitachi was marketing 32 petabytes of rack storage in 2004 (BBC).

The Bluffdale UT database (easily expanded at ~$2billion per site) could take us into the zetta and yotta storage ranges (UK Guardian).

William Binney, a mathematician who worked at the NSA for almost 40 years and helped automate its worldwide eavesdropping, said Utah's computers could store data at the rate of 20 terabytes – the equivalent of the Library of Congress – per minute. "Technically it's not that complicated. You just need to work out an indexing scheme to order it."

The USPS scans (@1MB per scan; a pure WAG) works out to ~ 1/2 petabyte (500 terabytes) per day - or 25 minutes of Bluffdale's daily capacity - IF Binney is in the correct order of magnitude; and if my math done in head is correct.

I believe all of this is due to the political response to the perceived demand by the American public for absolute security. Others will easily migrate to varied conspiracy theories. I believe it depends on whom we elect; and on whom they appoint. Others will disagree.

One can spend an interesting hour plus, watching William Binney on Youtube, NSA whistleblower William Binney Keynote at HOPE Number Nine (2012). Note the picture of the British sheep about two minutes into the video.

Regards

Mike