Prism data mining fails - Strip ratio zero!

The classic misdirection…


The debate has become one of privacy, while security goes out the window! 


The What, Why and How…

Data mining and strip mining of natural resource may have a lot in common.

If you spend $1 trillion on mining equipment and the operation yields only one unit of product for every 1000 units of overburden you have a seriously flawed operation which cannot ever succeed. To succeed a stripping ratio of 5 to 1 would need to be achieved, continuing to mine worthless material is not only futile and costly it is ineffective and does not produce the desired result.

When looking for highly critical “intelligence” data this could even prove fatal. 

Reducing the size of the haystack increases the chances of finding needles, while… of course… adding insane amounts of hay decreases the chances and soon finding needles is next to impossible.

Who in their right mind would operate such a low or zero yield operation? Unless…

The thought crossed my mind that Governments who datamine based on shear volumes of data collected are tantamount to any other failed mining operation with unsustainable stripping ratios, the results are far away from being effective, are crassly expensive and ultimately need to be scrapped or shut down.

A properly thought out “intelligence” data stripping operation would not concern itself with shear, unmanageable data collection, it would focus on a small… but high yield segment of data and vastly improve result, again, not unlike any other form of mining.

Witnessing a foolhardy endeavor such as indiscriminate and acrimonious collecting of horrendous volumes of redundant data, speaks directly to the ineptitude and incompetence of “senior” management, who in the real world would be shown the door.

They would and should be curtailed… especially if in their own defence they hung their hat on such statements as, “Well, we could eventually hit upon a ‘target’ and we think we did find a “good” bit of data at one point in time.”

This type of statement layers absurdity upon a foundation of ineptitude and incompetence, no sensible person would utter such self-incriminating hogwash.

Tempting fate-misdirection is intended to mislead.

The current debate about the validity of Prism mining operation has been directed away from the obvious flaws of it’s mining approach and is now centered on a focus of privacy.

Typically we see this type of headline:

Torn Between Security and Privacy

Revelations that the federal government has been collecting information about who Americans call on their cell phones – and possibly also accessing digital content like emails and chat messages from companies like Google, Apple and Skype – has sparked heated dissent during the last five days.

On one end of the spectrum, privacy advocates have sounded an alarm over the notion that Big Brother is watching us far more closely than was previously realized. On the other end of the spectrum, national security apologists have argued that the methods in question are minimally intrusive and a small price to pay to keep the homeland safe.

I suspect many Americans are torn between these two extremes.

Whilst privacy is a huge concern, I would think that could be allayed through exposing the Prism data mining operation for what it is… a worthless, expensive operation which if anything is reducing the chances of security.

On that basis alone the operation should be scrapped while reinstating private citizen privacy rights .

A better headline would be:

Prism data collection reduces security and will be scrapped immediately.

Due to the illegal, unconstitutional implementation of indiscriminate privacy data collection, security against insurgents has been seriously compromised and has shifted the odds in favor of the “bad guy” who has been provided with increased shelter found in the mountains of unmanageable data collected.

 A spokesman confirmed the ill-advised, illegal practices of breaking constitutional privacy rights through ineffective data collection of private citizens information will cease immediately.

The approach will be modified to restrict “intelligence” data gathering to high yield, high success probability data sources.

Well, I can dream can’t I?

The chances of that story ever being told are slim and none unless the idea is to increase security for the common folk, if that is not the purpose… then one has to wonder what is…

Final word: It is highly probable that Prism is not designed to improve homeland security… because it does not and cannot. As always, discernible result proves intent.

I suspect many citizens would not be torn between issues if someone would point out the obvious truth to them.

Would be data miners, come grab a clue… or two.



Stay tuned…