Every Six Hours, the NSA Gathers as Much Data as Is Stored in the Entire Library of Congress

In a story about the bin Laden mission, the NSA very casually dropped a number: Every six hours, the agency collects as much data as is stored in the entire Library of Congress. That data includes transcripts of phone calls and in-house discussions, video and audio surveillance, and a massive amount of photography. “The volume of data they’re pulling in is huge,” said John V. Parachini, director of the Intelligence Policy Center at RAND. “One criticism we might make of our [intelligence] community is that we’re collection-obsessed — we pull in everything — and we don’t spend enough time or money to try and understand what do we have and how can we act upon it.”

And, we have no doubt, that many Americans have their own alternative criticisms of the NSA’s activities on their behalf, perhaps wondering just what they’re collecting, legally or not, and what they’re doing with so much information.

Image: The TSEC/KW-26, code named ROMULUS;
Story via stealthisknowledge