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CIA Tech Boss on Your Data: ‘We Fundamentally Try To Collect Everything and Hang Onto It Forever’

Mar. 20, 2013 6:54pm Jason Howerton

Discussing the goldmine of data that today’s technology has created, the Central Intelligence Agency’s Chief Technology Officer Ira “Gus” Hunt on Wednesday said the spy agency tries to “collect everything we can and hang onto it forever.”

Hunt was speaking at GigaOM’s Structure:Data conference in New York City when he openly admitted the CIA is compiling everyone’s tweets, messages, videos and more. And yes, it’s on purpose.

“The value of any piece of information is only known when you can connect it with something else that arrives at a future point in time,” Hunt said. “Since you can’t connect dots you don’t have, it drives us into a mode of, we fundamentally try to collect everything and hang onto it forever.”

The Huffington Post has more:

Hunt’s comments come two days after Federal Computer Week reported that the CIA has committed to a massive, $600 million, 10-year deal with Amazon for cloud computing services. The agency has not commented on that report, but Hunt’s speech, which included multiple references to cloud computing, indicates that it does indeed have interest in storage and analysis capabilities on a massive scale.

The CIA is keenly interested in capabilities for so-called “big data” — the increasingly massive data sets created by digital technology. The agency even has a page on its website pitching big data jobs to prospective employees.

Hunt acknowleded that at some scale, data storage becomes impractical, adding that he meant “forever being in quotes” when he said the agency wants to keep data “forever.” But he also indicated that he was interested in computing capabilities like 1 petabyte of RAM, a massive capacity for on-the-fly calculations that has heretofore been seen only in computers that simulate nuclear explosions.

He referenced the failure to “connect the dots” in the case of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the “underwear bomber” who was able to board a plan with an explosive device despite repeated warnings of his intentions. In that case, a White House review found that the CIA had all of the data it needed to identify the would-be bomber, but still failed to stop him. Nevertheless, the agency does not seem to have curbed its ambitions for an endless amount of data.

HuffPost also provides a slide from Hunt’s presentation:

Hunt said it is “really very nearly within our grasp to be able to compute on all human generated information.” This, he explained, would allow the CIA to analyze digital breadcrumbs people don’t even realize they are leaving behind.

“You are aware of the fact that somebody can know where you are at all times, because you carry a mobile device, even if that mobile device is turned off…You know this, I hope? Yes? Well, you should,” he added.

What about Americans’ privacy rights? Hunt said technology is moving faster than the world can keep up.

“You should be asking the question of what are your rights and who owns your data.”

In CONTROL, Glenn Beck presents a passionate, fact-based case for guns that reveals why gun control isn’t really about controlling guns at all; it’s about controlling us. Find out more HERE.

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Comments (76)

CWPrequired
Posted on March 20, 2013 at 10:06pm
Up yours CIA tech boss! You get that on record?

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- Secret Squirrel
  Posted on March 20, 2013 at 11:46pm
  Okay, you’re tracking me.
  I’ll bet you are really bored, and wasting tax dollars.
  Let me know if you find anything interesting, I’d like to perk up my day.
  
  Report this comment
- NoSleeper
  Posted on March 21, 2013 at 5:58am
  LOL need a massive computer to catch someone like the Underwear Bomber…gee, wasn’t he reported by his father? Yep, need to track everything about everyone and keep the data forever because of Government incompetence.
  
  Aliases, and IP anonymizers…
  
  Report this comment
- georgette
  Posted on March 21, 2013 at 9:08am
  …..are their parents proud of them?
  
  Report this comment
- Metalstr8jckt
  Posted on March 21, 2013 at 10:14am
  Hey CIA track this. What country defaulted on all it’s foreign debt, and never paid it back.
  Allowed ethnic atrocities on it’s citizens in several states and then claimed it had turned their governments back over to them and did nothing even when foreign nationals were sent in to protect women and children from continued slaughter.
  
  Left their obsolete military tanks,ships, and aircraft rusting in ports, roadways and forests because it was cheaper to let them rot than dismantle them. Next they coerced a foreign power into dismantling and removing the unstable nuclear material in their old atomic weapons, which freed up billions in cash to build state of the art ICBM and cruise missiles.
  
  The kicker is that though they claim fundamental change, the man in charge of their government is a Colonel from their secret police which still exists. He has changed their constitution to stay on as president for twelve years in his election victory.
  
  Their weapons supply the majority of our current and some deceased foes, like Qaddafi, the Egyptians, Iran, North Korea, China, and all the despotic governments in Central and South America like Venezuela, for instance. All the civil wars in Africa operate with AK-47′s, RPG’s and light armored vehicles originating from the “Former Soviet Union.”
  
  Anybody awake there at CIA headquarters? How many Marxists does it take to covertly infiltrate America? I don’t know, but there is currently one Marxists who is overtly in control
  
  Report this comment
- Bloody Sam
  Posted on March 21, 2013 at 11:33am
  The company I work for makes several “Big Data” products for data mining.
  I have raised objections on these capabilities and their use by the kind of customers they are courting and their planned use against We The People.
  Specifically the US Government.
  
  My objections fall on deaf ears. They either don’t understand or don’t care.
  The quest for the Almighty Dollar consumes all.
  
  Report this comment
- ltb
  Posted on March 21, 2013 at 1:09pm
  NOSLEEPER wrote: …gee, wasn’t he reported by his father? Yep, need to track everything about everyone and keep the data forever because of Government incompetence.
  
  —–
  
  That is such a good point. The sole purpose of any governmental bureaucracy is self-preservation, so our government is run by idiots, who work in an environment where incompetence is rewarded.
  
  In the eyes of a bureaucrat, the more money he can spend to justify his bureaucracy’s existence, the better. As a matter of fact, if at the end of the year a bureaucracy has money left over, it will spend it anyway it can, so the budget doesn’t get reduced the next year. It’s the complete opposite of the private sector, where the measure of a CEO’s worth is his ability to economize and generate wealth.
  
  Report this comment
Grand design
Posted on March 20, 2013 at 9:39pm
The advancement of the complete police state!

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- ImChiquita
  Posted on March 21, 2013 at 8:42am
  Like
  
  Report this comment
hades3
Posted on March 20, 2013 at 9:26pm
…….and the establishment refers to people like me “right wing nuts”, for believing government knows everything there is too know about me. No doubt they know if and what type of guns I own, as well as the likelihood of me using them too commit a crime. What’s even more frightening, is that probably just the tip of the ice berg.

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Airtranman
Posted on March 20, 2013 at 9:18pm
Maybe the Amish have the right idea. No snooping on their e-mails, phone conversations, texts, ……you fill in the blank. These high-falut’n data mining specialists would have to get a job at WalMart if we all lived like the Amish. Yeah!… I’d love to see these high tech govt. geeks have to stoop that low. Oh, ….I think there is someone at my door. Hey, I don’t know anyone who drives a black four door sedan. What the f&@?k is this?!…..

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servant100
Posted on March 20, 2013 at 9:11pm
Back in the early 1980′s I was working with a firm in North Dallas called Criterion…Pc’s had just come out and we were using minicomputers…Back then we had the DIME files which enabled us to use address matching by the Census to cross tab into tax assessor, market, and bank records to give clients like Bell Telephone exact data on household income nad habits. They used this to construct the three digit area codes…

Now they have real time data streaming on every frigging thing you do on a computer…EVERYTHING…and that was completed with Biden’s Patriot Act and the carnivore and subsequent data mining back doors into every internet program since that time.

These bastards OWN you …period..

And much MUCH worse is coming…because they are taking this data and making a case …a false case with false identies against you…

Read John Brunner’s 1960′s Shockwave Rider….It’s all there …and like 1984 and Huxley’s Brave new World…it has not only come to pass…it has been exceeded in every way…

Your reality….your identity is determined by your computer….

Welcome to Hell…..

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- Metalstr8jckt
  Posted on March 21, 2013 at 10:55am
  Every device with a microprocessor controller has a “GUI” or Globally Unique Identifier. it is embedded in the chip.
  
  The Supercomputers described in the article are capable of decrypting any security system. Anything that has ever been stored electronically having an available entry point online is unsecured.
  
  The only systems that are remotely secure are those of clandestine closed systems on their own fiber backbone with real time monitoring. Those would be STRATCOM land based comm systems for Ballistic launch control. Fail safes designed to function when cities are ashes.
  
  Report this comment
- moreteaplease
  Posted on March 22, 2013 at 1:36pm
  Interesting.
  
  Report this comment
dublinthewagons
Posted on March 20, 2013 at 8:29pm
How efficient is the CIA? Postal Service? Senate? House? HLS? ATF?
Just look at the idiots they have now. If the kill a taxpayer they are defunding themselves.

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- kenboo1
  Posted on March 20, 2013 at 8:53pm
  It doesn’t really matter how efficient they are, if they are collecting information on Americans (NSA and Utah site) it should be shut down until they can follow privacy laws… Furthermore, There is too much spying anyway and most of it done on Americans… Senators are our first line of defense since they have advise and consent of the executive branch. see http://www.repeal17.net for more information… visit, study and donate…
  
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Advection
Posted on March 20, 2013 at 8:25pm
Is the US “The Beast”?

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- WarMunger_Al
  Posted on March 20, 2013 at 11:32pm
  I would say YES.
  
  Report this comment
- Metalstr8jckt
  Posted on March 21, 2013 at 11:22am
  @ADVECTION: The beast, I believe is the Interconnected network of data that tracks all our lives.
  
  How would the chronicler of God’s word revealed in revelation(That would be John writing it) describe an invention known as the internet which would give one man the seemingly godlike potential of global awareness of all human activity. In the 1st century A.D. A writer would have zero knowledge of any of the technologies available in the 21st century.
  
  The descriptions of the horrors seen in his visions could be likened to modern attack aircraft, ballistic missiles and leviathan sea creatures like Akula or Trident class submarines. Horrifying power to a person familiar with “Greek fire” and the Roman Gladius wielding centurions transported by fleets of galley ships as state of the art weapons.
  
  The anti-christ controls the beast. Who is he? The internet is a net to ensnare.
  
  Report this comment
- charper1013
  Posted on March 21, 2013 at 12:09pm
  @METALSTR8JCKT
  
  …he said on the internet.
  
  Report this comment
Clausvons
Posted on March 20, 2013 at 8:18pm
Well, there is an old special ops trick that they don’t count on (and it originated long, long ago in a far away land). A concerted program of overwhelming (Cloward Piven anyone), with a massive amount of false information tends to make some folks run in circles chasing ghosts. Think about how many people
there are of a conservative persuasion who are on the net.

I can see it now. Knock at the door. “Mr Jones we understand you have an arsenal of weapons and are planning a violent attack using your WWII Tank and your militia. Open the door now!”

Mr. Jones, age 86, goes to the door, his wheelchair being led by his seeing eye dog. Zoom in on DHS agent’s face covered with egg.

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- WarMunger_Al
  Posted on March 20, 2013 at 11:34pm
  you forget the fact that they will just kick the door in and shoot the home owner. Later the police will be cleared of all wrong doing, and its on to the next house.
  
  Report this comment
JEANNIEMAC
Posted on March 20, 2013 at 8:18pm
You ain’t seen nuthin’ yet!
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/03/ff_nsadatacenter/

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Stoic one
Posted on March 20, 2013 at 8:04pm
HEH heh..

And people wonder why I do not carry a phone. Oh and Alex Jones is a whack job and so is Beck & the Blaze. This is not new.

What I find disconcerting is the OPEN admission to the ability & intent. THAT tells me the trap is about to be sprung.

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- muffythetuffy
  Posted on March 20, 2013 at 8:22pm
  THE CIA BASTARDS JOB IS TO KNOW WERE OUR NATION’S ENEMIES ARE ALL THE TIME.
  
  Strange how the CIA didn’t know about Fast and Furious or that illegal guns were being transported out of the USA to Mexican drug Lords. When did the law get changed that allowed the CIA to spy on American citizens? Next the CIA will be using drowns to fire missals at Amish farmers for selling l raw milk.
  
  Report this comment
mtsnj
Posted on March 20, 2013 at 7:55pm
Well we are all in trouble, cuz when the government collects information and needs a cloud to keep it in, it won’t be long until someone else gets to it and takes it.

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ECOMCON
Posted on March 20, 2013 at 7:48pm
This doesn’t bode well folks. The guy has the stones to blab all this openly. It’s almost like taunting everybody. Here’s what we can do. We have the capability and the capacity. Well they certainly and obviously intend to use it on us. Something like this is usually better left to top secret classification. But no, he wants us to know, which means there’s probably no way to stop them, and he’s giving us a collective threat warning. Big brother is now truly here, and there ain’t a damn thing we can do about it.

This will not end well.

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P4cooler
Posted on March 20, 2013 at 7:45pm
I can’t believe we pay fat butts 30K and more per year to sit at a computer screen and watch people, like a child molester watching children, probably releasing their privates at the same time. Make yourself useful and start fighting the endless tyranny in Washington…or are you deep in the rabbet hole of corruption yourselves?

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skunkbear
Posted on March 20, 2013 at 7:38pm
Um, Alex Jones has been reporting on this for at least the last two years. No ground breaking news here Blaze.

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- Stelex
  Posted on March 20, 2013 at 7:47pm
  And anyone with a shred of common sense new this the first time they signed onto the internet.
  
  Report this comment
- skunkbear
  Posted on March 20, 2013 at 8:39pm
  I would like to acknowledge here that although I often disagree with Glenn Beck and his Blaze on philosophical grounds, I must admit that he is willing to publish my admittedly extremist views. I am very impressed. I had attempted before to post some of those exactly stated views on Alex Jones’ infowars and was banned from their comments section. I offer you some respect Glenn.
  
  Report this comment
Clausvons
Posted on March 20, 2013 at 7:27pm
As long as citizens are kept informed by the media as to what is really going on (the TRUTH), there is no problem. Of course, if the government is evasive, divisive, deceptive and not transparent, then there is a problem. And a key signal that trouble is on the horizon might be a government effort to disarm citizens, or the militarization of local police forces under a federal agency such as the DHS in the guise of a “partnership” of some sort.

So, the question is now, “Do we have a problem yet”?

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jackact
Posted on March 20, 2013 at 7:26pm
Funny thing.
The more information they collect on us the less they know who we really are.
If the US senate, for example, is incapable of passing a budget in over four years then why would you expect that the federal government is capable of collating, disciminating and organizing all this digital information?

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- LakeHartwellSailor
  Posted on March 20, 2013 at 7:42pm
  Maybe it is because if they don’t pass a budget; but keep spending like crazy on things like say, data collection, and not really have to account for it because there is “no budget”, just a blanket continuing resolution, they further their control. I don’t know, you may have a point, but by the same token, you are suggesting “incompetence”. I am suggesting, “they” know EXACTLY what they are doing.
  
  And it does not have our best interest at heart.
  
  Report this comment
- Stelex
  Posted on March 20, 2013 at 7:50pm
  The budget is not priority, control is………simple enough?????
  
  Report this comment
- LakeHartwellSailor
  Posted on March 20, 2013 at 8:02pm
  Stelex -
  
  Yep, you pretty much summed it up! Didn’t mean to be so wordy.
  
  Good stuff.
  
  Report this comment
- LakeHartwellSailor
  Posted on March 20, 2013 at 8:06pm
  Incidently, I was just thinking about my “continuing resolution” comment, wouldn’t that be based upon the 2009 budget? You know, the last one that was actually passed, and incidently the last one submitted, when Obama had both the House and the Senate?
  
  So, that C.R., that keeps getting pushed forward (with its annual growth in spending caveats); is really heavy spending oriented.
  
  Just saying….
  
  Report this comment
sparkyrules
Posted on March 20, 2013 at 7:25pm
Minority Report was about an elite squad ‘predicting’ crimes before they happened.Who’s gonna head the Government ‘Pre-crime’ Department?Welcome to the New World Order everybody.

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Chromo200
Posted on March 20, 2013 at 7:22pm
Mr. CIA ..you know we write on this site so that you know how unhappy we are with your draconian way of doing business under the pretense that you are protecting us.

I never put down anything paper/email/blog post if I don’t want people to see it.

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crusaderx9
Posted on March 20, 2013 at 7:17pm
The end America is heading towards will be messy.

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- Roadbeer
  Posted on March 20, 2013 at 7:24pm
  I really don’t think anyone will notice. As long as they can watch (insert random network TV show here) and have their rights slowly whittled away… “Oh, I can’t have 16oz anymore? Well, I guess give me the large 12oz soda”… it’ll fly right by them.
  
  America has become the slowly boiling frog.
  
  Report this comment
Stelex
Posted on March 20, 2013 at 7:13pm
It kills me that the phrase “Information is power” has been around forever. Yet everyone just throws all there info out there to be collected and used against us. Google, Facebook, the Blaze……..its all being collected Purchases, conversations, personal info………ain’t nothing private anymore.

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- The_Fifth_Column
  Posted on March 20, 2013 at 7:23pm
  No!
  
  Report this comment
- Stelex
  Posted on March 20, 2013 at 7:28pm
  I see why your not the “first column”
  
  Report this comment
- Lord_Frostwind
  Posted on March 21, 2013 at 12:38am
  Information is power only as long as you have the ability to act on it, the levels of data they seem to be salivating over are almost ludicrous. Besides, their targets have likely figured out how to communicate with methods that don’t leave digital data trails. Dependence on computers to such a massive extent runs the risk of leaving them blind to much simpler methods of communication.
  
  First rule of Criminal Justice, the criminals always start off one step ahead of you.
  
  Report this comment
progressiveslayer
Posted on March 20, 2013 at 7:12pm
All that data being collected by the CIA to ‘keep us safe’ huh? Yes folks the police state is alive and sick in new Amerika and the goons are proud of it. The data collection center in Utah,drones overhead and warrantless wiretaps,ahhhhhhhhhh can you smell it? Smells like tyranny but not to worry we’ll all be safer with our ‘protectors’ in the CIA,DHS,FBI and more that we don’t even know about yet.

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- LakeHartwellSailor
  Posted on March 20, 2013 at 7:30pm
  Hi Slayer –
  
  The CIA has no business collecting data on US citizens within our borders; but as you have suggested, there are other agencies involved, and yes….they talk. One of the “Lessons Learned” from 9/11/01 was that these agencies didn’t share information. I remember the American public having an outcry over the fact that agencies did not share information and “look what happened”.
  
  Well, we got what “we” asked for I guess, and yes, with all the electronic media, in all its various forms, the data does go somewhere, and we all know it does not get erased completely. So even if we make innocent remarks, it can be used against you.
  
  For example, with some of the gun control initiatives out there, if a law was passed that if you are taking an anti-depressant, you can’t buy or own a gun. Well, if I want to quit smoking and my doctor prescribes Wellbutrin, an anti-depressant, and under Obamacare, you know the data will be collected. Next thing you know, I got ATF at my door to confiscate all my weapons…just because I wanted to quit smoking.
  
  Yep, its a mess.
  
  Report this comment
- sparkyrules
  Posted on March 20, 2013 at 8:13pm
  Its no wonder that many people are sympathetic to smaller stout dogs when they trounce on the big dogs.They may not survive the fight initially,but they’ll win the battle through shear numbers.The big dogs get clumsy and confused.The smaller ones are intent and focused.
  
  Report this comment
- christianUSA
  Posted on March 21, 2013 at 3:24pm
  Opinion: It seems some are not content with what many, and some Major justices, think Anti-constitutional invasion of privacy without the courts or not content without nsa storage or tracking and listening by cell by cable tv by internet by email etc or soon vehicle black boxes plus trackers but now are demanding all unwarranted noncourt monitoring and searches information be stored for them by us or our communication businesses etc at Our Expense, even though some federal court/s have ruled against such. How is all this not, guilty until shown proven beyond shadow of doubt moment by moment innocent? They are showing they have no real regard to law limits or boundaries. However despite sunshine laws the elite “Public” law makers secretly meet in deciding many of the most important controlling laws; when these break many rules or our rights or unrestrained spending what penalty do they pay? very often none. But to US If they could it seems they like putting in each of us thought monitor or control chips; What’s next what else is even possible but inserting radio tracking chips in each of us like cattle or like 666; that our every movement monitored and our funds and purchase controlled.
  
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GuruMeditation
Posted on March 20, 2013 at 7:12pm
Here’s a crumb.

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Stelex
Posted on March 20, 2013 at 7:10pm
Duh. I’m sorry DUH!!!!!!!!

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WarMunger_Al
Posted on March 20, 2013 at 7:09pm
of course he should know the CIA has no authority to collect squat within the US borders, I guess he just misspoke. It is time to dismantle the behemoth the government has created.

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- Stelex
  Posted on March 20, 2013 at 7:17pm
  Of course you know the federal government has no right to collect income tax ………but thats been going on for over a hundred years. The day the government follows the constitution I’ll probably drop dead.
  
  Report this comment
- The_Fifth_Column
  Posted on March 20, 2013 at 7:32pm
  The CIA isn’t collecting the digital data, NSA is. They are sort of like **** Buddies in this venture. Yes….every single scrap of digital data is captured and stored from all sources. Even this comment!
  
  Report this comment
- Stelex
  Posted on March 20, 2013 at 7:49pm
  No!!!
  
  Report this comment
Mapache
Posted on March 20, 2013 at 7:08pm
It is impossible to completely disconnect…unless you go to a log cabin on someone else’s property and use solar or wind energy. The permanent record the nuns used to warn us about has just gotten a lot longer.

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