[svcw]

Where are these super servers storing all this information?
Really is there enough memory in the universe to store all the data?

[Theoria]

One was just built in Utah. I doubt we have the capability that the FBI agent claims.

[tpmintx]

Where are these super servers storing all this information?
Really is there enough memory in the universe to store all the data?

Voice compresses very well - it's not music. Gaps between words take almost nothing to store, and much of the dynamic range can get compressed away without losing the meaning of the content. Further, speech recognition can be used to create a searchable index so that they can find specific calls and then pull up the recording itself to review further.

Echelon, I think it's called.

Government has been building huge data storage systems for many years.

Let's do the math:
• CD-ROM is 682MB.
• CD-ROM is 74 minutes of high-fidelity music.
• If we compress voice into 10% of the data, we can store 740 minutes in the same space.
• 1 Terabyte of disk can hold 1466 times as much; 1 Million minutes of voice conversations.
• If 300 million people spend 2 hours a week on the phone, it would take 18,000 TB to record all of the calls in a week.
• An entity that is printing money to buy billions of bullets certainly could buy petabytes of storage in an effort to find targets for their bullets.

Just sayin'

[null and void]

Where are these super servers storing all this information?

Utah.