They are right about this in one respect; metadata is just raw, unorganized or semiorganized data points. It does not become useful or become information until it is put into a context that makes sense to someone.
The point of this mess is being missed by the hype over “secrets” being spilled. For anyone who has followed data gathering over the years, this is common knowledge. We have been collecting data for many years. The metadata describes the data (phone numbers, starting point and end points for calls or emails, etc) and has nominally been analyzed by computers to identify key words, phrases, phone numbers, names and other very specific info. Over the years only a small amount of data has been tagged by the various methods and sent on for further analysis or even human intervention. The rest eventually falls into the bit bucket. Nobody cared about your call to grandma or even listened in. This general information was not classified nor is it unknown to our adversaries. The pattern analysis and other complex AI algorithms are what has been and remains classified as well as the key words, phrases and specific people who might be targeted. Have we always been spying on China? Hell yes, and they spy on us. Everyone knows and accepts that.
Now, the real issue Snowden brings up here is what has possibly changed with this criminal administration with regard to WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE. Who is now being targeted, for what reasons, over what period of time and where is the correlated information going? In other words, are they now, against the laws, spying and gathering data on ordinary citizens with no terror or foreign spying ties. Are they using the obtained information for political purposes against their political enemies and is this information being funneled into der Fuehrer’s political destruction machine?
Is there a reason to collect and store all of this raw data on everyone in such a large facility in Utah (also already known)? That might also be suspicious but the knowledge of these things going on is not new to our enemies and does not jeopardize any “secrets” that they don’t already know. If those algorithms, methods, lists, and means of analysis are revealed then that IS a breach.
The press and others are blowing this out of proportion at this time and they need to step back, shut their mouths and resume normal breathing until they can sort out the specifics.
“In other words, are they now, against the laws, spying and gathering data on ordinary citizens with no terror or foreign spying ties.”
Yes, that is exactly what they are doing, and that is why it is, as Joe Biden might say, a “big friggin’ deal”. We have a separation between domestic intelligence and foreign intelligence for a reason, but that divide has been eroded. We are supposed to have protections for the citizens against the foreign intelligence collection, while the domestic intelligence services are supposed to follow standard law enforcement procedures to protect our civil liberties. That isn’t happening; instead the foreign services are spying wholesale on the American public under the less stringent regulations they operate under, and the public has no recourse against it.