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Spying. Mass data is only of use AFTER an event. I.e.to get list of contacts to a known person/firm/email etc Then the trawl starts for the connected persons. Thus 60%-70% of all East German (DDR) stazi searches was the post event trawl*, and ate up inordinate manpower. 15% of population in Stazi to keep a (partial and incomplete) record of the others and themselves. Typical record card " Miss XXX has an unusual sexual life" (It was much thumbed! An example of useless information recorded and shown to me while in training.) This is main purpose of the record keeping of metadata. Likewise, a certain Elizabethan spymaster was most interested in the addresses of the mail (as receipt and payment made these 'logs' were available) and logged it as well as the few 'interesting' letters in mail from known persons. -- Regards Eion MacDonald -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq