The whole point of storing your metadata is to store your history. Years later, when your political star is on the rise, there is mountains of data stored about you.
Where you serf on the Internet
Who you talk with
Where you go
Your infidelities
Your weaknesses
For most people, your smartphone is your constant companion. It’s also a constant voyeur of your life.
Storing your metadata is the same as storing a blow by blow on your life. It’s all there, ready to be picked apart if you should someday rise up as a political opponent.
I’ve ran for local office, more than once.
After the second time, I received a call from a prominent financial backer. He told me that he had received an interesting call and was asked to speak with me about it.
1. It was obvious that I wasn’t going to easily give up being involved with politics.
2. I was being watched. Everything I said, everything I post online; it’s watched.
3. If I learn to play ball, there’s a place for me in the system.
4. If not, the best way to keep up and comers down is to never let them come up in the first place. If I choose not to learn how the game is played, then my political opponents will always out fundraise me by at least 5:1.
5. A team player is worth spending tons of money to keep.
6. A non-team player? It’s much cheaper to spend them into the ground.
7. Choose wisely.
Now, I’m a political nobody. I’m not paranoid, per se. What I think about the above conversation is that if it was made to me, then it’s a very common device used by the power players. I appreciated the touch of using somebody they knew I would answer the phone and listen to in order to make the pitch.