“So what are we getting [for the NSA’s investment in Big Data]? It sounds like the same thing big enterprises everywhere get when they have open checkbooks and no sound strategy: Ballooning budgets full of overhyped PowerPoint presentations and technology that may or may not work, but do a good job meeting the fantasy checklists of executives eager to show paper progress”–Michael Morisy

“Don’t look for a needle in a giant haystack. Find one needle in a small clump of hay and see whether similar clumps of hay also contain needles”–Francis Gouillart

“Sales of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four have risen since Edward Snowden revealed how the National Security Agency of the US gains access to telephone records and data from technology companies”–John Gapper