Standard-Examiner: Will Massive Data Center Make Utah Spy Central?

Write it down so you don't forget it, folks...  "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear"

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Amidst all the hullabaloo surrounding last week's National Security Agency (NSA) "leak" matter, wherein "off-the-reservation" 29-year-old NSA "analyst" Edward J. Snowden "spilled the beans" concerning our federal government's ongoing action of indiscriminately vacuuming-up, collecting and "warehousing" the massive electronic data of each and every U.S. citizen, friend or foe, it stands to reason that a discussion of our own locally-situated Utah Data Center would find its way to the news media front burner, and with this morning's Standard-Examiner story, our home-town newspaper provides just that.  It's a chewy AP story, well worthy of a good read, wethinks:

• Will massive data center make Utah spy central?

All-in-all, a well-researched and highly informative story, wethinks.

Gotta admit that as a University of Utah grad, your blogmeister was fascinated by this interesting story angle (among others) too:

At the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, educators are creating a certificate program that they hope will produce students ready to work at big data centers such as the Bluffdale facility. The NSA helped reviewed the curriculum, offering suggestions, and plans to offer internships to students, said Valerio Pascucci, director of the Center for Extreme Data, Management, Analysis and Visualization.

Imagine that. An academic certificate in spyin' on your neighbors.

There is one important fact element this story did leave out, however.  Although AP reporter Brady Combs does mention "...a spoof website that even includes a phony code name for the facility: "Bumblehive," a play on Utah's nickname of the "Beehive State," our usually fastidious Standard-Examiner editors committed what we believe to be dang near a "cardinal sin" for anyone who publishes stories on the net....  Yep, gentle readers, the S-E editors omitted the spoof website link. 

No hay problema, O Gentle Ones.  We managed to find it this morning after extensive Googling:

• Domestic Surveillance Directorate

Pretty hilarious knock-off of the original NSA site, don'tcha think?

And remember, folks...  "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear." Mebbe you should write that down so you don't forget it.