One particularly welcome dividend from the blimp flight over the NSA data-center in Bluffdale, Utah is a much-needed piece of stock art.
The “collect it all” agency has built a mind-bogglingly gigantic and secretive data-center in Bluffdale, a short drive from Salt Lake City. It’s not easy to get a look at, either: Westercon chair Dave Doering drove me out there on Monday for a photographic expedition that didn’t capture anything like a prizewinning photo.
Since the Snowden story broke, journalists have pined for decent stock art to illustrate stories about the NSA’s mass surviellance program. One of the go-to images to date has been EFF’s Screaming Eagle NSA/AT&T graphic. But now, thanks to EFF and the other orgs that flew the freedom blimp over Bluffdale, we have an actual, high-rez, clear photo of the main NSA data-collection facility.
EFF’s photo weighs in at a whopping 5184×3456, and is released under a CC0 license with no restrictions on use.