The "machine-readable state" has long been a demand of the Chaos Computer Club, calling for more government transparency by opening up data produced by the state. In the year one after Snowden however, we begin to realize how much work has already been done in the opposite direction. Governments collect and analyze electronic data about citizens on a massive scale, in an effort to make society itself machine-readable, and thereby more governable. But don't worry, it's just metadata, right?