Thanks to Ed Snowden, we hear plenty about how our metadata can be used against us without our permission. But, it can also be used by us for our own purposes. Perhaps even just because we're curious about what the NSA sees.
From the article:
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2013/08/26/jonathan-kay-my-life-as-it-appears-to-the-nsa/
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The term "metadata" has been thrown around a lot since Edward Snowden revealed the extent of the U.S. government’s communications-surveillance programs. Metadata means "data about data." In the context of your phone calls, a government snooper collecting metadata wouldn’t listen in on your conversation — but he would study the length of your calls, the phone numbers and geographical location of the person on the other end, the time of day the call was made and so forth. In the context of email, metadata would include analogous information — plus technical data pertaining to the software used to create the messages.
The distinction between data and metadata is crucial, defenders of the NSA insist. When most of us worry about government surveillance, we typically fret about someone literally listening in on our phone calls, or reading our email. The collection of mere metadata, on the other hand, presents a more abstract, and less objectionable, form of intrusion into our civil liberties.
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Here's the software which diagrams metadata about your contacts and the connections between them.
I was actually a little disappointed. My diagram was actually surprisingly boring, except that an outsider might conclude that I'm having an affair with my real estate agent.
There were lots of tiny, isolated bubbles floating around. I think it indicates that I don't network much by email.
From the article:
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2013/08/26/jonathan-kay-my-life-as-it-appears-to-the-nsa/
---------------------------------------
The term "metadata" has been thrown around a lot since Edward Snowden revealed the extent of the U.S. government’s communications-surveillance programs. Metadata means "data about data." In the context of your phone calls, a government snooper collecting metadata wouldn’t listen in on your conversation — but he would study the length of your calls, the phone numbers and geographical location of the person on the other end, the time of day the call was made and so forth. In the context of email, metadata would include analogous information — plus technical data pertaining to the software used to create the messages.
The distinction between data and metadata is crucial, defenders of the NSA insist. When most of us worry about government surveillance, we typically fret about someone literally listening in on our phone calls, or reading our email. The collection of mere metadata, on the other hand, presents a more abstract, and less objectionable, form of intrusion into our civil liberties.
---------------------------------------
Here's the software which diagrams metadata about your contacts and the connections between them.
I was actually a little disappointed. My diagram was actually surprisingly boring, except that an outsider might conclude that I'm having an affair with my real estate agent.
There were lots of tiny, isolated bubbles floating around. I think it indicates that I don't network much by email.
