Slashdot Mirror
What Does Six Months of Meta-Data Look Like?
SpicyBrownMustard sends in a fascinating data visualization at Zeit Online showing what information about a person's life can be gleaned from cellphone metadata. Quoting:
"Green party politician Malte Spitz sued to have German telecoms giant Deutsche Telekom hand over six months of his phone data that he then made available to ZEIT ONLINE. We combined this geolocation data with information relating to his life as a politician, such as Twitter feeds, blog entries and websites, all of which is all freely available on the internet. By pushing the play button, you will set off on a trip through Malte Spitz's life. The speed controller allows you to adjust how fast you travel, the pause button will let you stop at interesting points. In addition, a calendar at the bottom shows when he was in a particular location and can be used to jump to a specific time period. Each column corresponds to one day."
This was years ago. I think it was even on Slashdot.
The term "metadata" being used by the politicians is off the bullcrap meter.
Agreed. The collection of this 'metadata' amounts to being followed full-time, around-the-clock.
And i've been in tech for quite a long time. Then I realized it just means "All Data"
Do you mean submitter SpicyBrown, German politician Malte Spitz, Director of National Intelligence Director James Clapper, or NSA director Gen. Keith Alexander? Or the general media and NSA apologists?
Because Spitz never used the term. SpicyBrown is probably misusing the term. Clapper doesn't know what the fuck he's talking about. And Alexander is probably spewing bullshit. And I'd give even money that the general media and NSA apologists don't have a clue what metadata entails.
Date/Time of phone calls and SMS is metadata (from that you can establish things like number of calls per day). The contents of the call audio or messages is the data. GPS location is more data than metadata, but the tower you're connected to is again metadata - which appears to be what this uses. Yes, metadata is also data. But how much of it is "metadata" according to the NSA?
Nope. It's metadata only in very specific reference to phone calls. In every other sense, it's data, pure and simple. It's data in terms of location tracking. If you had tracking information from a GPS, that would be data. If they were tracking you by machine reading license plates, taken from security camera, that would be data. If they followed you around and recorded your location, that would be data. Just because the tracking info comes from a cell provider's records, doesn't make it any less than tracking data.
When they say they're only collecting "metadata, not the calls themselves," they're being deliberately, disingenuously, misleading.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
Can someone give a set definition of each, or is there no "metadata" at all? 'Cause I was under the impression that the bytes transmitting my usage of phone data (my voice when I'm calling, my text when I'm texting, the data for an app I'm downloading) was "data". "Metadata" then, would be which cellphone tower I was receiving the "data" from, the date and time stamp relating to that usage, the GPS location--all things that article was tracking and showing. All things appended to said the data. So, again what's the difference or is "metadata" just irrelevant in this case?
You were critically hit for no damage. The bruise will look nice, and maybe the scars will make good party talk.
data about data is metadata
A computer file content is data.
A file to contain it is metadata.
A file system to organize files is a another level of metadata.
When they say they're only collecting "metadata, not the calls themselves," they're being deliberately, disingenuously, misleading.
Well, the politicians are lying, but they've managed a rare case of using a buzzword correctly. I know, I'm as shocked as you are. Metadata refers to side-channel data. For example, a video stream may contain information about when it was recorded, the source, bitrate, etc. This is all metadata in that it isn't data needed for the file (or application) to perform its primary function.
In the case of "meta data" for cell phones, the source, destination, length of call, encoding medium, etc., is all metadata with regards to the call itself. But metadata is a subjective and context-sensitive term. One use case for a particular data set or stream may not need access to, or even knowledge of, the meta data. For other uses, the metadata is the data; The stream is what is irrelevant. So to understand what is and isn't metadata, you must first know what the intended application is.
So the politicians are correct in that call log information is "metadata" as far as placing/receiving phone calls is concerned. However, it's not metadata in the context of wire tapping -- you can claim it's not a breach of privacy, but that's like calling the tail of a dog a leg. It doesn't mean it's a leg... it means you changed the definition because you're a lying sack of shit. :}
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
Metadata: "the field 'originating_phone_number' contains the caller's number."
Data: 867-5309
"Jenny" is data. "Customer name" is metadata."
Let's get it right, folks. People's lives depend on this.
the growth in cynicism and rebellion has not been without cause
I suspect (without seeing the actual data provided), that it includes information associated not only with calls, but SMSs and data usage, perhaps even cell tower registration where there's no user communication. If so, then they're not just collecting "call metadata."
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
Nope. It's metadata only in very specific reference to phone calls.
Which would be the case here, right? Talking about phone calls and all?
When they say they're only collecting "metadata, not the calls themselves," they're being deliberately, disingenuously, misleading.
So by using the appropriate term for that industry, they're being misleading? Metadata of phone calls has huge privacy implications. I get it. In fact, I work in the intelligence community so I know quite a bit about this. And I don't condone or support warrantless wiretapping, violating 4th amendment rights, etc. But don't get bent out of shape because they're using the appropriate term for that industry.
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
I want people like this running our government.
We need realistic idealists to step up! If you are one, and you're capable of speaking to the public, please run for office!
Start small, go door to door, make it on the city council and work your way up!
The People need you!
http://www.ted.com/talks/malte_spitz_your_phone_company_is_watching.html
Old news.
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
"Which would be the case here, right? Talking about phone calls and all?"
RTFA. In the case here, the data included information on not only telephone calls, but SMS and data connections.
linky
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv7Y0W0xmYQ
MouseClass extends ScrollClass, which extends TabClass, which extends SidebarClass, which extends PowerClass, w
Oh boy. Same thing applies to them too. The data in text messages is the content, what was said. The "data" on data connections is what what downloaded and uploaded. Metadata is the date, time, location, etc. In the intel world, we call it internals and externals. Internals is what was said. Externals is everything else.
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
You're being disingenuous. What might be metadata about an SMS or data connection, isn't "we only collect metadata on your phone calls."
The tracking data provide by all of this stands alone - just be honest and admit it. The term "metadata" is not being used with the public in its formal sense, but to hide the fact that a vast amount of personal data is being collected with illegitimate warrants.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
Calling it metadata isn't what's hiding a massive unconstitutional collection of personal information. It's not like the government has been forthcoming on everything except that it used one word you find misleading. It's the appropriate term in this context in this industry. Complaining that you use it slightly differently in your line of work won't change anything.
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
It isn't 'unconstitutional' though. No matter how 'outraged' you are. The Supreme Court ruled on it in Smith v. Maryland, the Court extended the rule to a pen register, a device that collects all the numbers called from a particular phone. Without probable cause or a warrant, the police, who suspected Smith of a crime, installed a pen register on Smith’s calls at his telephone company. The Supreme Court held that this was not a “search” for purposes of the Fourth Amendment, because people know that the phone company keeps records of their phone calls, “a person has no legitimate expectation of privacy in information he voluntarily turns over the third parties,” and Smith voluntarily “assumed the risk that the company would reveal to police the numbers he dialed.” It is on the basis of this line of decisions that commentators have correctly stated that, under existing law, the government’s program of collecting phone-call data from phone companies does not violate the Fourth Amendment.
Nope. It's metadata only in very specific reference to phone calls. In every other sense, it's data, pure and simple
Yes, generally speaking that's true for all metadata. It is, after all, just a general term for data about other data.
Who cares? If he's not planning to blow himself up in public he shouldn't be worried. If he is, then get thee to Syria or some other awful place where they think of that as civilized behavior.
Green party politician Malte Spitz sued to have German telecoms..
What cracks me up about that, it is okay to allow the patriot act which has dissolved your privacy rights, but the minute someone does it to a politician all the sudden they have a right to privacy and then decide to sue. Which gets me asking!! Can we file a mass lawsuit against the NSA, Internet providers, and big companies that knowingly and willingly allowed this collection of data to happen? (kind off a sarcastic question)
Indeed. I'm surprised that Obama used that term. He should know better.
-- Cheers!
This article now ... where was slashdot years ago?
metadata is: this data contains location information.
data is: he's X years old, just bought some bread and now waits for the bus at location Y
so you're not completely right, but its still no metadata.
Don't make that assumption. As someone who works on data acquisition/management/processing (not telco) and gets trapped into hours-long discussions on data standards, especially derived data assets where the provenance/curation/modification history (not to mention the inputs, processing parameters, process versions/systems etc.) are just as important as the assets themselves... what is "meta" (or meta-meta, or...) and what isn't - is a huge area of ambiguity. The word "metadata" becomes utterly meaningless; I've been in meetings which informally ban it (lest we get lost into meta-meta-meta-meta-data - no exaggeration - and people lose their bearings, frame of reference and everybody gets confused about what "level" of meta-ness the conversation has collapsed into).
There is a good argument that the content of the call is only an incomplete record of the call. Without knowing the caller/callee/duration/date/time etc. we cannot put a voice recording into context and so the recording becomes useless and even perhaps unsearchable. If that's the case, then this "data" is of "first-order" importance and cannot be omitted by anyone - especially not the telcos who want generate any billing.
What is "meta" and what isn't, is all in the eye of the beholder. Meaningful documentation of protocols and information standards need to avoid assuming any common sense notion of the word.
I would be surprised if telcos consider "metadata" of a call to be far more boring than anybody cares about: technical stuff; SS7 attributes of the call, routing/exchanges/equipment involved, hand-overs between different mobile phone cells/towers, signal quality/encoding/protocol modes, measurements of bit error rate/latency/jitter/etc.
True, however trying to correct the terminology at this point will just confuse the issue even more for the vast majority of people. It's better in this case to use their term for it and show how intrusive this "metadata" they are collecting is than trying to argue that their idea of metadata is wrong.
I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.