Guide to Your Metadata

SPECIAL FEATURE, ANGLO AMERICA, MEDIA, WHISTLEBLOWING - SURVEILLANCE, 17 Jun 2013

The Guardian – TRANSCEND Media Service

Metadata is information generated as you use technology, and its use has been the subject of cotroversy since NSA’s secret surveillance program was revealed. Examples include the date and time you called somebody or the location from which you last accessed your email. The data collected generally does not contain personal or content-specific details, but rather transactional information about the user, the device and activities taking place. In some cases you can limit the information that is collected – by turning off location services on your cell phone for instance – but many times you cannot. Below, explore some of the data collected through activities you do every day.

• Choose the services you use in a day
• What metadata looks like

What you can tell using metadata – A case study of the Petraeus scandal:

1. To communicate, Paula Broadwell and David Petraeus shared an anonymous email account.

2. Instead of sending emails, both would login to the account, edit and save drafts.

3. Broadwell logged in from various hotels’ public Wi-Fi, leaving a trail of metadata that included times and locations.

4. The FBI crossed-referenced hotel guests with login times and locations leading to the identification of Broadwell.

Sources: Microsoft, IPTC, Verizon telephone data court order, Photo Metadata, Facebook, Beyond the Wire, Google, ACLU

PLEASE GO TO ORIGINAL TO ANALYSE YOUR DATA, GRAPHS AND LINKS – guardian.co.uk

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