If you’re not concerned about government surveillance of your phone because the National Security Agency (NSA) only collects metadata, think again.
A study from Stanford University shows that connecting “anonymous” metadata to compromising personal information is trivially easy.
Documents leaked in June by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden revealed that the organization was collecting metadata about calls placed to and from Verizon telephone lines. Although this revelation was potentially troubling, metadata collection is, in theory, not cause for concern.
The metadata about your phone calls does not reveal your name or identity, or the content of your conversations, but it does track the numbers you call, how long the calls last, and which other companies have your phone number in their directories.
Although the specific documents leaked in June concerned Verizon landlines, the NSA has since admitted that it collects metadata about mobile telephone calls and text messages as well.
MORE: 13 Security and Privacy Tips for the Truly Paranoid
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who heads the Senate Intelligence Committee, has said that collecting metadata is “not surveillance.” Because the information, by itself, cannot identify individuals, Feinstein and the NSA hold that it is practically harmless for the government to collect it.
A research team operating out of Stanford University disagrees, and hopes to prove its point with a new Android app called MetaPhone. By accessing your phone number and your Facebook page, this app does what any NSA program could do: It acquires your metadata, then correlates it with your social-media information to see how much it can learn about you.
“Phone metadata is inherently revealing,” wrote Jonathan Mayer and Patrick Mutchler, the app’s designers, on a Stanford Law School blog. By using MetaPhone, you can submit your information to a Stanford research project so that Mayer and Mutchler can determine how easy it is for organizations to glean personal information from your supposedly non-revealing metadata.
When Tom’s Guide tried the app, we found that the results supported Stanford’s assertion: Dozens of different organizations had the phone number we tried on file. The NSA — or worse, a cybercriminal — would be able to find our name, our geographic location, our bank, our medical facilities and even our eating habits with just a simple cross-check online.
The Latest on: Metadata
[google_news title=”” keyword=”Metadata” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
via Google News
The Latest on: Metadata
- How To Send An Anonymous Email (5 Simple Methods)on March 27, 2024 at 3:39 pm
What Defines an Anonymous Email? Standard email is designed to be a two-way, identifiable communication system where both sender and receiver know with whom they are in correspondence, but standard ...
- Tour Kristen Doute’s New Apartment in The Valley — and See the Secret Bathroom Baron March 26, 2024 at 1:03 pm
From West Hollywood to The Valley, Kristen Doute is moving on up to an apartment she shares with boyfriend Luke Broderick. She gave Bravoan exclusive tour of the new digs she now calls home, after a d ...
- What Kate Middleton's Edited Photo Tells Us About Metadataon March 22, 2024 at 1:55 pm
The British Royal family's photo-editing story has provided a reminder about the digital breadcrumbs we all leave behind.
- What The Metadata On The Kate Middleton Photo Reveals About The Edits Madeon March 15, 2024 at 6:50 am
On Sunday, Kensington Palace released a photo of Kate Middleton smiling with her children to celebrate UK Mother's Day. Within hours, the portrait had been recalled by photo agencies over concerns ...
- What The Metadata On The Kate Middleton Photo Reveals About The Edits Madeon March 15, 2024 at 1:50 am
Analysis of the photograph's metadata by Sky News revealed that the file was saved twice in Adobe Photoshop, once on Friday, March 8 at 9:54 p.m. GMT, and again on Saturday, March 9, at 9:39 a.m. GMT.
- Metadata investigation offers new clues about 'edited' image of Princess Catherine and her childrenon March 12, 2024 at 11:30 pm
A bombshell forensic analysis of the “edited” photo of Princess Catherine and her children has partially corroborated the palace’s version of events but raised fresh questions about when the image was ...
- The Metadata on Kate Middleton’s Family Photo Confirms What We Already Knowon March 12, 2024 at 11:07 am
BBC Verify found that the portrait was taken with a Canon camera, and that it was subsequently saved twice in Adobe Photoshop on an Apple Mac computer. The first version was saved on March 8 at 21:54 ...
- Metadata from Kate Middleton's controversial Mother's Day photo reveals image was edited twice before publication; Deets hereon March 12, 2024 at 5:54 am
According to reports, Kate Middleton's Mother's Day photo underwent two rounds of editing, possibly by the Princess of Wales herself, which caused a social media frenzy around potential manipulations ...
- Hammerspace leverages smart metadata handling for AI/ML workloadson March 11, 2024 at 11:41 pm
Software-defined storage maker separates metadata from files to provide view-from-anywhere file system visibility. It has now leveraged that for AI/ML workloads in Hyperscale NAS ...
- Metadata to ensure quality research and animal welfareon March 11, 2024 at 5:00 pm
Fair and ethical data The team behind the study proposes a minimal metadata set (MNMS) designed to enable in vivo data reuse. "We didn't start from scratch. We aligned ourselves with a guideline ...
via Bing News