But a new analysis by Stanford computer scientists shows that it is possible to identify a person's private information – such as health details – from metadata alone. Additionally, following metadata "hops" from one person's communications can involve thousands of other people.
The researchers set out to fill knowledge gaps within the National Security Agency's current phone metadata program, which has drawn conflicting assertions about its privacy impacts. The law currently treats call content and metadata separately and makes it easier for government agencies to obtain metadata, in part because it assumes that it shouldn't be possible to infer specific sensitive details about people based on metadata alone.
The computer scientists built a smartphone application that retrieved the previous call and text message metadata – the numbers, times and lengths of communications – from more than 800 volunteers' smartphone logs. In total, participants provided records of more than 250,000 calls and 1.2 million texts. The researchers then used a combination of inexpensive automated and manual processes to illustrate both the extent of the reach – how many people would be involved in a scan of a single person – and the level of sensitive information that can be gleaned about each user.
One of the government's justifications for allowing law enforcement and national security agencies to access metadata without warrants is the underlying belief that it's not sensitive information. This work shows that assumption is not true.
"I was somewhat surprised by how successfully we inferred sensitive details about individuals," said study co-author Patrick Mutchler, a graduate student at Stanford. "It feels intuitive that the businesses you call say something about yourself. But when you look at how effectively we were able to identify that a person likely had a medical condition, which we consider intensely private, that was interesting."
They also found that a large number of people could get caught up in a single surveillance sweep. When the National Security Agency examines metadata associated with a suspect's phone, it is allowed to examine a "two-hop" net around the suspect. Suspect A calls person B is one hop; person B calls person C is the second hop. Analysts can then comb the metadata of anyone within two hops of the suspect.
By extrapolating participant data, the researchers estimated that the NSA's current authorities could allow for surveilling roughly 25,000 individuals – and possibly more – starting from just one "seed" phone user.
Similarly, the government's two-hop call sweep was previously three hops; that reduction was implemented to reduce the number of people caught in a sweep. Shortening the time window could reduce that number further, Mutchler said.
"If we're going to pick a sweet spot as society, where we want the privacy vs. security tradeoff to lie, it's important to understand the implications of the polices that we have," Mutchler said. "In this paper, we have empirical data, which I think will help people make informed decisions."
As a one-time electronic spook, I can tell you to not trust Big Brother. He set up secret taps on all of our communications in the Bush Years. Look up Room 641A of the ATT building in SF. The ABC network did a good story on it, but the government refused to investigate.
They get EVERYTHING, check it against code words, connection diagrams and other references to see who talks to whom,and why. They get data, talk, pictures, everything.
Our "intelligence" agencies now run the government. Do you think they do not? Ask Feinstein, who is supposedly an oversight person, but who was spied on by the people of which she allegedly has oversight!
It is time we cleaned out the Department of Justice and the intelligence agencies, removing all Bush political appointees.
Ah, another one rating from the little man who follows me around doing that, no matter the topic or post.
It is emotional and juvenile.
Perhaps he can tell us about his own experience in the field, . . ?
Cher that was only the second time I voted on you in the last nine days. The other one was two days ago and it was a "5"
Non Cher. It was because of the Big Bother stuffs again because you can't tell us who this Big Bother is except he is big and bad and you don't like him. Oh, and he is probably really ugly too.
I don't have a big brother. Never claimed to have a bigger brother. I do have the younger sister though. She is a very nice person.
You need to get out more gskam. Go for a walk.. Find a pond...Spy on some ducks.
With whose underwear are you so fascinated?
Sounds like you don't know what that means.
Heck, I don't know what it is supposed to mean, either. Some kid's nasty phrase?
It is all so silly.
Having work on both the military and civilian sides of telecom, I've always taken the attitude that anyone could be listening to my phone. With the speed and depth of modern-day inter-connectivity, I'd be surprised if they couldn't tell what my cat had for breakfast.
Guy, we did the Electronic Battlefield in 1967, using navy sonobuoy technology which let us listen to what the VC were doing and saying from our three orbits at 22,000 feet.
In 2003, ABC News reported on the NSA using multiple taps on all of our communications in room 641A of the ATT building in SF. It was revealed they had several taps in the Bay Area, getting everything. Nobody investigated.
Having work on both the military and civilian sides of telecom, I've always taken the attitude that anyone could be listening to my phone.
Having unfortunately (albeit unknowingly) made a very minor contribution (as a data typist during uni years) to the development of the software that can filter key words out of a conversation I get the feeling that these filters are rather good by now.
The development of the software at the university - which was funded by an NSA front and supposedly for simultaneous translation of telephone calls between business partners as well as in-car voice controls - had a 86% detection rate...and that was in '94 or thereabouts.
Metadata analysis can be very powerful. Just with right/left turn sensors (not even accurate to degrees but simple yes/no switches) and an accelerometer and a timer it's possible to reconstruct the route you drive with surprising accuracy given a map of an area - even if the starting point is unknown.
gkam, ..and that was 2003. It's not just the NSA, either. Bring it forward to current-day, modern technology and imagine every country with an international cable coming out or the water going to a room like you mentioned. Many, many terabytes of data to peruse as you will.
Having served as Deputy Foreperson on a Federal Criminal Grand Jury for 24 months around that time, I can only legally say do not trust Big Brother.
I'd be surprised if they couldn't tell what my cat had for breakfast.
And, here I was thinking you were just stupid, when you are clearly, crazy stupid.
So, do they also know where the aliens probed you?
anti, I suggest you not get into a debate with someone who worked in the field. Guy can turn you inside out, and not have to resort to silly adolescent insults.
Sounds chronic Tootie. Might want to get that checked.
But you can illegally say anything you want, like youre an engineer who earned an MS in environmental management.
We all know that's bullshit.
You even advertise engg services on the internet which is seriously illegal in CA and elsewhere.
And you can imply all sorts of lying bullshit, like allegedly being on a jury makes you know more than someone who watches Law and Order on tv.
Good thing the people here have learned not to take George kamburoff seriously. About anything.
Just to clarify, George kamburoff was a 20yo tech at the time who was qualified to carry things around and plug things in.
But according to him he was working directly for McNamara in this vital spook role.
If it didn't yield useful information, the NSA wouldn't have implemented the program in the first place. What would be the point of surveillance?
People worried about privacy keep forgetting that the purpose of the NSA surveillance was to locate terrorists and the people collaborating with them in order to prevent future terrorist attacks. It wasn't to find out your personal health issues or who you're cheating with.
It was legal, had Congressional oversight (civilian oversight), had only a couple dozen people involved in analysis, and as far has been made known so far, was only used to prevent terrorism. I'm no fan of Big Government, but almost all cases of government employees harassing citizens or misusing data they have access to has resulted in Congressional or FBI investigations, lawsuits, being fired, and/or imprisonment. Know why? Because it's illegal.
otto, your fixation on "getting even" with me is over.
It must have been hard on you when I turned out to be real, unlike you folk with phony names and no identities, and you thought you had found a "liar", as you put it.
But I turned out to be real, and your attacks on my professional abilities is going to be answered.
Can any of you Brits recommend a good legal representative there to do this for me?
No, aksdad, the NSA and the CIA are forbidden to work on us in the United States.
And your trust is misplaced. Your freedom will be at the whim of whatever nosy or suspicious or perverted bureaucrat runs your file category.
gkam, are you saying the NSA doesn't do domestic surveillance?
I know, a first world government,,, with the usual spying agencies that all governments since the dawn of time have,,,,,,, would use the best technology available,,,,,, to spy on as many people,,,,, as the current technology allows.
I am shocked to find this out. I sure am glam-Skippy is spreading the word about what he found out while doing his spy stuffs. Who would have thought it would ever come to such a low place in human endeavors, eh?
"gkam, are you saying the NSA doesn't do domestic surveillance? "
estevan, I just said it did.
I also said it is illegal.
That's not really how it works. You do surveillance (or torture...or any other kind of information gathering) in the hope to get useful data. Whether you actually do get useful data is only evident after the fact.
Especially the chance of false positives (innocent people getting caught up and flagged as suspicious) is high.
Now, the first thing I noticed when I opened up the microgram scales was a note saying "not for illegal use"...at which point I thought: "Great. Now I'm on all the drug watchlists". And these watchlists never forget.
The company owning PO has moved offshore and isn't filing the usual Companies House documents required of a regular Brit corp, so standing, etc., is an issue. That's one reason why you move offshore. A barrister should be local to the relevant channel island. You don't need a lawyer to serve a cease and desist notice. It helps your case later and lets you gauge how reckless they really are.
The law is on your side. In the US, accuracy is a defense. It isn't in the UK where it's purely a question of damages. The movie QB VII dramatized that well.
I agree with Ira that people don't play nice here, but Otto has become obsessive and over the top. The ends don't justify the means.
Thank you. I will enlist an American lawyer to help.
It is all in the records, including words of the others.
Of course, being what you are, you ignorantly disregard your own words that confirm you a pathological liar and hypocrite.
My god, no wonder the entire world kicked the Brits out! Reading otto and anti, I can see why the empire failed and collapsed like a hollowed out cow pie. Sorry, but you silly folk are now irrelevant in the world. Blair had to buddy up to Dubya just to get attention.
We will also end your adolescent personal attacks.
"In the case of Delusional vs Obsessive we call the first witness..."
Oh man...popcorn sales will go through the roof.
Why did you stay and post with people who obviously dislike you so much?
ps. If want to complain that someone has "adolescent personal attacks" you should probably not do it after saying their country collapsed like a cowpie because of them. Hypocrite much?
And why do you think Otto and AA are from England anyway?
"Why did you stay and post with people who obviously dislike you so much?"
This forum is not theirs, . . . nor yours.
And their dislike is based on me being real and pissing them off. I am not threatening, I am looking. Maybe I won't find someone to take it on, but I am looking.
My gosh,why do you folk get so nasty? Is it because you can hide behind a pseudonym? Would you be so nasty in person?
And their dislike is based on me being really stupid and just because I am a troll it is pissing them off.
Can't argue with one Cher. That is the trut.
I am not threatening, I am looking.
Non Cher, you are just doing what you done since you showed up here, posturing and posing.
Maybe I won't find someone to take it on, but I am looking.
What it is you are looking for? Skippy, there is non law about mocking and ridiculing a couyon who passes out mocking material with every postum. If you don't like the attention you attract, QUIT ATTRACTING IT. That's on you Skippy. If EVERYBODY thinks you are the idiot, then it is a pretty good bet that you ARE the idiot.
Ira, you are just a fictitious character created by someone who lives online hiding his identity so he does not have to face up to his games. It does not matter what you think. And your words are the words of others who write wiki, the stuff you bleat but do not truly understand.
I hurt your feelings by making you look a fool. You know, when you challenged all those assertions I proved. Yes, proved.
So let us stop the personal attacks. Outgrow it.
@ glam-Skippy. You just don't realize it is you that look the fool. Maybe Otto-Skippy is right, and you have those mental conditions that cause you to not see just how lame and stupid you are. Maybe it is because you are old and your mind is starting to go. Whatever it is you have to be one pitiful old man if the best you can do in your senior years is hangout looking silly begging peoples to let you be "interesting" with "good stories to tell".
How you can hurt my feeling if I am not real? How can we hurt your reputation while we are not real? For a moron, you sure do say some really stupid stuffs.
So let us stop the personal attacks.
So now you want to try for the moral high ground? Cher, you have not gone more four or five postums without some sort of personal attack. Now you want to "stop" what you started just because you are the one getting slapped around? You should have thought about that while you were trying to be what you are not.
Give it up, Ira. Your need to "get even" is childish.
How about sticking with the issues here? You can go after the folk who hurt your little feelings after school.
But George kamburoff the lying cheating psychopath craves attention, and misbehaving here is the only way the old man has left to get it.
Chances are he posted his real name along with all that personal info under the delusion that he would finally be able to get even with all the people who ever objected to his behavior.
His malformed brain lumps all his detractors past and present into one category he calls 'goober', and thus is unable to distinguish among them.
So now he will piss away more of his wifes money to get lawyers on 2 continents to tell him that objections to his behavior are protected speech, and that conjecture as to WHY he behaves the way he does is also protected speech.
They refer to people like George as the 'perfect client'.
We see it as a window into your character.
Psychopaths sincerely believe that saying things actually makes them true. They will say them over and over. They will say them in different ways. They will still insist they are true even when the facts are repeatedly shoved in their face.
None of this is true george. The exact opposite is true. Everybody knows this.
You may have been able to bully family, friends, and co-workers into surrendering but that's not going to work here.
The people who think you are being treated unfairly haven't yet had the opportunity to object to one of your lies like the rest of us have.
Once they get to know the real george kamburoff they attack you just like the rest of us.
That's how offensive your lies and your attitude really are.
OMG, otto, there you are, hiding behind your silly pseudonym attacking others. What a hero!
I guess you are the price we pay for letting goobers have free speech: Nasty little people who cannot make it on the outside hide here.
George kamburoff the psychopath thinks that the dozen or so jobs he was fired from is actually evidence of a successful career.
Psychopaths lie to themselves as much as they lie to everybody else.
Narcissists go crazier than a beta fish on acid when they see one another. Explains the above to new subscribers.
lol If gkam takes my advice Otto/Ira needs to donate his heart and soul to charity because all the rest will belong to George. Of course he could also sue PO for creating an attractive nuisance that feeds his pathology.
It's like watching a buzzard defend a particularly grisly bit of road kill. It can't conceptualize that only it is obsessed with the center of its little universe. It thinks by communicating threats it's defending someting, but, at the end of the day, it's only communicating that it's a buzzard.
Spot on FTH; but he really sees it that way. Donning what he perceives as his mantle alone reduces gkam to a grave, grave, social threat, and, lacking in verbal ability, he becomes fixated on the word "psychopath". The last sentence captures it. So true. As he does it himself believing that he's on some kind of social crusade.
lol If gkam takes my advice Otto/Ira needs to donate his heart and soul to charity because all the rest will belong to George.
Troll a site with hundreds of posting designed only to provoke emotion and you put yourself in the public domain.
I suppose glam-Skippy gets exempted from that because of the "Idiot Clause"?
Of course he could also sue PO for creating an attractive nuisance that feeds his pathology.
Do you know how many times that one has been thrown out there? It's silly, idle, and just plain goofy. Surely you have seen more of the interweb than just physorg? What goes on here is light weight compared to some places.
Does any of the things you are whining about not apply to you? Why you think you should be exempt? Now that is some real narcissism.
Since I have repeatedly asked PO for help, they going to be first on the list. That ought to get their attention, and get otto and Ira and Estevan and the rest off the forum.
I do not think that the position you are taking is going to bring any positive outcome.
I have denounced the bullying of Otto in the past and written complaints to Physorg and it did not change anything. You know why? Here is a good answer for you http://phys.org/n...der.html What's more, the unwillingness of gkam to put Otto on ignore is signaling that he enjoys being bullied. Personally I have putted Otto on ignore for his constant attacks on gkam, and I also putted gkam for his incessant whining.
Concerning Ira, I do not see any similar posturing. UI is just making fun of somebody who's a little to full of himself. If his sense of humor does not fit your bill, too bad for you, you must be one heck of a boring guy.
I do not think that gkam is a bad person, but he found a way to alienate much of the people who tried to help him in the past.
Since I have repeatedly asked PO for help, they going to be first on the list.
That ought to get their attention, and get otto and Ira and Estevan and the rest off the forum.
Cher, I am sorry I am sitting here laughing so hard at that one. What you don't understand is you already have their attentions, and have for a long time. And it is still as funny as the first time you attracted it.
Maybe you could try one of those Nigerian-Like-Legal-Notices to really get their attention, eh? Oh, never mind, you already tried that one a few times. You know there is the big collection of them collected over the years, right? You should see the couple sent in by Mikey-Skippy a while back. Oh, and Really-Skippy wrote some good ones too but it's been awhile, maybe he's due for one while he is doing his diligence. The best ones are the ones where the couyon is volunteering to clean the place up as the moderator.
I will comment on the goofiness and silliness of your postums as I see fit. Everybody is entitled to do the same, but you lose from the beginning if you think that some peoples are worthy of being immune.
Oh, Ira, give up your personal attacks.
Don't you have sufficient education to discuss the topics?
As a matter of the fact I do, you have just been too stupid to realize it for many months now.
Go back to Twitter, where your kind of silliness is celebrated.
This thread is about how our privacy is gone. You are a good example, with your habit of looking up everything you can to throw at others, just to discredit them. I guess it brings them down to your level.
No wonder you do not care about the rights of others.
Metadata is used by the police, and we used it in the Grand Jury. Do not trust them.
Well it must not be such the big deal to you. You are stupid enough to postum all your personal info on the interweb.
This thread is about how our privacy is gone.
You gave it away voluntarily, and in that respect, you are the gift that keeps on giving.
You are a good example, with your habit of looking up everything you can to throw at others, just to discredit them.
You are the one who says a dozen times a week "did you look me up" and "look it up". Then takes umbrage when they do.
That is just stupid meaningless. What "rights" I do not care about?
Metadata is used by the police,.
And always has been, since the first human ever tried to keep a secret.
Then, why are you here? Personal attacks go to twitter.