What do you know when you know someone's metadata.

[CincyDem]

http://www.zeit.de/datenschutz/malte-spitz-data-retention/

A couple months in the life of a German writer, as told by his metadata only. It's eerie to see just how much can be seen.

Combine this with the meta view of metadata (ie this data taken in combination with the same data from 20, 200,or 200,000 other people) and patterns of intersection start to appear. A quick couple lines of analysis programming and they know every person who has been in the same place as you more than once. You can ask questions of the metadata like "how often was anyone in the same place as this writer?"

Twice might be random, three times starts a trend, and four times is probably on purpose. That same place might be work but maybe it's something else. What else? Hmmmm, not sure but it's starting to feel like probably cause. Of course, I don't know the guy from Adam but I'm sure some smart lawyer can make a case for how to listen to the call once I see that he's in the same place as someone else I dont like.

After seeing this, I have to confess my concern about the metadata has increased.

[think]

1. Green party politician Malte Spitz got those records via Germany's FOIA

K&R