Mining the Metadata - and Its Consequences

Abstract

Traditionally metadata, the who, when, where of a phone call, the IP address, time, date of an Internet connection, has been viewed as deserving of less privacy than the contents of the communication. But ubiquitous computing and communication has changed that equation, and such transactional information has become increasingly revelatory. In this talk, I will discuss how metadata is used in all sorts of investigations, from malware to malfeasance. I will also discuss how the ubiquity of metadata must mean a change in our approaches to it.