How Your Online Trail Just Got Way More Visible

[silicon_toad2000]

http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2013/02/how-your-online-trail-just-got-way-more-visible/

The recent publication of a leaked video demonstrating American security firm Raytheon’s social media mining tool RIOT (Rapid Information Overlay Technology) has rightly incensed individuals and online privacy groups. In a nutshell, RIOT — already shared with US government and industry as part of a joint research and development effort in 2010 — uses social media traces to profile people’s activities, map their contacts, and predict their future activities. Yet the most surprising thing isn’t how RIOT works, but that the information it mines is what we’ve each already shared publicly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mcVA_D3sAg

In just a few seconds, RIOT manages to extract photographs as well are the times and exact location of frequently visited places. This information is then sorted and graphed, making it relatively easy to predict likely times and locations of future activity.

RIOT can also map an individual’s network of personal and professional connections. In the demonstration video, a Raytheon employee is surveyed, and the software shows who his friends are, where he’s been and, most ominously, predicts that the most likely time and place to find him is at a specific gym at 6am on a Monday morning.

I remember when there was an outcry against a national identity card.

This video leaves me a bit conflicted. The data it's mining is all information that people have chosen to share publicly, but it's still a bit scary.

[White Stripes]

with facebook, an idiot and their information are soon parted..... i still dont know why ppl give out such detailed personal information without a second thought....

for a little giggler on internet TMI take a peek at; http://9gag.com/gag/6554323 (SFW)

...it doesnt take too smart of a web scraper to piece that one together ......