Your cellphone 'digital exhaust' - how big data surveillance works

The era of big data hits world news – except people still aren’t quite sure how it works. Technology is now so powerful that it pushes us out of the world of causation, answering the question “why” which human beings are built for, to the world of correlation, which gives us “what” – where the law of large numbers and patterns give greater insights. Like the cellphones which shadow the trail of robberies in Chevy Chase, Maryland in the United States. The April robbery of the Cartier store was one of a dozen similar heists. By culling for that data, police found the robbers and bolstered a court case against them, especially since the trail of their cellphones matched the police chase! Location data is a potent tool for investigators. It’s not the only data available. Research shows a smartphone can give “a total of nearly 100 pieces of highly technical data through calls, texts and other activities” including the time the signal hits cellphone towers. Taken on their own, each of this metadata is meaningless, but when put together and with the help of the right algorithms, patterns emerge and intelligence is gathered.