Information is leverage. Information is power. Information is Maltego. These are the catch-phrases for a South African company that recently released an affordable, user-friendly data mining tool called Maltego, bringing powerful data-mining technology to the masses. While targeted mostly to…
Tag: Amateur data mining
LonelyGirl15 ID’d through Amateur Data-Mining
It was recently revealed (confirmed?) that the popular online video diaries of LonelyGirl15 were not authentic, but a publicity stunt of entertainment folks linked to Hollywood talent agency CAA. Today, the real identity of LonelyGirl15 has also been revealed, mostly…
Peer-to-peer surveillance
I've commented about some of the privacy & surveillance implications of adding location meta tags in photos, everyone snapping photos in public with their cellphone cameras, and the rise of amateur surveillance and data-mining. Many of these concerns are repeated…
Critical Perspectives on Social Software and Web 2.0
Anders Albrechtslund has organized an amazing Social Software and Web 2.0: Critical Perspectives and Challenges for Research and Business seminar and workshop hosted by Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark on October 6, 2006: Social software and Web 2.0 are concepts (or…
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Amateur Data Mining in Google Calendar
The Dumb Little Man blog reveals how easy it can be to figure out who a person is, where they live, and what their daily routine & activities are by simply searching through public online calendars (like Google Calendar) and…
More Amateur Surveillance and Data Mining
The latest amateur surveillance and data mining story stars a suburban mom upset about the house being toilet-papered by area teens. She didn't want to involve the police, so she took the following steps: She canvassed local stores to see…
More Amateur Surveillance: License Plate Scanning
We've seem to have recently turned a corner where advanced surveillance & data mining technologies are now increasingly marketed to everyday people. Wired News reports on a new vehicle license plate scanning and tracking that is being pitched to more…
FlickrInspector Helps you Mine Flickr’s Data
FlickrInspector is a new tool to help make amateur data-mining of Web 2.0 more efficient. Enter a Flickr username, user ID, or email, and FlickrInspector gives you all the "publicly available" information on that Flickr user, including "interestingness", recently uploaded…
Amateur Data Mining: The Case of the Lost (Stolen) Camera
I've blogged about the concerns with commercial data aggregation, the power of data mining, and about how "security via obscurity" no longer applies when databases are online and searchable. Here's a case showing just how easy it can be for…
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