today we might wonder what hath samuel morse without? practically all of us generate with computers, phones and other devices an almost continuous trail of electronic data. that information can be stored 40 knows where are analyzed by who knows whom for who knows what purpose. in recent days we learned how our government is tapping into a lot of that data phone records, e-mails and web postings often provided by private internet companies and individual yes feeds like in the wake of the boston marathon bombing. should i be creeped out or comforted? this hour we will try to sort some out for you. we begin with a visit to my home in atlanta. nice to meet you. great to meet you, too. come on in. in a prior life, frank ahern of new york stay made a living as a skip tracer. a sort of private investigator who tracks down people who have skipped town and don t want to be found. he would use the proverbial paper trail which back in the day was literally made of paper. phone b
forever. on average every minute at least 6 million facebook pages and 1.3 million youtube videos are viewed. i just turned on the television set, frank, what are i done by doing that? you let the cable tv company know that one you are home and two you are changing the channel plus they know what you are watching. hit the pause button again. you probably figured the cable company knew that. we will tell you how data mining experts working for president obama s campaign drilled into that innocence as as part of an unresidented get out the vote in 2012. stay tuned. netflix analyzes when you pause, rewind, fast forward or dump out of a show early. in fact, netflix used this data to help develop its much talked about original hit series house of cards. frank ahearn says something similar is happening with me
office. inside i can hardly make a move that isn t recorded in some form. like most big companies, fox news uses security cameras around warns us that our online activity may be monitored. but it is a personal device my smartphone that concerns ahearn the most. that is the goldmine of information. i mean your phone calls. your texts. your physical location. the apps you use. the e-mails. it is near unlimited. by now, you are surely thinking that all that digital information has made the job of the skip tracer the tracking and finding of people who would much rather stay lost a lot easier and you re right. but as we said at the we beginning back in new york city ahearn he is no longer in that line of business. it turns out big data has opened up a more profitable line of work. he is now helping people disappear. people who are victims of stalkers. people who are high end business want to make sure the
inokay with us. the credit card championship knows you have a child and the pharmacy as well have a record of you having a child. if i is send an e-mail and get gas stand go to the pharmacy and pick something up what can you learn about a person? traced and tracked all along but consolidating it is the big problem and the scary part. a quick stop by the atm where my picture is taken and my bank records the transaction. as i take off down the road, any number of traffic cameras record my route. frank, coming up to the toll booth here. what are we he watching for in this case? e and taking pictures of your license plate. and if you have the pass you have a record of where you are going. and where you came from. i finally arrive at the office.
inside i can hardly make a move that isn t recorded in some form. like most big companies, fox news uses security cameras around warns us that our online activity may be monitored. but it is a personal device my smartphone that concerns ahearn the most. that is the goldmine of information. i mean your phone calls. your texts. your physical location. the apps you use. the e-mails. it is near unlimited. by now, you are surely thinking that all that digital information has made the job of the skip tracer the tracking and finding of people who would much rather stay lost a lot easier and you re right. but as we said at the we beginning back in new york city ahearn he is no longer in that line of business. it turns out big data has opened up a more profitable line of work. he is now helping people disappear. people who are victims of stalkers. people who are high end business want to make sure the