Your phone's metadata contains more personal information than you might think

Image via Apple

 

In response to the recent NSA controversy surrounding consumer privacy, the American Civil Liberties Union has challenged the legality of the NSA’s surveillance of phone calling records. The ACLU requested a preliminary injunction that would halt the program indefinitely, until further investigation could be completed.

While some mobile phone users may not feel threatened by the NSA’s widespread surveillance, The Washington Post argues that the metadata associated with a person’s phone records could reveal much more about that person’s life than may instantly seem apparent.

Princeton University professor of computer science Ed Felten argues that many phone numbers themselves reveal incredibly sensitive information about a consumer, even if the “contents” of calls made to those numbers haven’t been tracked or revealed.

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