Helmets? Check. Breathing tanks? Check. Hoses? Ditto. Algorithms? Yep: the New York City Fire Department is using data mining to predict which of the city’s buildings are at highest risk of catching fire. Now that’s metadata we can get behind.
What if, instead of marketing to a general demographic, you marketed to a specific individual? What if, instead of waiting for a patron to commission new work, an artist simply designed it based on someone’s psychological profile? If an online ad asked for you by name, could you resist?
There’s been a lot of talk about the NSA and its data-gathering policies. The news sounds kind of scary. But you might be thinking that the NSA can’t have literally every foreign and domestic call made in the U.S.. That would be a crazy amount of data right? Well, yes it would be, and it kind of seems like they have it. Or at least could afford to keep it if they wanted to.
Wolfram Alpha lets you stalk yourself on Facebook, reminds you how noisy you are
Posted in: Today's ChiliYou know Facebook’s got dirt on you, it’s one of modern life’s unavoidable trade offs. Now though, thanks to Wolfram Alpha, you can data-mine yourself — something its creator has been doing for years — and get a true sense of exactly what the social network knows about you. You’ll first have to head over to the computational knowledge engine, then search “Facebook report.” Follow the prompts to give the app permission etc, and you’ll be rewarded with a detailed breakdown. The data shows information about your interactions, friends, most popular photos, most common demographics and more. For example, you might discover that you know someone in the Philippines, have a clutch of non-connected friends weirdly in the same location, or that you mom is your top post commenter. Though you probably knew that last part already. Paranoid or curious? Jump on the source link to get started.
Filed under: Internet
Wolfram Alpha lets you stalk yourself on Facebook, reminds you how noisy you are originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 01 Sep 2012 20:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.