46 • Big Data Analytics
vacuuming up call detail records that indicate which phone numbers
called which other numbers and for how long, as well as Internet metadata.
According to documents released by the whistleblower Edward Snowden,
the NSA and Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters
(GCHQ) intelligence service have worked out how to extract information
about a cell phone user’s political leanings and even sexual orientation by
pulling cell phone data out of the phone with hacking apps such as Angry
Birds.
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How could this be? Simple. e increasing capability of our daily gad-
gets means that we do more with them. Remember the 1GHz processor,
accompanied by 256MB of RAM and 30-GB hard drive, of the Dell desk-
top computer in 20