Difference between revisions of "Metadata"

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(Added new section titled: Metadata through the OCAP Framework)
(General word choice + grammar + punctuation + readability edits throughout )
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'''Metadata''', specifically the metadata of digital content, can broadly be defined as data about data.<ref name="techrepublic"></ref> More specifically it is all of the information that helps to summarize the history and current state of various forms of digital information; including, but not limited to, email, cellular phones, social media accounts/posts, any digital file, and software applications.<ref name="techrepublic">Kassner, M. (2013, August 19). Is metadata collected by the government a threat to your privacy? Retrieved March 26, 2021, from https://www.techrepublic.com/blog/it-security/is-metadata-collected-by-the-government-a-threat-to-your-privacy/</ref> Metadata is often created as a direct result of viewing and creating other data<ref name="guardian_explainer">Nolan, D. (2014, August 06). Explainer: What Is Metadata? Should I worry about mandatory data RETENTION? Retrieved March 26, 2021, from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/aug/06/explainer-what-is-metadata-should-i-worry-about-mandatory-data-retention</ref>, and this is often done so implicitly and without the knowledge of the user. Ethical issues have emerged in relation to the potential misuse of users’ metadata and the violation of privacy rights.<ref name="techrepublic"></ref> New methods of automatically scraping metadata makes it easier to collect and analyze metadata, increasing risks of misuse and privacy violations.<ref name="martindale">Chadwick, K. N. (2017, May 4). The Ethics of Metadata Mining: Ethics Opinion 665 Raises More Questions than Answers. Retrieved March 25, 2021, from https://www.martindale.com/litigation-law/article__2245212.htm/</ref> Furthermore, there is currently no consensus over the responsibility of companies, governments, and other interested parties when it comes to the use of metadata.<ref name="martindale"></ref>
+
'''Metadata''', specifically the metadata of digital content, can broadly be defined as data about data.<ref name="techrepublic"></ref> It is all of the information that helps summarize the history and current state of various forms of digital information including, but not limited to, email, cellular phones, social media accounts/posts, any digital files, and software applications.<ref name="techrepublic">Kassner, M. (2013, August 19). Is metadata collected by the government a threat to your privacy? Retrieved March 26, 2021, from https://www.techrepublic.com/blog/it-security/is-metadata-collected-by-the-government-a-threat-to-your-privacy/</ref> Metadata is often created as a direct result of viewing and creating other data<ref name="guardian_explainer">Nolan, D. (2014, August 06). Explainer: What Is Metadata? Should I worry about mandatory data RETENTION? Retrieved March 26, 2021, from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/aug/06/explainer-what-is-metadata-should-i-worry-about-mandatory-data-retention</ref>, and this is often done implicitly and without the knowledge of the user. Ethical issues have emerged in relation to the potential misuse of users’ metadata and the violation of privacy rights.<ref name="techrepublic"></ref> New methods of automatically scraping metadata make it easier to collect and analyze metadata, increasing risks of misuse and privacy violations.<ref name="martindale">Chadwick, K. N. (2017, May 4). The Ethics of Metadata Mining: Ethics Opinion 665 Raises More Questions than Answers. Retrieved March 25, 2021, from https://www.martindale.com/litigation-law/article__2245212.htm/</ref> Currently there is no consensus over the responsibility of companies, governments, and other interested parties when it comes to the ethical use of metadata.<ref name="martindale"></ref>
  
  
 
==What Metadata Is==
 
==What Metadata Is==
 
[[File:Metadata.png|thumbnail|Metadata is not the data itself, but the additional information about the data.<ref>Kononow, P. (2018, September 16). What is metadata (with examples) - data terminology. Retrieved March 25, 2021, from https://dataedo.com/kb/data-glossary/what-is-metadata</ref>]]
 
[[File:Metadata.png|thumbnail|Metadata is not the data itself, but the additional information about the data.<ref>Kononow, P. (2018, September 16). What is metadata (with examples) - data terminology. Retrieved March 25, 2021, from https://dataedo.com/kb/data-glossary/what-is-metadata</ref>]]
Metadata is data that describes other pieces of data. Historically metadata described the information used in a physical format for the indexing and organization of libraries, but as the use of digital data has continued to rise, the term has been adopted to describe the additional information alongside digital data that fulfills a similar role as the physical counterpart. <ref name=dataversity>Foote, K. (2021, February 01). A brief history of metadata. Retrieved March 12, 2021, from https://www.dataversity.net/a-brief-history-of-metadata/#</ref>
+
Metadata is data that describes other pieces of data. Historically metadata described the information used in a physical format for the indexing and organization of libraries, but as the use of digital data has grown, the term has been adopted to describe the additional information alongside digital data that fulfills a similar role as its physical counterpart. <ref name=dataversity>Foote, K. (2021, February 01). A brief history of metadata. Retrieved March 12, 2021, from https://www.dataversity.net/a-brief-history-of-metadata/#</ref>
  
Currently, the term can be used to describe a large variety of different types of information, the National Information Standards Organization divides metadata into four categories based on its use: descriptive metadata, structural metadata, administrative metadata, and markup languages. <ref name=NISO> Riley, J. (2017). Understanding metadata. Washington DC, United States: National Information Standards Organization. Retrieved March 25, 2021, from http://www.niso.org/publications/press/UnderstandingMetadata.pdf </ref>
+
The term is used to describe a variety of different types of information. The National Information Standards Organization divides metadata into four categories based on its use: descriptive metadata, structural metadata, administrative metadata, and markup languages. <ref name=NISO> Riley, J. (2017). Understanding metadata. Washington DC, United States: National Information Standards Organization. Retrieved March 25, 2021, from http://www.niso.org/publications/press/UnderstandingMetadata.pdf </ref>
 
<br><br>'''Descriptive''': “For finding or understanding a resource.”  
 
<br><br>'''Descriptive''': “For finding or understanding a resource.”  
*This includes identifying factors such as the name of the document, the author of it, or related search terms.
+
*This includes identifying factors such as the name of the document, the author, or related search terms.
'''Structural''': “Relationships of parts of resources to one another”.
+
'''Structural''': “Relationships of sections of resources to one another”.
*This includes things like page numbers or linking data.
+
*This includes page numbers or linking data.
 
'''Administrative''': A combination of technical information.
 
'''Administrative''': A combination of technical information.
*This includes data such as time of creation, creation methods, permissions, and other technical information.
+
*This includes data about the time of creation, creation methods, permissions, and other technical information.
 
'''Markup Languages''': "Integrates metadata and flags for other structural or semantics features within context."
 
'''Markup Languages''': "Integrates metadata and flags for other structural or semantics features within context."
*This includes information about sections of a piece of data such as lists, paragraphs, etc.
+
*This includes sections of a piece of data such as lists, paragraphs, etc.
 
<br>
 
<br>
These pieces of information can be very useful for a variety of purposes including resource discovery, organization of resources, interoperability, digital and unique identification, and preservation of data.<ref name=NISO></ref> Therefore, the preservation of metadata can be important in the structure of all kinds of digital databases.  
+
These pieces of information can be very useful for resource discovery, organization of resources, interoperability, digital and unique identification, and preservation of data.<ref name=NISO></ref> The preservation of metadata can be important in the structure of all kinds of digital databases.  
  
 
====Included Information====
 
====Included Information====
Due to the large differences in the types of metadata, and data in general, the exact things that different metadata store is largely dependent on what the data it is associated with. Examples of metadata for different types of associated data include:
+
Due to the large differences in the types of metadata, and data in general, the exact things that different metadata store is largely dependent on the data it is associated with. Examples of metadata for different types of associated data include:
  
 
*Email<ref name=techrepublic></ref>
 
*Email<ref name=techrepublic></ref>
Line 40: Line 40:
 
**Capture location
 
**Capture location
  
A common theme among the different types of metadata is that they store utility information that can be used by applications to perform further functions. However, metadata also often includes further identifying information than may be obvious to the creator or distributor of the data.<ref name=LLRX>Calloway, J. (2009, January 05). Metadata – what is it and what are my ethical duties? Retrieved March 12, 2021, from https://www.llrx.com/2009/01/metadata-what-is-it-and-what-are-my-ethical-duties/</ref>
+
A common theme among the different types of metadata is that they store utility information that can be used by applications to perform further functions. Metadata also often includes further identifying information than may be obvious to the creator or distributor of the data.<ref name=LLRX>Calloway, J. (2009, January 05). Metadata – what is it and what are my ethical duties? Retrieved March 12, 2021, from https://www.llrx.com/2009/01/metadata-what-is-it-and-what-are-my-ethical-duties/</ref>
  
 
====Collection====
 
====Collection====
The collection and viewing of metadata can be done in two main ways, manually and automatically. The manual approach would be the opening of digital files or other data in some form of viewing or editing software and seeking metadata that may be saved along with it. The automatic method, also known as metadata discovery or harvesting, has larger implications due to the volume of data it can process. Companies such as Octopai have begun to use machine learning to manage metadata from within a dataset, and even map out connections and trends in the metadata.<ref name=dataversity></ref>
+
The collection and viewing of metadata can be done in two ways, manually and automatically. The manual approach invovles opening digital files or other data in some form of viewing or editing software and seeking metadata that may be saved along with it. The automatic method, also known as metadata discovery or harvesting, has larger implications due to the volume of data it can process. Companies such as Octopai have begun to use machine learning to manage metadata from within a dataset, and even map out connections and trends in the metadata.<ref name=dataversity></ref>
  
 
==Metadata through the OCAP Framework==
 
==Metadata through the OCAP Framework==
Line 57: Line 57:
 
==Ethical Implications==
 
==Ethical Implications==
 
===Implications in Privacy===
 
===Implications in Privacy===
One concern about metadata is the threat that it poses to the security of users' information. While the stance on the responsibilities of user privacy when it comes to data in general is more understood and firm, with 120 countries having passed specific laws to protect data privacy as of 2017<ref>Greenleaf, Graham, Global Data Privacy Laws 2017: 120 National Data Privacy Laws, Including Indonesia and Turkey (January 30, 2017). (2017) 145 Privacy Laws & Business International Report, 10-13, UNSW Law Research Paper No. 17-45, Retrieved March 25, 2021, from https://ssrn.com/abstract=2993035</ref>, the situation surrounding metadata is much less clear.  
+
One concern about metadata is the threat it poses to the security of users' information. While the stance on the responsibilities of user privacy when it comes to data in general is more understood and firm, with 120 countries having passed specific laws to protect data privacy as of 2017<ref>Greenleaf, Graham, Global Data Privacy Laws 2017: 120 National Data Privacy Laws, Including Indonesia and Turkey (January 30, 2017). (2017) 145 Privacy Laws & Business International Report, 10-13, UNSW Law Research Paper No. 17-45, Retrieved March 25, 2021, from https://ssrn.com/abstract=2993035</ref>, the situation surrounding metadata is much less clear.  
  
The 2014 [[Edward Snowden]] leak revealed the [[National Security Agency]] in the United States has been deeply involved with the recording and logging of phone calls in foreign countries; however, there is also evidence from the whistleblower Russel Tice that shows that the NSA is collecting the content and metadata of all digital communications.<ref name=wash>Griffin, T. (2020, December 28). NSA recorded the content of 'every single' call in a foreign country ... and also In America? Retrieved March 12, 2021, from https://washingtonindependent.com/2014/03/nsa-recorded-every-single-call-one-country-country-america/</ref> The significance of this massive storing of users’ metadata is that trends and patterns can be used to make assumptions about user activity and identity even without direct evidence of the case.<ref name=techrepublic></ref> An example of this is being able to use the metadata on photos to reverse engineer a user's location over time.<ref>Matthews, R. (2017, June 22). “Image Forensics: What Do Your Photos and Their Metadata Say about You?” ABC News, 23 June 2017, Retrieved March 25, 2021, from https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-23/what-your-photos-and-their-metadata-say-about-you/8642630.</ref>
+
The 2014 [[Edward Snowden]] leak revealed that the [[National Security Agency]] in the United States has been deeply involved with the recording and logging of phone calls in foreign countries; however, there is also evidence from the whistleblower Russel Tice that shows that the NSA is collecting the content and metadata of all digital communications.<ref name=wash>Griffin, T. (2020, December 28). NSA recorded the content of 'every single' call in a foreign country ... and also In America? Retrieved March 12, 2021, from https://washingtonindependent.com/2014/03/nsa-recorded-every-single-call-one-country-country-america/</ref> The significance of this large scale storing of users’ metadata is that patterns can be used to make assumptions about user activity and identity without direct evidence of the case.<ref name=techrepublic></ref> An example of this is to use the metadata on photos to reverse engineer a user's location over time.<ref>Matthews, R. (2017, June 22). “Image Forensics: What Do Your Photos and Their Metadata Say about You?” ABC News, 23 June 2017, Retrieved March 25, 2021, from https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-23/what-your-photos-and-their-metadata-say-about-you/8642630.</ref>
  
 
Additional complications arise when considering encryption and the selling of data by companies. User data, such as email content, is often encrypted so that only the creator and receiver of the data are able to view the content, however metadata is often not encrypted. This gives companies the ability to send the metadata associated with encrypted data, which could be used to come to conclusions that would otherwise be impossible to make. <ref>(2019, October 28). Your data is shared and sold...what's being done about it? Retrieved March 12, 2021, from https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/data-shared-sold-whats-done/</ref>
 
Additional complications arise when considering encryption and the selling of data by companies. User data, such as email content, is often encrypted so that only the creator and receiver of the data are able to view the content, however metadata is often not encrypted. This gives companies the ability to send the metadata associated with encrypted data, which could be used to come to conclusions that would otherwise be impossible to make. <ref>(2019, October 28). Your data is shared and sold...what's being done about it? Retrieved March 12, 2021, from https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/data-shared-sold-whats-done/</ref>
  
 
===Implications in Law===
 
===Implications in Law===
One area that is particularly concerned with the ethics of metadata use is the field of law. Here it plays a big role in relation to discovery and litigation. There has been significant questioning of the ethical implications of accidental discovery of information during legal proceedings due to the improper handling of metadata.<ref>Tremolada, R. (2018). The Legal Ethics of Metadata: Accidental Discovery of Inadvertently Sent Metadata and the Ethics of Taking Advantage of Others' Mistakes. Rich. JL & Tech., 25, 1.</ref>There is potential for metadata to unknowingly expose information held under attorney-client privilege, which has led to the use of metadata harvesting utilities being a topic of some debate.<ref name=LLRX></ref>
+
One area that is particularly concerned with the ethics of metadata use is the field of law. It plays a big role in relation to discovery and litigation. There has been significant questioning of the ethical implications of accidental discovery of information during legal proceedings due to the improper handling of metadata.<ref>Tremolada, R. (2018). The Legal Ethics of Metadata: Accidental Discovery of Inadvertently Sent Metadata and the Ethics of Taking Advantage of Others' Mistakes. Rich. JL & Tech., 25, 1.</ref>There is potential for metadata to unknowingly expose information held under attorney-client privilege, which has led to the use of metadata harvesting utilities being a topic of some debate.<ref name=LLRX></ref>
  
 
===Current and Potential Solutions===
 
===Current and Potential Solutions===
 
[[File:GDPR.jpg|thumbnail|The GDPR is among the most aggressive data protection laws in the world.<ref>G. (2018, May 20). Part 2: The new data protection law - GDPR, and how it impacts ecommerce businesses. Retrieved March 25, 2021, from https://blog.plugnpaid.com/part-2-the-new-data-protection-law-gdpr-and-how-it-impacts-ecommerce-businesses/</ref>]]
 
[[File:GDPR.jpg|thumbnail|The GDPR is among the most aggressive data protection laws in the world.<ref>G. (2018, May 20). Part 2: The new data protection law - GDPR, and how it impacts ecommerce businesses. Retrieved March 25, 2021, from https://blog.plugnpaid.com/part-2-the-new-data-protection-law-gdpr-and-how-it-impacts-ecommerce-businesses/</ref>]]
There have been a variety of approaches to addressing the ethical issues of metadata both within and across certain fields and applications of metadata. Privacy laws have been enacted to limit the ability of metadata to expose users’ private information, although the breadth of these laws varies greatly by region. The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, which went into place in 2018, states that all data that could be used to identify a user must be anonymized, including metadata.<ref name="gdpr"> (2016). "Complete guide to GDPR compliance" GDPR. Retrieved March 11, 2021 from https://gdpr.eu/.</ref>, where the United States currently is authorized to preform bulk collection of phone metadata under the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriot_Act USA Patriot Act].<ref>US: End bulk data collection program. (2020, October 28). Retrieved March 12, 2021, from https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/03/05/us-end-bulk-data-collection-program#:~:text=The%20USA%20Freedom%20Act%20prohibits,detail%20records%20(CDR)%20program.</ref> Additionally, some companies have begun to strip metadata from user data, such as Instagram removing location data from photos uploaded to the site.<ref>Random. (2019, 25 Jan). “Does Instagram Remove EXIF Data from Images?” Alphr. Retrieved March 25, 2021, from https://www.alphr.com/instagram-remove-exif-data-images.</ref>
+
There have been a variety of approaches to addressing the ethical iimplications of metadata both within and across certain fields and applications of metadata. Privacy laws have been enacted to limit the ability of metadata to expose users’ private information, although the breadth of these laws varies greatly by region. The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, which went into place in 2018, states that all data that could be used to identify a user must be anonymized, including metadata.<ref name="gdpr"> (2016). "Complete guide to GDPR compliance" GDPR. Retrieved March 11, 2021 from https://gdpr.eu/.</ref>, where the United States currently is authorized to preform bulk collection of phone metadata under the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriot_Act USA Patriot Act].<ref>US: End bulk data collection program. (2020, October 28). Retrieved March 12, 2021, from https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/03/05/us-end-bulk-data-collection-program#:~:text=The%20USA%20Freedom%20Act%20prohibits,detail%20records%20(CDR)%20program.</ref> Some companies have begun to strip metadata from user data, such as Instagram removing location data from photos uploaded to the site.<ref>Random. (2019, 25 Jan). “Does Instagram Remove EXIF Data from Images?” Alphr. Retrieved March 25, 2021, from https://www.alphr.com/instagram-remove-exif-data-images.</ref>
  
As for the implications in law, as of 2015 14 bar associations in the United States had made ethics opinions on the use of metadata by lawyers <ref>Perlman, Andrew M. (2010) "The Legal Ethics of Metadata Mining," Akron Law Review: Vol. 43 : Iss. 3 , Article 7. Retrieved March 12, 2021, from http://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/akronlawreview/vol43/iss3/7</ref>. These opinions range greatly, with the American bar Association, the Maryland State Bar, and the Vermont State bar outright permitting the use of metadata mining, but the New York State Bar Association Committee on Professional Ethics going as far as to say “lawyers may not ethically use available technology to surreptitiously examine and trace e-mail and other electronic documents.” <ref>Opinion 749. (2020, June 22). Retrieved March 12, 2021, from https://nysba.org/opinion-749/</ref>.
+
In the field of law, as of 2015 14 bar associations in the United States had made ethics opinions on the use of metadata by lawyers <ref>Perlman, Andrew M. (2010) "The Legal Ethics of Metadata Mining," Akron Law Review: Vol. 43 : Iss. 3 , Article 7. Retrieved March 12, 2021, from http://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/akronlawreview/vol43/iss3/7</ref>. These opinions differ greatly, with the American bar Association, the Maryland State Bar, and the Vermont State bar outright permitting the use of metadata mining, while the New York State Bar Association Committee on Professional Ethics going as far as to say “lawyers may not ethically use available technology to surreptitiously examine and trace e-mail and other electronic documents.” <ref>Opinion 749. (2020, June 22). Retrieved March 12, 2021, from https://nysba.org/opinion-749/</ref>.
  
 
==See Also==
 
==See Also==

Revision as of 21:18, 5 April 2021

Metadata, specifically the metadata of digital content, can broadly be defined as data about data.[1] It is all of the information that helps summarize the history and current state of various forms of digital information including, but not limited to, email, cellular phones, social media accounts/posts, any digital files, and software applications.[1] Metadata is often created as a direct result of viewing and creating other data[2], and this is often done implicitly and without the knowledge of the user. Ethical issues have emerged in relation to the potential misuse of users’ metadata and the violation of privacy rights.[1] New methods of automatically scraping metadata make it easier to collect and analyze metadata, increasing risks of misuse and privacy violations.[3] Currently there is no consensus over the responsibility of companies, governments, and other interested parties when it comes to the ethical use of metadata.[3]


What Metadata Is

Metadata is not the data itself, but the additional information about the data.[4]

Metadata is data that describes other pieces of data. Historically metadata described the information used in a physical format for the indexing and organization of libraries, but as the use of digital data has grown, the term has been adopted to describe the additional information alongside digital data that fulfills a similar role as its physical counterpart. [5]

The term is used to describe a variety of different types of information. The National Information Standards Organization divides metadata into four categories based on its use: descriptive metadata, structural metadata, administrative metadata, and markup languages. [6]

Descriptive: “For finding or understanding a resource.”

  • This includes identifying factors such as the name of the document, the author, or related search terms.

Structural: “Relationships of sections of resources to one another”.

  • This includes page numbers or linking data.

Administrative: A combination of technical information.

  • This includes data about the time of creation, creation methods, permissions, and other technical information.

Markup Languages: "Integrates metadata and flags for other structural or semantics features within context."

  • This includes sections of a piece of data such as lists, paragraphs, etc.


These pieces of information can be very useful for resource discovery, organization of resources, interoperability, digital and unique identification, and preservation of data.[6] The preservation of metadata can be important in the structure of all kinds of digital databases.

Included Information

Due to the large differences in the types of metadata, and data in general, the exact things that different metadata store is largely dependent on the data it is associated with. Examples of metadata for different types of associated data include:

  • Email[1]
    • Sender’s name, email, and IP address
    • Recipient’s name and email address
    • Subject line
  • Cellular Phones[1]
    • Phone number of every call received
    • Time of call
    • Duration of call
    • Location of caller and recipient
  • Web Browsers[1]
    • User’s IP address, ISP, device, and OS
    • Browser history
    • Cached data from websites
    • User login details from auto-fill
  • Digital Photographs[7]
    • Headline/captions
    • Owner/rights and licenses
    • Capture location

A common theme among the different types of metadata is that they store utility information that can be used by applications to perform further functions. Metadata also often includes further identifying information than may be obvious to the creator or distributor of the data.[8]

Collection

The collection and viewing of metadata can be done in two ways, manually and automatically. The manual approach invovles opening digital files or other data in some form of viewing or editing software and seeking metadata that may be saved along with it. The automatic method, also known as metadata discovery or harvesting, has larger implications due to the volume of data it can process. Companies such as Octopai have begun to use machine learning to manage metadata from within a dataset, and even map out connections and trends in the metadata.[5]

Metadata through the OCAP Framework

Framework for working with Indigenous data. via David Henry[9]

OCAP, or Ownership, Control, Access, and Possession, is a “set of standards that establish important ground rules for how data can be collected, protected, used or shared”[10]. The principles are designed to ensure that underserved and indigenous communities own, protect, and control how data about them is used[11]. Ownership reflects the principle that the community collectively owns its data; control reflects the principle that communities have the right to control all aspects of data management that impact them; access reflects the principle that communities must have the right to access data about them regardless of where that data is held; and possession reflects concrete, physical control of the data, and is a means by which ownership can be asserted and protected[12].

Data sharing is a foundational norm in many disciplines, and increased emphasis on metadata sharing by funding agencies and publishers is encouraging all disciplines to make it a priority. Yet there is also a common understanding of “sensitive” metadata, that is, metadata that should not by default be openly shared because it contains personally identifying information, community traditional or local knowledge, or information that could potentially cause harm to individuals or communities. OCAP reflects a worldview in which all knowledge is connected, and in which communities rather than individuals hold rights and interests in their information and metadata. [13] It recognizes and respects that ownership, control, access, and possession of information and metadata are critical to the maintenance and development of their languages, cultures, and histories. Secondly, the use of OCAP as a framework for approaching discussions on appropriate and ethical metadata sharing ensures that all individuals and communities involved have a common language with which to express their interests and concerns. It allows for a shared understanding of the concepts of data and information, and creates a safe space for discussion of the problematic history of metadata users and those who have collected or created metadata by, from, on, or about them[14].

Ethical Implications

Implications in Privacy

One concern about metadata is the threat it poses to the security of users' information. While the stance on the responsibilities of user privacy when it comes to data in general is more understood and firm, with 120 countries having passed specific laws to protect data privacy as of 2017[15], the situation surrounding metadata is much less clear.

The 2014 Edward Snowden leak revealed that the National Security Agency in the United States has been deeply involved with the recording and logging of phone calls in foreign countries; however, there is also evidence from the whistleblower Russel Tice that shows that the NSA is collecting the content and metadata of all digital communications.[16] The significance of this large scale storing of users’ metadata is that patterns can be used to make assumptions about user activity and identity without direct evidence of the case.[1] An example of this is to use the metadata on photos to reverse engineer a user's location over time.[17]

Additional complications arise when considering encryption and the selling of data by companies. User data, such as email content, is often encrypted so that only the creator and receiver of the data are able to view the content, however metadata is often not encrypted. This gives companies the ability to send the metadata associated with encrypted data, which could be used to come to conclusions that would otherwise be impossible to make. [18]

Implications in Law

One area that is particularly concerned with the ethics of metadata use is the field of law. It plays a big role in relation to discovery and litigation. There has been significant questioning of the ethical implications of accidental discovery of information during legal proceedings due to the improper handling of metadata.[19]There is potential for metadata to unknowingly expose information held under attorney-client privilege, which has led to the use of metadata harvesting utilities being a topic of some debate.[8]

Current and Potential Solutions

The GDPR is among the most aggressive data protection laws in the world.[20]

There have been a variety of approaches to addressing the ethical iimplications of metadata both within and across certain fields and applications of metadata. Privacy laws have been enacted to limit the ability of metadata to expose users’ private information, although the breadth of these laws varies greatly by region. The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, which went into place in 2018, states that all data that could be used to identify a user must be anonymized, including metadata.[21], where the United States currently is authorized to preform bulk collection of phone metadata under the USA Patriot Act.[22] Some companies have begun to strip metadata from user data, such as Instagram removing location data from photos uploaded to the site.[23]

In the field of law, as of 2015 14 bar associations in the United States had made ethics opinions on the use of metadata by lawyers [24]. These opinions differ greatly, with the American bar Association, the Maryland State Bar, and the Vermont State bar outright permitting the use of metadata mining, while the New York State Bar Association Committee on Professional Ethics going as far as to say “lawyers may not ethically use available technology to surreptitiously examine and trace e-mail and other electronic documents.” [25].

See Also

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Kassner, M. (2013, August 19). Is metadata collected by the government a threat to your privacy? Retrieved March 26, 2021, from https://www.techrepublic.com/blog/it-security/is-metadata-collected-by-the-government-a-threat-to-your-privacy/
  2. Nolan, D. (2014, August 06). Explainer: What Is Metadata? Should I worry about mandatory data RETENTION? Retrieved March 26, 2021, from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/aug/06/explainer-what-is-metadata-should-i-worry-about-mandatory-data-retention
  3. 3.0 3.1 Chadwick, K. N. (2017, May 4). The Ethics of Metadata Mining: Ethics Opinion 665 Raises More Questions than Answers. Retrieved March 25, 2021, from https://www.martindale.com/litigation-law/article__2245212.htm/
  4. Kononow, P. (2018, September 16). What is metadata (with examples) - data terminology. Retrieved March 25, 2021, from https://dataedo.com/kb/data-glossary/what-is-metadata
  5. 5.0 5.1 Foote, K. (2021, February 01). A brief history of metadata. Retrieved March 12, 2021, from https://www.dataversity.net/a-brief-history-of-metadata/#
  6. 6.0 6.1 Riley, J. (2017). Understanding metadata. Washington DC, United States: National Information Standards Organization. Retrieved March 25, 2021, from http://www.niso.org/publications/press/UnderstandingMetadata.pdf
  7. International Press Telecommunications Council, International Press Telecommunications Council, Retrieved 19 Mar. 2021 from https://iptc.org/standards/photo-metadata/photo-metadata/
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