Information can be collected from any source. Some methods include:
Data mining, the process of removing information to find patterns and connections in big databases
Natural language processing, the process of interpreting and analyzing spoken language to glean information from written texts or spoken conversations
Web scraping, the process of gathering information from websites or other online sources in order to compile appropriate data
Machine learning, the process of teaching algorithms to extract information from available data and gain understanding in order to carry out tasks or generate recommendations.