In my last video about encryption, I mentioned that most internet traffic is already encrypted. Encryption becomes even more effective when it's end to end, which I also talked about in that video. But there is a dark side to our digital lives. A toxic byproduct that cannot be avoided, and it threatens to make even the strongest encryption algorithms worthless. In this video, I will introduce you to Meditate. Before we begin, do you find these videos helpful? Do you find the content produced by the new oil useful? And does it help you protect your privacy or help make this stuff accessible to the people around you? If so, please, please, please help us keep going. Recurring donations are definitely the most helpful, but we also accept one-time donations. We accept cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies across a variety of platforms, and we even have affiliate links so that you can get something while helping us in return. Every little bit helps, thank you so much for your support. In this video, I will get right to the point with a definition. Metadata is frequently described as data about the data. For example, when you send an email, the content would be the actual message and the attachments, but the metadata could include things like the subject, the recipient, the sender, and the time and date that it was sent. This may not sound so dangerous, but metadata is actually one of the most powerful pieces of data we produce. Former NSA analyst Edward Snowden once said that he would prefer metadata instead of content, because it's quicker, easier, and doesn't lie. Consider the following examples from the EFF. They know that you called a gynecologist, spoke for a half hour, and then called a local Planned Parenthood's number later that day, but nobody knows what you spoke about. They know that you got an email from an HIV testing service, then called your doctor, then visited an HIV support group website in the same hour, but they don't know what was in the email or what you talked about on the phone. In both of these examples, there is an unspoken aspect here, and that is the bigger picture. In the first example, the call from the gynecologist is not really much to go on by itself. Neither is the Call-To Planned Parenthood. Either one could have been a wrong number or could have been regarding a routine medical procedure. It's only once you put both of them together that a bigger picture starts to emerge. The more metadata you have, the clearer the picture. While metadata can be terrifyingly accurate, it can also be horrifyingly wrong sometimes. In June 2020, in the United States, three people were putting up posters in a park supporting George Floyd, a black man who had been killed by police officers in another state. A passing cyclist saw this, became upset, and hurt one of the people, a child. Fortunately, there was footage of the man, which internet armchair detectives used to identify the man as marketing executive Peter Weinberg. One of the pieces of metadata that they used to place him at the park was his fitness wearable. However, the initial statement from police was wrong. They said that the incident took place on the wrong day, a day when Peter happened to be biking at the park. On the day the incident actually took place, Peter was working and did not go to the park. The metadata was accurate, the police were not, and it painted the wrong picture. Needless to say, Peter got doxed, harassed, and threatened quite a bit. In another case in Arizona, police jailed Jorge Molina for the murder of Joseph Knight. After nearly a week, it was determined that Jorge had given an old phone to his stepfather, who had then borrowed Jorge's car to go commit the murder. Because Jorge's phone was still signed into his Google account, the metadata showed him present at the time and place of the crime. Jorge ended up losing his job over this arrest. Both of these stories concern pieces of metadata. Your phone in this location at this time, your fitness wearable says you were at the park on this day. But in both cases, these people did nothing wrong. Right or wrong, both possibilities of metadata are horrifying. When they're wrong, you could be falsely accused of something. When they're right, you are being stalked, and a picture about you is being painted so accurately that maybe even the people you live with don't know this. There's a famous story about a teenage girl who started receiving pregnancy ads from Target. Her father became furious and demanded an apology from the company, who did apologize, but it later turned out that the father was in the wrong. The young girl was in fact pregnant, and her own family didn't even know it. The algorithms picked up on the metadata. Her purchases, the things she was looking at online. This is why I strongly believe that you should be mindful of your metadata as you move through your digital life. Unfortunately, nearly every digital step you take leaves footprints in the form of metadata. So how can we defend against it? Truthfully, there's not much we can do. In some cases, we can obfuscate it. Like when you use Tor or a VPN to hide your IP address. In other cases, you can use services that promise not to log your metadata, like signal or a reputable VPN provider, for example. In many cases, like the stories I cited, you can choose to do things that do not tie your metadata to you. You can reset your devices before giving them to someone else. You can choose not to share your profile publicly. You can choose to use Tor browser and tracker blocking to create a smaller footprint. Fortunately, for most people, our threat models are not severe enough that we have to be flawless in how we handle it. A small slip up here and there usually will not be the end of the world for most of us. And that's good, because like I said, metadata is extraordinarily hard to deal with. However, this does not give us an excuse to not try. So, as we continue to move forward into some of the more advanced topics, remember to always be mindful of your metadata, the story it could tell and how to protect yourself against it. Once again, if you found this video helpful, please help support the new oil. We accept one time and recurring donations in the form of Fiat and cryptocurrencies, and we also have affiliate links so that if you sign up for any of the services we recommend, we will get a small kickback. For more information about metadata and other ways to deal with protecting it, be sure to check out thenewoil.org.