title: Evaluating the privacy properties of telephone metadata.
abstract: Since 2013, a stream of disclosures has prompted reconsideration of surveillance law and policy. One of the most controversial principles, both in the United States and abroad, is that communications metadata receives substantially less protection than communications content. Several nations currently collect telephone metadata in bulk, including on their own citizens. In this paper, we attempt to shed light on the privacy properties of telephone metadata. Using a crowdsourcing methodology, we demonstrate that telephone metadata is densely interconnected, can trivially be reidentified, and can be used to draw sensitive inferences.
authors.affiliation: Security Laboratory, Department of Computer Science, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305; Stanford Law School, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305 jmayer@stanford.edu.
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mayer
authors.affiliation: Security Laboratory, Department of Computer Science, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305;
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mutchler
authors.affiliation: Security Laboratory, Department of Computer Science, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305;
authors.forename: John C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Mitchell
mesh_terms: D003142:Communication; D006801:Humans; D018907:Privacy / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D013689:Telephone; D014481:United States
keywords: metadata; privacy; social network; surveillance; telephone