TWC: Medium: Understanding and Illuminating Non-Public Data Flows

我们的生活被一个持续不断的数据网络包围着，这个网络被一个看不见的程序的全球网络收集起来，这些程序收集、合并、合并和合并他们可以获得的每一块数据。这些项目和公司在公众视线之外运作，在公众不清楚的情况下收集和交换数据以获取利润。这是一个复杂的生态系统，原始数据的收集者可能不知道最终的用途，数据的使用者可能不知道原始的来源。该项目试图通过一系列实验来阐明这个生态系统，试图通过有选择地添加或检索信息来测量和扰乱看不见的数据池。此外，该项目侧重于创建陷阱和触发器，即未来数据提供商可能使用的人造数据，从而能够发现新的数据收集和使用。最后，仅仅研究这一现象是不够的：最后一个关键因素是教育和外联，让公众了解这些原本看不到的节目。这个项目的理念很简单：如果这些数据池影响我们的生活，我们必须知道它们是什么，它们做什么。该项目的技术重点包括扰乱数据系统和合理测量结果。一些数据经纪人提供用户访问权限，允许直接验证推论。该项目还包括创建人物角色，这是一种旨在在数据池中留下痕迹的人工身份。如果数据代理购买此数据并对其进行操作，则会在数据源和数据消费者之间创建因果链接，从而允许对数据生态系统内的数据流进行归属。该项目的其他部分包括直接从经纪人那里购买数据，评估此类经纪人可能造成的潜在损害，以及故意播种多媒体内容，其中包括各种级别的可识别信息，以检测数据经纪人何时开始收集这些多媒体源。

Our lives are surrounded by a constant web of data, picked up by a global network of unseen programs that gather, coalesce, combine, and merge every scrap of data they can acquire. These programs and companies operate out of public view, collecting and exchanging data for profit without clear public knowledge. This is a complex ecosystem, the original collectors of data are likely unaware of eventual uses, users of data may be unaware of the original source. This project seeks to illuminate this ecosystem through a series of experiments by attempting to measure and perturb unseen data pools by selectively adding or retrieving information. Additionally, this project focuses on creating traps and triggers, artificial data that future data providers might employ, enabling discovery of new collection and use of data. Finally, simply researching the phenomenon is insufficient: a final critical factor is education and outreach, empowering the public with an understanding of these otherwise unseen programs. The philosophy of this project is simple: If these data pools affect our lives, we must know what they are and what they do. The technical focus of this project involves perturbing the data systems and soundly measuring the results. Some data brokers provide user access, allowing the direct validation of inferences. The project also involves creating ?personas?, artificial identities designed to leave traces in data pools. If a data broker purchases and acts on this data, this creates a causal link between data source and data consumer, allowing attribution of data flows within the data ecosystem. Other portions of the project involve purchasing data directly from brokers, evaluating the potential damage that such brokers may entail, and deliberately seeding multimedia content which includes various levels of identifiable information to detect when data brokers begin scraping these multimedia sources.