The first time I heard the term metadata was on the news about Edward Snowden. After hearing the news about the NSA and their machines collecting metadata, I started hearing the word everywhere. But I still did not know what it meant and why data about data was so important. And if you knew me, you will find that I am not a very tech savvy person. I, therefore, sought out the introduction to metadata by Anne J. Gilliland and an article about Edward Snowden entitled, “Can Snowden finally kill the ‘harmless metadata’ myth?” by Stilgherrian to see if we really need to be concerned about metadata. I found out from the introduction to metadata that it is used “to arrange, describe, track, and otherwise enhance access to information objects and the physical collections related to those objects.” And, according to Gililand, that it is a term used by “cultural heritage information professionals such as museum registrars, library catalogers, and archival processors”. I supposed that the catalog number on books in the library would be considered metadata. Another example I could find in my everyday life was the terminology for rules in my Latin textbook. We use these terminologies to quickly identify a word and see its grammatical function. It seems that it was no incident that one of the first works of Digital Humanities was on Thomas Aquinas. Now that I have some idea about metadata, I still did not know why people should really be concerned that their metadata is exploited online. After all, the purpose of the internet is to share information.
I then found an article about Edward Snowden where he is quoted as saying that “Metadata is extraordinarily intrusive. As an analyst, I would prefer to be looking at metadata than looking at content, because it’s quicker and easier, and it doesn’t lie.” This quote means that the metadata on the internet is more valuable than its content. Metadata can be “traced” from the content put on the internet. This is why Snowden calls it “intrusive.” I assume that the system that the government use to track metadata is sophisticated enough to trace metadata from all sorts of contents. From Gililand’s article we can understand the practical application of metadata and, it seems, the same application is being applied to people. Should we then care that our metadata is being collected by the government?
Work Cited:
Stilgherrian. “Can Snowden Finally Kill the Harmless Metadata Myth?” ZDNET. 16 Sept. 2014. Web. 13 Oct. 14. http://www.zdnet.com/can-snowden-finally-kill-the-harmless-metadata-myth-7000033717/
Gilliland, Anne J. “Setting the Stage”. The Getty Research Institute. Introduction to Metadata. Web. 13 Oct. 14 http://www.getty.edu/research/publications/electronic_publications/intrometadata/setting.html