That’s just so meta: Data about data
Posted on March 27, 2015
“Sir, I think you should see this.” Imagine an 18th Century sorting office, musty and dusty with leather-bound ledgers in which were meticulously scratched with quill and ink the dates, senders, and receivers of letters. Mr Braithwaite has discerned a pattern in the correspondence of Ms Catherine Mossday. Today, she wrote to her dressmaker, a florist, and her sister, as well as four times to Mr Brown of Dover Place, Kent Road. Lord Mossday also wrote to Mr Brown, and sent a telegram to The Times. “I think an engagement is set to be announced, sir.” “Excellent work, Braithwaite. Send Mr Brown our list of jewellers, Lord Mossday reviews of banqueting halls, and Ms Mossday that wedding fair pamphlet.”
It has always been possible to record data about how people communicate, but it used to be a bit slower. On the positive side, it was also safer. It is illegal in the US and A to open letter post, or snail mail as they call it. Enacted in 1948, Title 18 of the United States Code provides for a fine or imprisonment for anyone seeking to “pry into the business or secrets of another” by opening a letter, postal card, or package not addressed to them. The same provision does not apply to email, text messages, interweb chat-rooms, and, presumably, blog posts. That means there’s a bot somewhere reading this post about bots reading post. That’s so meta.
<<<Read on>>> http://bit.ly/1FYU1Rm
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