A communication doesn’t simply transfer information. The act of communicating also creates information–masses of it. An American post-mark on a letter used to identify the post office from which you mailed the letter; it rarely does that any more, but the electronic trail of your emails identifies your location and the machine from which it was sent with precision. The wording of your emails also creates patterns, and now that your wording is expressed electronically, those patterns can be analyzed to determine your interests and identity. Those ubiquitous “like” buttons that you probably click on compulsively–they’re invitations to give away information about yourself. They mark you as a member of the swarming hive. Your behavior creates electronic communications, just as your list of “friends” tells advertisers who influences you. All that information is stored in many places. When you get on the bus or subway using an electronic pass, or pay an electronic toll, change the TV channel, or pay for groceries or coffee electronically, you leave a data trail of where you’ve been, what you eat, what you’re doing, and where you are. You generate data as you drive past a traffic camera, enter the elevator at work using an electronic pass, pay the rent or mortgage, buy a shirt or cup of coffee with a credit card, and make a hotel or airline reservation. As I have explained elsewhere, as a result of these choices, data now comes to us unbidden based on what we bought last time, who our friends are, our income level, and where we live. But those choices represent only the communications we are aware of. Your phone communicates with several cells towers every few seconds, and probably also with several GPS satellites, even when you’re not using it. It knows where you are. Why? Because your phone carrier can’t send you calls if it doesn’t know where you are. And because the mapping service, the restaurant finder, the car service, and lots of other apps you installed and demanded rely on location to give you the information you ask them for.
