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Cree.py takes ubiquitous computing to a new level of surveillance

April 17, 2011 Sorin Adam Matei

Debut of Creepy, edited by Russ Jones, 1963 — Image via Wikipedia

All your digital breadcrumbs in one place… A program aggregates all your location based information and plots it on a map.

A new software tool created by Greek programmer Yiannis Kakavas goes much farther in the shock category. Called “Creepy,” Kakavas’ tool makes it easy to gather all the location-based digital breadcrumbs that people leave online and plot them on a map. The map and associated time stamps make it easy to discern their routines — “It looks like Bob goes to this coffee shop every Friday morning around 10:30” — a tool of incalculable use to a would-be stalker. For Web users who loyally leave breadcrumbs everywhere (“Now at Whiskey Bar!” “Now at Park Diner,” “Finally home”) it’s
possible to recreate much of their daily lives using Creepy.

via Just how creepy is ‘Creepy’? A test-drive – The Red Tape Chronicles – msnbc.com.

Creepy Shows Just How Much Geolocation Data You Broadcast Online (makeuseof.com)
An App for Stalkers: “Creepy” Geo-Locates Based on Social Networking Activity (businessinsider.com)
Creepin’ made easy (constructdigitalamerica.wordpress.com)

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Sorin Adam Matei

Assistant Vice President for Partnerships in Strategic Defense Innnovation and Professor of Communication at Purdue University, Director of the FORCES initiative leads research teams that study the relationship between technological and social systems using big data, simulation, and mapping approaches. He published papers and articles in Journal of Communication, Communication Research, Information Society, National Interest, and Foreign Policy. He is the author or co-editor of several books. The most recent is Structural differentation in social media. He also co-edited Ethical Reasoning in Big Data,Transparency in social media and Roles, Trust, and Reputation in Social Media Knowledge Markets: Theory and Methods (Computational Social Sciences) , all three the product of the NSF funded KredibleNet project. Dr. Matei's teaching portfolio includes technology and strategy, online interaction, and digital media analytics classes. A former BBC World Service journalist, his contributions have been published in Esquire and several leading Romanian newspapers. In Romania, he is known for his books Boierii Mintii (The Mind Boyars), Idolii forului (Idols of the forum), and Idei de schimb (Spare ideas).

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