Accessing Your Private Knowledge. The Intensive and Typically Stunning Knowledge… | by Jeff Braun | Aug, 2023

I take advantage of an Apple Watch to trace well being and health information. That information is accessed individually from all different Apple information that you simply request from the final Apple web site. Due to this, I present two separate Apple entries within the above tables and talk about the Apple information in two subjects under.

The quantity and sort of knowledge you obtain will depend upon how extensively you have interaction with a specific firm. For instance, I take advantage of social media occasionally. The slightly modest quantity of knowledge I obtained from Fb is subsequently not shocking. In distinction, I take advantage of Apple services so much. I bought a broad vary and enormous quantity of knowledge from Apple.

Understand that you probably have a number of identities with an organization, you’ll have to request the information for every id. For instance, if Google is aware of you by one e-mail handle to your Google Play account and a distinct e-mail handle to your gmail account, you’ll have to do a knowledge request for every handle with a view to get a full image of the information Google shops about you.

Within the desk above I present hyperlinks that I used to request information from my goal corporations. The hyperlinks are present as of the publishing of this text however could change over time. Normally, you’ll find directions for requesting your information on the “Privateness”, “Privateness Rights” or related sounding hyperlinks on an organization’s residence web page. These hyperlinks steadily seem on the very backside of the house web page.

You normally must learn by means of documentation describing your privateness rights and seek for the “Accessing Your Knowledge”, “Exporting Your Knowledge”, “Knowledge Portability” or related subject to get a hyperlink to the precise web page for requesting your information.

Lastly, the method for requesting your information, the timeliness of the response and the standard of documentation you obtain explaining the information varies significantly from one firm to the subsequent. Be affected person and persevere. You can be rewarded with a wealth of knowledge and data very quickly.

My Knowledge Insights

Here’s a evaluate of the information information that I obtained from every firm together with a couple of observations after analyzing the extra fascinating information. I additionally level out some alternatives to do extra in-depth information evaluation and modelling with the information from these corporations.

Fb

My obtain from Fb included 51 .json information, excluding the quite a few .json information containing particular person message threads from my Fb Messenger account. Fb offers some high-level documentation for its information on the obtain web site.

Knowledge on my Fb login exercise, gadgets that I used to login, estimated geographic location of my logins, and related administrative-type information about my account actions seem throughout a number of information. Nothing in these information is especially fascinating, although I’ll say that the placement information appeared surprisingly correct, given it was was typically inferred from my IP handle on the time of the recorded exercise.

The actually fascinating information began to look in a file that tracked my off-Fb app and net exercise. I can see how the information in that file, coupled with the information that Fb already has from my Fb profile, paint a demographic image that lead to me being chosen as a goal by specific Fb advertisers. The off-Fb file begins to present you a way for a way the profiling and promoting course of works at Fb.

Let’s check out the file. It’s named:

“/apps_and_websites_off_of_facebook/your_off-facebook_activity.json”

It accommodates 1,860 data of actions I took on 441 completely different non-Fb web sites over the previous two years. Right here is an edited pattern of the web sites and motion sorts it data:

A number of expertise and journey associated websites rise to the highest of my off-Fb exercise listing. Now let’s have a look at my demographic profile.

The file named:

“ads_information/other_categories_used_to_reach_you.json”

accommodates an inventory of demographic classes that Fb has assigned to me based mostly, I assume, on my Fb profile information, my Fb pals, my exercise on Fb, and my off-Fb app and net exercise. Right here is an edited pattern of the demographic classes:

A lot of the classes above are based mostly on my profile, my machine utilization sample, and my pals. The “Frequent Vacationers” and “Frequent Worldwide Vacationers” classes come, I assume from my off-Fb net exercise. To date, this all checks out.

Lastly, there’s a file named:

“ads_information/advertisers_using_your_activity_or_information.json”

The “advertisers_using_your_activity_or_information” within the file title leads me to consider that Fb makes my information out there to its advertisers who in flip use it to focus on me with adverts by means of Fb. This file, then, lists these advertisers who displayed an advert to me, or who a minimum of thought of doing so based mostly on my information.

The file contained 1,366 completely different advertisers. Here’s a small pattern of these advertisers:

Journey websites, retailers, tech corporations, health facilities, automotive restore corporations, healthcare insurers, media corporations (who symbolize advertisers), and different corporations seem within the listing. It’s all kinds of organizations, however in lots of situations, I can see how they relate to me, my preferences and my habits.

Different information within the Fb obtain embrace Fb search historical past, search timestamps, and browser cookie information.

Google

Google’s export facility is cleverly named “Takeout”. The Takeout net web page lists all the assorted Google providers for which you’ll be able to request your information (gmail, YouTube, search, Nest, and so forth.) It additionally reveals the information out there for every service, and the export format for every file (json, HTML, or csv). More often than not, Google doesn’t provide you with a alternative of export format for particular person information.

Google does a good job of offering a high-level overview of the aim of every file. There may be, nonetheless, no documentation for particular person fields.

I obtained 94 information in my extract. As with Fb, there have been the traditional administrative information associated to machine info, account attributes, preferences, and login/entry information historical past.

One fascinating file is the one titled ‘…/Adverts/MyActivity.json’. It accommodates a historical past of adverts introduced to me on account of searches.

Some entries within the Adverts/MyActivity file have URLs containing a clickserve area for instance:

Per Google’s 360 ads website, these are adverts from an advert marketing campaign being performed by certainly one of Google’s advertisers, served to me on account of some click on exercise I did. The file doesn’t give any info on which motion I took that induced the advert to be served.

The ‘title’ column within the file distinguishes between websites “Visited” and subjects “Searched”. The “Visited” data all have “From Google Adverts” within the ‘particulars’ column (see instance above), main me to consider that Google served an advert to me in response to me having visited a specific web site.

The “Searched” data present websites I visited immediately (macys.com, yelp.com, and so forth.) The ‘particulars’ column reveals these websites whereas the ‘title’ column apparently reveals what I looked for on these separate websites. For instance,

One different file I discovered fascinating known as ‘…/My Exercise/Uncover/MyActivity.json’. It’s a historical past of the subject ideas that Google introduced to me by means of its “Uncover” function on the Google app (previously the Google Feed function — extra on Uncover here.) Uncover subjects are chosen based mostly in your net and app exercise, assuming you give Google permission to make use of your exercise to information Uncover subjects.

Although I don’t enable Uncover to make use of my net and app exercise, Uncover nonetheless introduced some subject ideas related to me. Right here is an edited pattern of the subjects introduced most steadily over a number of days:

We see right here the recurring themes of expertise and journey, together with a brand new theme we may even see within the Apple information — music!

Google contains in its obtain a number of information monitoring exercise historical past throughout Google’s services. For instance, I obtained historical past for my visits to the builders.google.com and cloud.google.com websites for coaching and documentation assets. No compelling insights got here from this information, however it did remind me of subjects I wished to revisit and research additional.

Different historic information within the extract included searches and actions carried out inside my gmail account; search requests for pictures; locations searched, instructions requested, and maps seen by means of the Google Maps app; searches carried out for movies on the internet (exterior of YouTube); searches performed on and watch historical past for YouTube; and contacts I retailer with Google, presumably in gmail.

In contrast to Fb, Google doesn’t present any info on a demographic profile that Google has constructed for me.

Observe that you could view your Google exercise information throughout its merchandise and apps by visiting myactivity.google.com:

Whilst you can not export the information from this web site, you possibly can browse the information, permitting you to get a way for the kind of information you might need to export by means of the Google Takeout web site.

Microsoft

Microsoft enables you to export a few of your information by means of the Microsoft Privacy Dashboard. For particular person Microsoft providers not out there on the Dashboard (for instance, MSDN, OneDrive, Microsoft 365, or Skype information) you need to use hyperlinks within the “The right way to entry and management your private information” part of Microsoft’s privacy statement page. The identical web page directs you to an online kind you possibly can submit in case you are in search of information that isn’t out there by any of the above strategies.

I selected to export all information out there by means of the Privateness Dashboard. This included looking historical past, search historical past, location exercise, music, TV and flicks historical past, and apps and repair utilization information. I additionally requested for an export of my Skype information. My export included 4 csv information, six json information, and 6 jpeg information.

No file documentation was included within the export and none was discovered on the Microsoft web site. The sphere names within the information are, nonetheless, pretty intuitive.

A number of fascinating observations from the Microsoft information:

The file ‘…MicrosoftSearchRequestsAndQuery.csv’ accommodates information from searches I carried out over the past 18 months together with search phrases and, apparently, the location that I clicked on, if any, from the search outcomes. It seems like the information was just for searches that I did by means of Bing or Home windows Search.

Primarily based on the information, it seems I clicked on a hyperlink within the search outcomes solely 40% of the time (347 out of 870 searches carried out.) From this, I assume that the searches for which I didn’t click on on a hyperlink had been both poorly crafted, returning off-topic outcomes, or I could have been in a position to get the reply I wished simply by studying the hyperlink previews within the search outcomes. I don’t recall having to steadily redo search phrases, and I do know I typically see the reply I would like proper in a hyperlink preview, since a lot of my searches are for reminders on coding syntax. Both method, I used to be a bit stunned on the 40% click-through charge. I’d have anticipated it to be a lot increased.

Not a lot fascinating was is within the Skype information. It contained the historical past of in-app message threads between me and different Skype assembly contributors. Additionally included had been .jpeg information with pictures of contributors from a couple of of my calls.

Apple Health

I needed to entry my Apple well being and health information individually from the opposite information that I exported from Apple. The well being and health information are accessed from the Well being app on the iPhone. You merely click on in your icon within the higher right-hand nook of the Well being app display. It takes you to a profile display and also you then the press on the Export All Well being Knowledge hyperlink on the backside of the display:

My well being export included slightly below 500 .gpx files totaling 102 meg. They comprise route info from my recorded exercises over the past a number of years. One other 48 information contained 5.3 meg of electrocardiogram information from self-tests that I carried out on my Apple Watch.

The file named ‘…/Apple/apple_health_export/export.xml’ accommodates the true fascinating information. For me, it’s 770 meg with 1,956,838 data masking a number of completely different well being and train measurements for about seven years. Among the exercise sorts measured are as follows:

Observe that the frequency at which Apple data information varies by exercise sort. For instance, Energetic Power Burned is recorded hourly whereas Stair Ascent Pace is recorded solely when going up stairs, resulting in the big distinction in statement counts between these two exercise sorts.

The information recorded for every statement embrace the date/time on which the statement was recorded, the beginning and finish dates/occasions of the exercise being measured, and the machine that recorded the exercise (iPhone or Apple Watch).

In his wonderful Medium article “Analyse Your Well being with Python and Apple Well being”, Alejandro Rodríguez offers the code that I used to parse the xml within the export.xml file and create a Pandas information body. (Thanks Alejandro!) After choosing a one 12 months subset of the information and grouping and aggregating it at day and exercise sort ranges, I found some fascinating issues.

As I suspected. my common exercise ranges had been completely different for days after I was travelling in comparison with days after I was in one of many cities I name residence (Austin or Chicago). To see this, I had to make use of the latitude and longitude information from the .gpx train route information talked about earlier. That allowed me to find out which of the routes had been in a house metropolis and which occurred whereas I used to be travelling. I then merged that location information with my exercise abstract information. This was then additional summarized by exercise sort and site (residence metropolis or travelling). Right here is the sample that merged:

Whereas in Chicago, I’m in an condo constructing with an elevator, so the large decline in common flights climbed was not a shock. What was shocking was the rise in exercise ranges for Chicago versus Austin. My train routine may be very related in each areas, but I do extra work in Chicago. I feel I can attribute this to the truth that I stroll to extra areas in Chicago, slightly than driving more often than not. Clearly, I must up the quantity that I train in Austin.

Recognizing tendencies just like the one above, which you can not see in the usual charts of the Apple Well being app, are a fantastic use for the well being information.

The information can also be nice for modeling, given it is vitally full and usually clear. Right here, for instance, is a time collection forecast of my train minutes based mostly on a one 12 months interval utilizing Fb’s Prophet mannequin:

Right here is similar forecast, however with annual seasonality enabled and weekly seasonality added manually based mostly on my location (Austin, Chicago or travelling):

The default weekly seasonality mannequin above (first plot) does a worse job of becoming the coaching information than the mannequin with customized seasonality phrases added (second plot). Nonetheless the default seasonality mannequin is much better (although nonetheless not nice) at predicting future values of train minutes. Evidently, hyperparameter tuning would assist enhance these outcomes.

That is only a pattern of the kind of modeling you possibly can experiment with utilizing your well being information. Do you need to strive utilizing very granular time-series information? Have a look at the exercise routes information. They’ve observations for every second of your recorded exercises with latitude, longitude, elevation and velocity fields.

Apple — Non-Health/Well being

You request a obtain of all of your non-fitness/well being information from Apple’s most important web site. For me, that amounted to 84 information, principally .csv and .json information together with a couple of .xml information. I additionally obtained a whole bunch of .vcf information, one for every of the contacts I’ve on my Apple gadgets, In complete, I downloaded 68meg of knowledge, excluding the .vcf information.

Apple stands out in that it offers complete documentation for every of the information information. It contains explanations of every area, although some definitions are extra useful than others. The documentation helped me interpret a couple of information information that appeared intriguing.

As with most different exports, Apple’s information included the traditional administrative information, together with issues comparable to my preferences for varied apps, login info and machine info. I didn’t discover something exceptional in these information.

There are a number of information associated to Apple Music, one of many providers to which I subscribe. Information with titles like:

• “…/Media_Services/Apple Music — Play Historical past Every day Tracks.csv”;
• “…/Media_Services/Apple Music — Lately Performed Tracks.csv’’; and,
• “…/Media_Services/Apple Music Play Exercise.csv”

comprise info comparable to:

• date and time a tune was performed;
• play period in milliseconds;
• how every play was ended (for instance, it reached the tip of the observe, or I skipped previous the tune);
• the variety of occasions the tune has been performed;
• the variety of occasions the tune was skipped;
• the tune title;
• the album title, if any;
• the tune’s style; and,
• the place the tune was performed from — my library, a playlist, or certainly one of Apple’s radio channels.

My information contained between 13,900 and 20,700 data relying on the aim of the file. The information lined practically seven years of tune performs.

Apple captures a range information on how tune performs are ended, most likely for functions of recommending different songs to me. Track play termination causes embrace:

For functions of the analyses I present under, I centered on the ‘NATURAL_END_OF_TRACK’, ‘TRACK_SKIPPED_FORWARDS’, and ‘MANUALLY_SELECTED_PLAYBACK_OF_A_DIFF_ITEM’ finish causes.

Typically I’ll repeat a tune that I like. One query I had was “Do I play favourite songs obsessively, over and over?”. I answered that query utilizing the Apple information:

The desk above summarizes the variety of occasions I’ve performed some favourite songs (‘Play Depend’) and the quantity days over which I performed the songs (‘Performed on Variety of Days’). It seems like I typically play a tune solely as soon as per day. Additionally, provided that the play depend is lower than the day depend for some songs, I need to skip some favorites if I’ve heard them too many occasions just lately or if the tune doesn’t match my temper on the time. So, no obsessive taking part in right here!

I additionally questioned if I favor sure kinds of songs on completely different days of the week, completely different occasions of the day, and even completely different months of the 12 months. My instinct says that I do. With the Apple information, it was straightforward to visualise the genres I performed at completely different occasions. Right here, for instance, are the genres I performed most steadily throughout every month of the 12 months:

I clearly favor rock songs, with various and pop music added for some occasional selection. July and August appear to be the months after I desire the variability.

That mentioned, I used to be stunned at simply how a lot rock I appear to play. Admittedly I like it. However I additionally consider I’ve fairly broad style in music.

So, I questioned the accuracy of the style assigned to the songs in Apple’s information. For one factor, 10,083 of the 22,313 tune performs in my file had no style assigned to them. Additionally, there seems to be lots of overlap within the genres assigned. For instance, “R&B/Soul”, “Soul and R&B”, “Soul”, and “R&B / Soul” are all genres assigned to completely different songs in my information. The totals within the chart above would definitely be completely different if I recast the genres of all songs to make use of a constant style naming scheme.

Reasonably than make investments the time to replace the genres, I made a decision on one other check to find out if the tendencies within the chart actually symbolize my taking part in patterns. Since Apple contains tune play ending causes within the information, I appeared to see if I are likely to skip previous rock songs extra steadily than different genres, indicating that I attempt to play different genres when too many rock songs are being performed.

Because it seems, I don’t skip previous rock songs considerably greater than I skip previous different genres that I hearken to steadily. I’ll must face it — I’m a die-hard rock fan.

One other fascinating file known as “…/Media_Services/Shops Exercise/Different Exercise/App Retailer Click on Exercise.csv”. Whereas I don’t analyze it right here, I like to recommend it to anybody who needs to get a way for the kind of information a retailer could need to observe for exercise on their web site. For me, it included 4,900+ data with detailed historical past of my exercise whereas within the app retailer and, apparently, in Apple music. Sorts of actions I took, dates/occasions, A/B check flag, search phrases, and information introduced to me (“impressed” is the time period used) are among the many objects included within the file.

One final doubtlessly fascinating file for evaluation known as Media_ServicesShops ExerciseDifferent ExerciseApple Music Click on Exercise V3.csv. It contains town and longitude/latitude of the IP handle the place, I assume, I used to be utilizing Apple Music. For me, the file had 10,000 data.

Verizon

After an extended 80+ day wait, Verizon notified me I may obtain my information. It included 17 csv information for a complete of 1.4 meg of knowledge. A lot of the information lined account administrative info (cell line descriptions, machine info, billing historical past, order historical past, and so forth.), the historical past of notifications that Verizon despatched to me, and my latest texting historical past (however with out textual content contents). Although Name Historical past and Knowledge Utilization information had been supplied, they had been empty aside from a notation that the information was “Masked for safety”.

Verizon supplied two documentation information. One contained the names and common descriptions of 34 doable information that might be included in a obtain. The information included depend upon the Verizon providers you employ. The second documentation file contained an outline of three,091 information fields that might seem within the information. Whereas the information area descriptions are useful, they lack some element. For instance, lots of fields are described as containing codes for varied functions, nonetheless the codes themselves and their meanings are usually not described.

One file that was extraordinarily fascinating known as “…/Verizon/Basic Inferences.csv”. It accommodates a spectacular quantity of demographic details about me and about different folks in my family. Right here is how Verizon’s documentation describes the file:

“The Basic Inferences file offers info common assumptions and inferences to ship extra relatable and related content material throughout our platforms. This may occasionally embrace info like Attributes, Preferences, or Opinions.”

Primarily based on the character of the demographic options, I assume most of it was acquired by Verizon from exterior information aggregators and never gathered by Verizon immediately from me. The quantity and scope of demographic options far exceed any info that I ever supplied on to Verizon.

In reality, the Verizon documentation speaks about one other file known as the “Basic” info file (not included in my obtain). The documentation says the “Basic” file contains information that got here from exterior info sources. My guess is the data within the “Basic Inferences” file additionally comes from these exterior sources. Among the monetary information within the “Basic Inferences” file may have come from the credit score report that Verizon requires its prospects to supply.

A complete of 332 demographic options had been included in my Basic Inferences information. Right here is an abridged listing together with a number of the extra shocking options:

The entire Basic Inferences options are apparently utilized by Verizon to market to me and retain me as a buyer. As you possibly can see within the above listing, options about my partner and our kids are additionally included. You possibly can see the whole listing of 332 options here.

A number of of the options that I discovered to be actually uncommon embrace:

One has to marvel if these kinds of information parts are actually wanted by Verizon to assist it present service to me and, if that’s the case, how Verizon makes use of them.

Amazon

Amazon supplied 214 information containing 4.93 meg of knowledge. A number of of the information lined:

• Account preferences;
• Order historical past;
• Success and returns historical past;
• Viewing and listening historical past (Amazon Prime Video and Amazon Music);
• Kindle purchases and studying exercise,
• and search historical past together with search phrases.

If I used to be an Alexa buyer or a Ring buyer, I assume I’d have obtained information for my exercise on these providers as effectively.

Six .txt information contained high-level descriptions of some of the downloaded information information. A number of .pdf information comprise documentation for fields within the downloaded information (the “Digital.PrimeVideo.Viewinghistory.Description.pdf” file, for instance).

Probably the most fascinating information from Amazon pertain to the advertising and marketing audiences related to me by Amazon, it advertisers, or “third events”. I presume the third events are information distributors from whom Amazon purchases information.

The “…/Amazon/Promoting.1/Promoting.AmazonAudiences.csv” file accommodates the audiences that Amazon itself assigned me to. Here’s a pattern of the 21 audiences:

Amazon’s personal viewers assignments are largely correct after I contemplate merchandise that I bought or looked for, both for myself or on behalf of others.

The “…/Amazon/Promoting.1/Promoting.AdvertiserAudiences.csv” file apparently accommodates an inventory of Amazon advertisers who introduced their very own audiences to Amazon and whose viewers lists included me. The file accommodates 50 advertisers. Here’s a pattern:

I do enterprise with or personal merchandise from a number of the advertisers within the listing (for instance, Delta, Intuit, Zipcar) so I perceive how I ended up on their viewers lists. I’ve no reference to others on the listing (for instance, AT&T, Crimson Bull, Royal Financial institution of Canada) so I’m not positive how I bought of their viewers lists.

Based on Amazon, the file

“…/Amazon/Promoting.1/Promoting.3PAudiences.csv”

accommodates an inventory of

“Audiences by which you might be included by third events”.

Its accuracy is poor. A complete of 33 audiences are listed, 28 of which centered on car possession. The remaining 4 lined gender, schooling stage, marital standing and dependents. A pattern of the automobile-related audiences:

Whereas the gender/schooling stage/marital standing -type assignments within the file are correct, just a few of the automobile-related assignments in it are right. Most are usually not. And, I’m simply not that fascinated by vehicles to warrant 28 of 33 profile assignments. Mercifully, Amazon appears to disregard this information when it presents product or video suggestions to me.

Parting Ideas

On this article, I hoped to point out you the wide range of knowledge you may get from corporations with whom you do enterprise. The information permits you to study what these corporations take into consideration you whereas additionally studying some shocking issues about your self!

We’ve seen that some corporations appropriately determine my pursuits in expertise and travelling, whereas one firm incorrectly sees me as an avid car fanatic. In an eye-opening and considerably unnerving second, I noticed one other firm has in depth demographic details about my household.

I realized I would like to extend my exercise regime in one of many two locations I name residence, regardless that I assumed my exercises had been equal in each locations. I discovered that some corporations (fb, Google) do not need a powerful view of my profile. But the demographic image that Verizon has of me is shockingly correct.

The information the assorted corporations provide you with provide a wealthy supply of uncooked materials for experimentation. It’s information that’s vulnerable to deep evaluation, modelling and visualization actions. For instance, geographic coordinates and timestamps can be found for a lot of observations, permitting you to visualise or mannequin your actions.

I hope you discover your individual set of fascinating insights by downloading your private information. Please let me know you probably have noteworthy experiences in working with corporations aside from these I cowl right here.

It’s your information — Now go for it!