{"id":73011,"date":"2022-07-14T11:38:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-14T15:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=73011"},"modified":"2022-07-27T13:54:47","modified_gmt":"2022-07-27T17:54:47","slug":"everything-is-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/everything-is-data\/","title":{"rendered":"Everything Is Data\u2014Even Your Body! Here’s Why"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What exactly is data? Can people and images be data?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Everybody Lies<\/em>, Seth Stephen-Davidowitz says that new technology is allowing us to turn more things into data. He further explains how bodies and images can now be used as data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keep reading to learn how everything is data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Unconventional Data Sources<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Though Stephens-Davidowitz specializes in using search records, text databases, and other similar types of data, he points out that there are new data sources that researchers have only recently started to tap. These data sources show that big data isn\u2019t just about bigger databases of traditional information\u2014it\u2019s also about how new technologies let us turn more things into data<\/strong> by making them easy to measure, collect, compile, and analyze. This means that everything is data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, Stephens-Davidowitz suggests that bodies can be data<\/strong>. He describes how consultant Jeff Seder helps buyers choose winning racehorses (Seder and his colleagues once advised a client to re-buy the horse he had just put up for auction\u2014that horse was American Pharaoh, who went on to win the Triple Crown). Seder\u2019s secret is that instead of looking at traditional horse judging factors like pedigree, he found anatomical factors (like left ventricle size) that correlate to race success. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Shortform note: Body-based data is now far more prevalent than in Stephens-Davidowitz\u2019s 2017 account. Whereas Seder\u2019s work required him to custom build a portable ultrasound machine to examine horses, wearable fitness trackers<\/a> and smart exercise equipment<\/a> now allow many users to turn their bodies into data daily. Privacy experts have raised concerns over this trend, pointing out that these kinds of fitness products can record your biometric data,  location, behavior patterns, and even your face and voice. In one notable case, maps based on Fitbit data revealed the location and layout of US military bases<\/a> around the world and even showed the identities and workout routes of individual soldiers.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stephens-Davidowitz also argues that images can be data. <\/strong>For example, he describes how a company called Premise uses smartphone photos of things like gas station lines or grocery store produce to make economic predictions that are better and timelier than any traditional measures. What both images and biometric data have in common is that they\u2019re easier to collect, compile, and study than ever before. Premise\u2019s work is possible only thanks to smartphones, which guarantee that many people have high-quality cameras on their person at all times and which make it easy to share photographic data to a main hub from anywhere in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Shortform note: Whereas Premise contributors collect image data deliberately, other sources of image data are less obvious\u2014and potentially more problematic. For example, Amazon\u2019s smart doorbell Ring has come under fire for sharing video information<\/a> with law enforcement without warrants. Similarly, a British judge recently ruled that a Ring doorbell violated a neighbor\u2019s privacy<\/a> due in part to its ability to record private conversations up to 68 feet away<\/a>.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What exactly is data? Can people and images be data? In Everybody Lies, Seth Stephen-Davidowitz says that new technology is allowing us to turn more things into data. He further explains how bodies and images can now be used as data. Keep reading to learn how everything is data.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":22431,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160,25],"tags":[691],"class_list":["post-73011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science","category-statistics","tag-everybody-lies","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"\nEverything Is Data\u2014Even Your Body! Here's Why - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Everything is data. From our bodies, smartphones, and images, anything can be analyzed for studies. Learn a few examples of interesting data.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/everything-is-data\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Everything Is Data\u2014Even Your Body! Here's Why\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Everything is data. From our bodies, smartphones, and images, anything can be analyzed for studies. Learn a few examples of interesting data.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/everything-is-data\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-07-14T15:38:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-07-27T17:54:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/surveillance-data-spy-intelligence.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1220\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"650\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Katie Doll\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Katie Doll\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/everything-is-data\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/everything-is-data\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Katie Doll\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/c3e1b539e89423b544ede91ab2bff937\"},\"headline\":\"Everything Is Data\u2014Even Your Body! Here’s Why\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-07-14T15:38:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-07-27T17:54:47+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/everything-is-data\/\"},\"wordCount\":507,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/everything-is-data\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/surveillance-data-spy-intelligence.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Everybody Lies\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Science\",\"Statistics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/everything-is-data\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/everything-is-data\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/everything-is-data\/\",\"name\":\"Everything Is Data\u2014Even Your Body! Here's Why - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/everything-is-data\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/everything-is-data\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/surveillance-data-spy-intelligence.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-07-14T15:38:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-07-27T17:54:47+00:00\",\"description\":\"Everything is data. From our bodies, smartphones, and images, anything can be analyzed for studies. Learn a few examples of interesting data.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/everything-is-data\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/everything-is-data\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/everything-is-data\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/surveillance-data-spy-intelligence.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/surveillance-data-spy-intelligence.jpg\",\"width\":1220,\"height\":650},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/everything-is-data\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Everything Is Data\u2014Even Your Body! Here’s Why\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"description\":\"The World's Best Book Summaries\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"width\":500,\"height\":74,\"caption\":\"Shortform Books\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/c3e1b539e89423b544ede91ab2bff937\",\"name\":\"Katie Doll\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6239731a3fc739640b80be30f2b1727a055d3535d0ee4569e8282faa323e47fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6239731a3fc739640b80be30f2b1727a055d3535d0ee4569e8282faa323e47fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Katie Doll\"},\"description\":\"Somehow, Katie was able to pull off her childhood dream of creating a career around books after graduating with a degree in English and a concentration in Creative Writing. Her preferred genre of books has changed drastically over the years, from fantasy\/dystopian young-adult to moving novels and non-fiction books on the human experience. Katie especially enjoys reading and writing about all things television, good and bad.\",\"knowsAbout\":[\"Bachelor of Arts in English With a Concentration in Creative Writing\"],\"jobTitle\":\"Senior SEO Writer\",\"worksFor\":\"Shortform\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/katie\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Everything Is Data\u2014Even Your Body! Here's Why - Shortform Books","description":"Everything is data. From our bodies, smartphones, and images, anything can be analyzed for studies. Learn a few examples of interesting data.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/everything-is-data\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Everything Is Data\u2014Even Your Body! Here's Why","og_description":"Everything is data. From our bodies, smartphones, and images, anything can be analyzed for studies. Learn a few examples of interesting data.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/everything-is-data\/","og_site_name":"Shortform Books","article_published_time":"2022-07-14T15:38:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-07-27T17:54:47+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1220,"height":650,"url":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/surveillance-data-spy-intelligence.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Katie Doll","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Katie Doll","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/everything-is-data\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/everything-is-data\/"},"author":{"name":"Katie Doll","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/c3e1b539e89423b544ede91ab2bff937"},"headline":"Everything Is Data\u2014Even Your Body! Here’s Why","datePublished":"2022-07-14T15:38:00+00:00","dateModified":"2022-07-27T17:54:47+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/everything-is-data\/"},"wordCount":507,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/everything-is-data\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/surveillance-data-spy-intelligence.jpg","keywords":["Everybody Lies"],"articleSection":["Science","Statistics"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/everything-is-data\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/everything-is-data\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/everything-is-data\/","name":"Everything Is Data\u2014Even Your Body! Here's Why - Shortform Books","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/everything-is-data\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/everything-is-data\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/surveillance-data-spy-intelligence.jpg","datePublished":"2022-07-14T15:38:00+00:00","dateModified":"2022-07-27T17:54:47+00:00","description":"Everything is data. From our bodies, smartphones, and images, anything can be analyzed for studies. Learn a few examples of interesting data.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/everything-is-data\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/everything-is-data\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/everything-is-data\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/surveillance-data-spy-intelligence.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/surveillance-data-spy-intelligence.jpg","width":1220,"height":650},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/everything-is-data\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Everything Is Data\u2014Even Your Body! Here’s Why"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","name":"Shortform Books","description":"The World's Best Book Summaries","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Shortform Books","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","width":500,"height":74,"caption":"Shortform Books"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/c3e1b539e89423b544ede91ab2bff937","name":"Katie Doll","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6239731a3fc739640b80be30f2b1727a055d3535d0ee4569e8282faa323e47fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6239731a3fc739640b80be30f2b1727a055d3535d0ee4569e8282faa323e47fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Katie Doll"},"description":"Somehow, Katie was able to pull off her childhood dream of creating a career around books after graduating with a degree in English and a concentration in Creative Writing. Her preferred genre of books has changed drastically over the years, from fantasy\/dystopian young-adult to moving novels and non-fiction books on the human experience. Katie especially enjoys reading and writing about all things television, good and bad.","knowsAbout":["Bachelor of Arts in English With a Concentration in Creative Writing"],"jobTitle":"Senior SEO Writer","worksFor":"Shortform","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/katie\/"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/surveillance-data-spy-intelligence.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73011"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73011\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73429,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73011\/revisions\/73429"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}