Flutterby™! : Metadata and NYC Taxi Cabs

Spying On Celebrities: NYC Taxi Metadata Exposes Celeb Locations And Strip Club Clients

Then, to illustrate the individualized surveillance power of the seemingly anonymous data, Anthony Tockar of Neustar Research cross-referenced the information with publicly available photos of the celebrities getting into cabs with identifiable license plates. That allowed Tockar to declare that Cooper's "cab took him to Greenwich Village, possibly to have dinner at Melibea, and that he paid $10.50, with no recorded tip." He also revealed that "Alba got into her taxi outside her hotel, the Trump SoHo, and somewhat surprisingly also did not add a tip to her $9 fare." (If Cooper or Alba tipped with cash, that might not show up on the records.)