 Metadata is data about data, it's information about information, it's not the content of the information itself, it's information that tells you something about that content. If we're dealing with say a file, a word file or something like that or an image, then the metadata is actually contained within that object itself. So for instance, a geotagged image will contain the location, the coordinates as to where that image was taken. When we had the landline, the only metadata that was associated with it was the calling number and the receiving number. When you move to smartphones though, smartphones enable a whole lot of additional metadata to be transmitted. All of a sudden there's a whole lot of information about locations to where particular objects were created. There's information as to who wrote certain documents for police, law enforcement agencies. This increase in metadata is a definite plus. As to who can access this data and what they can see, it really depends on the actual type of metadata that we're talking about. Metadata associated with objects for instance, if you receive that object such as an image or a word file, then you can have a look at the properties associated with that and that will tell you metadata associated with that particular object. So for example, if you have a look at the properties associated with a word document, you'll see who wrote it, you'll see dates, you'll see hours spent preparing it and so on. Those are all examples of metadata associated with an object. Other forms of metadata, for example, those associated with lawful interception is much more tightly restricted. Punishments for illegal interception are quite severe. For that sort of metadata, it is meant to be purely for law enforcement agencies, intelligence agencies and so on. People who are authorised to access it. The other side of the coin of course is to do with privacy. There's a lot of consequences for the information that could be detected out there about the way you live your life. There's a lot of things that can be found out about people's interests, their relationships. Perhaps you should be wary of apps that ask you for additional information. Some apps will ask you to access your address book. The most important thing is to just be aware of how much information you can make available through your actions online.