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Rosetta Mission Set To Attempt Landing On Comet; President Obama Touches Down In Myanmar; Doctor Under Investigation After Series of Deaths Following Sterilization Procedure In India; The Secretive World Of Big Data Collection

Aired November 12, 2014 - 8:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


KRISTIE LU STOUT, HOST: I'm Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong and welcome to News Stream where news and technology meet.

Now high hopes and long odds -- we'll heck on the first ever mission to land on a comet.

Plus, a landmark deal on climate change. The world's two largest economies agree to curb carbon emissions.

And the plight of Myanmar's Muslim Rohingya. Can the U.S. president help end persecution of this minority group?

Tens years in the making and only one shot to get it right. And that shot is now.

Now the success of the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission boils down to the next few hours. It's attempting to land its Philae probe on a

fast-moving comet, the equivalent of transferring an object between two speeding bullets.

Needless to say, precision here is key.

Now if successful it could provide scientists with unprecedented insight into how our solar system was formed more than four-and-a-half

billion years ago.

Now for more, CNN's Fred Pleitgen joins us now from the European space operation center in Darmstadt, Germany. And Fred, what are the chances

here of a successful landing?

FRED PLEITGEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think the folks here, Kristie, are hoping for a very successful landing. They hope

that their calculations are correct. And I have Claudia Alexander here with me from NASA. What do you think the chances are of this thing making

a successful landing?

CLAUDIA ALEXANDER, NASA: I think we have a good chance now, but I'm a little worried about the cliffs that are at the end of the landing...

PLEITGEN: Let's go through this, because we do have a little model of the comet. And we have a model of the lander. So let's walk me through

the landing. This thing goes down very slow, because it weighs 100 kilograms on Earth, but only one gram in space.

ALEXANDER: That's correct. And it's dropping slower than we would walk. It's doing about two miles per hour. We walk about five miles per

hour. So, it's going down very slowly. It's almost like dropping a piece of paper in our -- on Earth.

And as it goes down, that would be a very successful landing. That would be fantastic, OK.

But what we -- if you look at the pictures of what the circle of possibilities for where we land, there's a cliff on one side, OK. We

prefer not to hit the cliff. And then this possibly the material is very dusty and we could sink in even up to half a meter.

PLEITGEN: So the worst possibility would be if this thing topples over and falls down, then we're in big trouble, or if it sinks in so far

that it can't do anything anymore.

ALEXANDER: I think the worst possibility is if we hit the cliff and somehow break, if we actually topple over I think we can still operate some

of the experiments -- the concert experiment, for example, which is sending signals to the orbiter and the radio signals have to pass through. As long

as we can keep generating those radio signals, we're good. There's some experiments that can still go.

If we sink in, some of the experiments can still go, especially what we want is to be able to touch down. The fact of touching down is partly

what will -- is an experiment in and of itself. It tells us a little bit about the hardness of this material that is the comet.

To our eye it looks -- we interpret it the way -- those pictures the way we do on terrestrial terrain. We say, oh, sand, cliff, boulders, but

the boulders could have the consistency of a sugar cube, you know, one of those sugary things...

PLEITGEN: What are we trying to find out from this thing? Because I keep hearing this could hold clues as to how life started on Earth.

ALEXANDER: Correct. On the surface some of this could have chemistry going on as it's bombarded in deep space, not close to the sun, but deep

space. We have cosmic rays, we have ultraviolet light, we have various kinds of energy that could take molecules that are coming out or on the

surface and make them longer.

And so we wonder if it actually requires the keep environment of deep space, and then the seeding, of bringing that into the inner solar system

that that's how you get the long complicated hydrocarbon chains that life is...

PLEITGEN: So to put it in simple terms, there are people who believe that about 3.5 billion years ago a comet like this would have hit the

earth, the ice melted, turned into water, the molecules inside the ice, the sort of magnesium and stuff that's in there hit by he sun and then turned

into life, is that sort of correct?

ALEXANDER: Oh, well, no. That's -- you know, what you're looking for are how do we cook what goes into a cell, for example, are very complicated

DNA and RNA. You know, you've seen the twisty, the twists. And those are very, very complicated chains of molecules. It's not a simple, like a

water molecule is just three atoms.

So how do you -- so what we want to know is, is that what the comet is bringing to us, these long very, very complicated -- the complexity of what

the molecules are, that's hat we think happens in space.

PLEITGEN: Which could have led to life on earth, those...

ALEXANDER: Exactly.

PLEITGEN: How confident are you?

ALEXANDER: That we're going to actually -- now I'm much more confident than I was this morning. I think that we're going to land, I

don't think we're going to topple over, but I think we're going to sink in.

PLEITGEN: OK.

Thank you very much. All the best. I'd wish you a lot of luck, but you don't need luck, you just need success because everything is going to

plan.

ALEXANDER: Thank you.

PLEITGEN: Thank you very much. Kristie, back to you.

LU STOUT: You know, it's great to hear that they're getting much more confident about the mission. Here is wishing her and the entire team the

very best for a successful landing. Fred Pleitgen reporting live for us from European space operations headquarters, thank you, Fred.

Now to give you an idea of how large the comet is, the ESA created this image. It shows its size in relation to the city of Paris. Now the

comet spans just over four kilometers, the equivalent of the Arc de Triomphe to the Louvre.

And then that got us wondering, I mean what would the comet look like here in Hong Kong? Now for a small island, the comet, it takes up quite a

chunk of space stretching all the way across Victoria Harbor, or if you're riding the subway here, it would be four stops.

Now, the Rosetta orbiter has traveled some 6 billion kilometers, looping the Earth three times in order to line up just right with the

comet. And to find out what makes comets so unique, just head to the special edition of our website, CNN.com/special/artofmovement. And if

you're anxious for more updates, you could check out our Twitter feed @CNNLightYears for the very latest.

You're watching News Stream. Still to come, Barack Obama is on his second trip to Myanmar, but it's a much different country than the one he

saw two years ago. We'll take you there live.

Plus, the U.S. and China has struck a deal. And it's one environmentalists say will benefit more than just those two powerhouses.

Also, India's mass sterilization deaths. Why a surgeon says government officials are to blame.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: All right. Welcome back. You're watching News Stream. You're looking at a visual version of all the stories we've got in the show

today.

Now we've already told you how we're watching the final countdown toward mankind's first ever landing on the surface of a comet.

And later on, we'll tell you about an important agreement to fight climate change. It was reached by the leaders of China and the United

States.

But now U.S. President Barack Obama has just landed in Myanmar for another summit. We'll bring up live pictures for you right here.

Now U.S. President Barack Obama, Airforce One has just touched down, just arrived in Myanmar on the tarmac, and this is on the second stop of

his Asian tour.

You're looking at live pictures of the president touching down in the capital of Myanmar, Naypyidaw after flying in from the APEC summit in

Beijing.

Now this trip to Myanmar, it is his second trip there. He was there two years ago. And this time around, political reform and human rights are

both expected to be on the agenda.

Now Myanmar is hosing world and regional leaders at the East Asia and Asean summits this week. And U.S. President Barack Obama, he left Beijing

earlier, headed for the capital of Myanmar, Naypyidaw. Again, this is his second trip to Myanmar. And he is expected to check in on the pace of

political reform in the country as well as its human rights record and its treatment of ethnic minorities such as the Rohingya.

Now on Mr. Obamas first visit two years ago in 2012, there was that democratic transition that was underway. It took place after decades of

authoritarian rule in the country.

But progress has been slow. There was a lot of hope for a major political transformation in the country, but the pace of reform has not

been fast enough. And Myanmar has also been shaken by ongoing ethnic violence throughout the country.

Live pictures there on the tarmac. They are in Naypyidaw in Myanmar. Airforce One has just touched down. The U.S. President Obama has arrived

in Myanmar.

Let's bring out our Ivan Watson who is on the ground there in Myanmar. And Ivan, as Mr. Obama just touched down. He's there in Myanmar, what more

have your learned about his agenda and also how the country treats the Muslim minority group the Rohingya?

IVAN WATSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, when he first visited here two years ago, he said that he's first American president to

ever come to Myanmar. It's after the military junta that had ruled this country so strictly and repressively stepped down and was paving the way

for what are supposed to be democratic elections to take place next year.

But as we found when we traveled west to Myanmar's Rakine State, there is a terrible situation there of sectarian and ethnic conflict that human

rights observers have argued and accused, basically, the current government of carrying out a policy of ethnic cleansing of the country's Rohingya

Muslim minority.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WATSON: At a little fishing port in western Myanmar, it's boat building season. Carpenters say fishing boats like this are used for a

booming business, smuggling members of Myanmar's long persecuted Rohingya minority out to sea.

50 people in a boat like this?

Part of a dangerous, illegal voyage to leave Myanmar in hopes of finding a better life somewhere else.

The Rohingya are Muslims, a minority who are linguistically and ethnically different from the rest of the population in this overwhelmingly

Buddhist country.

The Myanmar government refuses to recognize the name Rohingya even exists.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rohingya doesn't exist, never existed. Rohingya never existed in our history and history of the world Rohingya has never

existed.

WATSON: Uttan Tan (ph) works in a government agency that oversees aid distribution to the poor. He calls Myanmar's 1.3 million Rohingya illegal

immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh and he wants to expel most of them from the country.

UNIDENTIIFED MALE: That is our reality. We want to expel the Bengali from this land.

WATSON: Simmering tension between Rohingya and the larger Buddhist community in Myanmar's Rakine State exploded in June of 2012, killing

hundreds of people and leaving thousands of homes burnt to the ground.

Well, over 100,000 displaced Rohingya now live in camps like this. These men say they fled their burning homes two years ago with only the

clothes on their backs.

"If I try to go back to where my house was," Noor Bashir (ph) tell me. "The people there will kill me."

Not that he has much of a choice.

This is pretty much the last stop if you're a Rohingya. As you can see this police checkpoint and people here are not allowed to go any

further unless you happen to be a foreigner like myself or a member of another ethnic group here in Myanmar, then the road is open.

The government severely restricts the movement of Rohingya, confining them to enclaves that some critics have described as internment camps.

In the provincial capital where Rohingya's used to live side by side with the rest of the population, you can't find a single Rohingya on the

street. Rohingya aren't allowed to come here for work, health care or ever school.

Human rights groups accuse Myanmar of ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya, charges the Myanmar government denies. But government policies

have left a million Rohingya stateless with little hope for a future for younger generations.

At a clinic for displaced Rohingya, this mother says her newborn twins still haven't gotten birth certificates. Neither she nor the medics here

know if they ever will.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WATSON: Now, Kristie, in the two years since President Obama last visited Myanmar, there have been changes, but as in his own words, as he's

put it, there have been some slow down in the reforms and even some steps backwards, and not only regarding to the plate of the Rohingya whose

numbers again of boat people, of people seeking to escape this country by boat, have spiked according to human rights monitors within just the last

couple of weeks.

But also in other areas. For example, calls for reform of the constitution by the junta that governed this country written in 2008. They

have not happened.

The chief opposition leader on this country, Aung San Suu Kyi who lived under house arrest for so many years who received the Nobel Peace

Prize. She is barred, basically, from running for the office of president in the elections next year because of a law from this constitution that

says that anybody who had a foreign spouse could not run for office, who holds a foreign passport.

There have also been, as the U.S. government has warned, some limitations on freedoms of the press, some attacks on journalists here,

including one journalist who was killed within the last couple of months, signs of concern again that led to the U.S. president saying that there

have been some steps backwards that he's -- will certainly be bringing up when he meets with the Myanmar President on the sidelines of this

international summit tomorrow -- Kristie.

LU STOUT: All right, CNN's Ivan Watson reporting live from Naypyidaw. And we saw just there on our screens live pictures there from the tarmac

there in Naypyidaw, Myanmar Airforce One touching down. The U.S. president exiting the plane.

Now it has been two years since President Obama last visited Myanmar. And since then, the plight of the Rohingya minority, it continues to raise

some serious human rights concerns.

Now earlier, I spoke with Aung Zaw. Now he is the founder of he's the editor of Irrawaddy Magazine. And I began by asking him about the current

mood in Myanmar.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AUNG ZAW, FOUNDER & EDITOR, IRRAWADDY MAGAZINE: I think reality on the ground is very disappointing and very depressing at the moment.

I was in Burma last month until last week. I talked to a lot of people, dissidents, government officials, businessmen and activists and the

former political prisoners. The hope and optimism that we had in 2012 has gone.

But they are worried that there's a serious backsliding and the reform process in government has been stopped. That's our impression in

Burma.

LU STOUT: Does the U.S. President Barack Obama have the leverage or the power needed to somehow accelerate the democratic process in Myanmar?

ZAW: I think the visit from 2012 and the visit here now, Obama is going to Burma today is going very different. He received a Hollywood

style treatment in 2012. But this time will be very different because of opposition has become very critical and they want the U.S. to engage very

firmly.

So, I think Obama has to carry the message to the government that reform must continue.

LU STOUT: And how high are expectations this time around that President Obama will bring up the plight of the persecuted Muslim minority

group the Rohingya?

ZAW: Well, I think the problem is not just Rohingya alone. Let me sum up a little bit.

There are ongoing human rights violations at the (inaudible). And there are more arrests because of that. And there are more political

prisoners put into prison.

This issue is going to be our big challenge for President Obama and also for the Burmese government, because there has been ongoing serious

violations against one particular Muslim ethnic groups in our country.

So this issue has to be tackled very seriously, because there's ongoing segregation and separation -- segregation and separation and

systematic human rights violations going on in this area.

LU STOUT: And what about putting pressure on Aung San Suu Kyi? The United States has openly supporter her and her opposition movement over the

years. She had also addressed her lack of action when it comes to the treatment of these persecuted ethnic minority groups in Myanmar.

ZAW: I think silence from Aung San Suu Kyi also is quite appalling. I think Aung San Suu Kyi has to face the music because a lot of people

inside the country are very disappointed with her inaction. And also she has very little once she is in the parliament. And this is -- she's a

chairwoman of the Rule of Law committee but there is little implementation achievements she has done so far.

So I can see that also in the country. When you go there, she has been an icon, hugely respected and very popular. At the same time, people

are beginning to question her leadership because she is (inaudible) continue human rights violence and the opposition and the loss of message,

a loss of a duration of her leadership also being questioned at the moment.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: And that was Aung Zaw, the founder and editor of Irrawaddy magazine speaking to me earlier.

Now coming up next, a significant boost in the fight against climate change. The world's two biggest economies joining hands to cut carbon

emissions.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: Coming to you live from Hong Kong. Welcome back to News Stream.

Now the APEC summit just wrapped up earlier today with a rare scene, a joint news conference with U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese

President Xi Jinping.

Now they announced an unexpected and significant climate change deal and the surprise move comes from the world's biggest economies who also

happen to be the world's biggest polluters. Now CNN's Jim Acosta reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In a deal forged by the world's two largest economies, and its biggest polluters, to combat climate

change, President Obama and Chinese President Xi unveiled an aggressive plan to cut greenhouse gases.

OBAMA: This is an ambitious goal, but it is an achievable goal.

ACOSTA: Under the agreement, the U.S. would cut nearly one-third of its carbon emission levels set in 2005 by the year 2025. China would have

until 2030 to level off its emissions.

The climate accord may be the boldest sign yet of the president's determination to bolster U.S. ties with China at a time when he's butting

heads with Russia's Vladimir Putin.

OBAMA: The United States welcomes the continuing rise of a China that is peaceful, prosperous and stable.

ACOSTA: Then, Mr. Obama and Xi went on to take questions. One from an American journalist, a rare occurrence on Chinese soil.

In a moment of high drama, the Chinese president initially appeared to ignore the question from "New York Times" reporter Mark Landler on press

access in China, leaving Mr. Obama looking astonished.

But then Xi conceded his country's human rights record was not perfect. "China has made enormous progress on its human rights, and that is

a fact," Xi said. "On the question of China's human rights, we should never consider our work to be mission accomplished."

Xi eventually answered Landler's question, blaming "The New York Times" for its own access problems in China. The party that has created the

problem, Xi said, should be the one to resolve it.

White House officials breathed a sigh of relief. After working for weeks to convince skeptical Chinese officials to hold a news conference, it

was a diplomatic victory.

Before leaving Beijing, Mr. Obama toasted Xi for China's efforts to help fight Ebola in West Africa. Xi offered some praise of his own, saying

the U.S./China relationship had reached a new starting point.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: And that was Jim Acosta reporting there.

And still to come right here on News Stream, India's sterilization campaign takes a tragic turn. The women killed and injured while

undergoing procedures at a government hospital.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: I'm Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong, you're watching News Stream and these are your world headlines.

An anxious wait is underway for the European Space Agency, a small probe from its Rosetta spacecraft is about to attempt the first ever

landing on the surface of a comet. Now touchdown is expected in about two- and-a-half hours. The Philae lander could provide critical data about our solar system if all goes as planned.

Now U.S. President Barack Obama has arrived in Myanmar. And during the visit, he will meet with the country's leaders and Nobel Laureate

turned politician Aung San Suu Kyi. Now the president is in Myanmar, and along with other leaders for the Asean and East Asia summits.

NATO says Russian tanks, artillery and combat troops have been seen entering eastern Ukraine in the past two days. Now the report comes

despite a cease-fire, which may be collapsing giving these reports of ongoing fighting. Now much of it has been happening in the rebel held city

of Donetsk.

Protesters in Mexico torched the headquarters of the regional ruling party in Guerrero State. Now outrage has intensified since authorities say

they believe 43 missing college students were kidnapped, killed and dumped in a river.

Now let's turn to India and update you on the story of a controversial government sponsored sterilization drive. It has killed nearly a dozen

women and left more than 60 others hospitalized.

Now the doctor who performed the surgeries is blaming expired medication provided by local officials.

Now they surgery, it was performed in Belaspur district more than 1,100 kilometers south of New Delhi.

And our Sumnima Udas, she has just traveled from the capital to Bolaspur. And she has been tracking down the developments for us from the

ground. Let's bring her in now.

And Sumnima, are you getting any closer to finding out what happened, what caused the deaths of these women?

SUMNIMA UDAS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Kristie, still no concrete answers, actually, because until we have those autopsy reports,

which I expected to come out today, but now officials are saying they might have something by tomorrow. So a lot of the doctors here are not actually

talking about what exactly they think might have happened.

But we're standing outside the main government hospital here. And as you can see, there's still a lot of activity, because a lot of the women

who were kept in other smaller hospitals in the district are also now being brought here. So the top doctors from Delhi are also here to oversee this

whole process, this treatment.

So, a lot of activity, but again none of the doctors are actually going into details on what they think might have happened.

They do say it appears to be negligence on the part of the doctor. The victims we've been talking to, some of the survivors, they say that

they actually after the surgery, they also took some pain killers and antibiotics and about a day later, they started fainting, some of them

started feeling very dizzy, some of them started vomiting. So it's still unclear as to whether this is a result of that surgery or the medication

that they were provided with after the surgery. So, again, they're still looking into it.

But again this appeared to be negligence, because according to government guidelines a medical team could only perform 30 surgeries, a

maximum of 30 surgeries a day. In this case, one doctor and some of his assistants performed more than 80 surgeries in six hours. That means about

a 4 minutes to a patient. So clearly something wrong there.

Now we've been talking to the doctor all day to ask about this. He says he followed all the safety precautions. He's done nothing wrong.

He's been doing this for the past 27 years. He's a very experienced doctor. He's performed about 50,000 of this tubectomies so he says he's

done nothing differently this time, nothing wrong.

Of course he's under investigation right now.

But he did say that he's under a lot of pressure from local governments, health officials to perform as many of these surgeries as

possible -- Kristie.

LU STOUT: And Sumnima, let's go into the perspective of these women. When a woman in rural India goes to one of these government-run mobile

clinics to be sterilized, what does she experience? What kind of care, what kind of treatment does she get?

UDAS: It depends state to state, village to village. We were actually at the campsite where these -- this surgery took place. It was a

-- it's a vacant hospital actually, it's been vacant for the past seven months -- seven months or so. But the caretaker said that actually in the

-- they've been having these surgeries there twice a month. It's, again, an open room. They blocked it off right now, they sealed it off, because

an investigation is underway.

But again they've just been using these empty spaces to do these surgeries. The caretaker said what he saw that day was all these women

lined up and after the surgery is just lying out on the ground to recover for themselves, to fend for themselves with nothing really there for them,

except for maybe some of them had mattresses. He said most of them didn't even have that.

So, those are the conditions we're talking about here.

We couldn't go inside where these surgeries took place, because again it's been sealed off, but outside it seemed very, very basic and quite

grim, to be honest, Kristie.

LU STOUT: Sumnima Udas reporting on this very important story for us. Thank you very much indeed for that, Sumnima.

And you're watching News Stream. Still to come, your online activities are threatening your privacy and businesses are profiting

without telling you. Up next, we dig deep into our data trail.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: Welcome back.

Now doing an online search, logging onto a social media account, simple activities like these are threatening your privacy and businesses

are reaping the returns.

Now data expert Adam Tanner recently wrote a book called "What Stays in Vegas: The World of Personal Data" and I asked him about his personal

experience of big data collection.

(EGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ADAM TANNER, AUTHOR: I'm just surprised by the breadth of different data gathers that there are. And so for example one of the most surprising

is Jimmy Page, the former Led Zeppelin guitarist, JimmyPage.com where you go to that site. Just to get into the site you have to share the personal

information, your name, first name, your birth date, your gender and so on. That's just to use the site. And many sites are requiring this kind of

information. That's much more extensive than you would have expected in past.

LU STOUT: But why would Jimmy Page want that information about us?

TANNER: I've met him and I still do not know, but again a lot of these services are great. And if he can personalize it and make you happy

as a customer they may be something that you appreciate as a fan.

But there should be choice and transparency, you should know what you're getting into and what you're getting in exchange. And often we

don't have that level of transparency that I would like to see.

LU STOUT: This is my Google search history. There are a couple of embarrassing Tidbits that I found in there. But you know I can't live or

work off the grid. So what can I do to better protect my personal data?

TANNER: Well, so you have to decide what's important to you. Are there things you don't want widely shared.

Now you've showed some of these things over here that could be sensitive in some countries or some circumstances, but not in others.

So in the appendix of my book, I give some examples of how you could mask some of the activities that you do on the internet, you could use

different email addresses for different companies via easy services. You could, for example, encrypt things. These are all ways to boost your

privacy if that's something you care about.

And there are certain commercial website out there that do, in fact, respect our privacy and online data. Of all places, Wal-Mart's contact

lenses website.

TANNER: That's right. So if you're buying contact lenses it's not incredibly personal, but I mean how well you see is somewhat personal. And

they tell you, look, we're not going to sell the data to any other site if you buy your contact lenses from us.

And I think this is a fairly good example of some transparency. You want to know what's happening with my data if I share this bit of

information, because if I know how well you see and if I know your waist size and if I know from the buying of the pants and something else, this

could be an intimate portrait and this is what happens. There's lots of different information is piled onto itself for commercial gatherers.

LU STOUT: Now in addition to the online world, you've also been researching data collection in the real world, namely in casinos like in

Las Vegas. What's happening here?

TANNER: So, in Las Vegas many of these casinos have the same product at the core, it's the same machines, the same different kinds of gambling

opportunity in different packages. So they want to have you loyal to them. And they do that through the loyalty program. If you decide to join, you

may get free food, free benefits of different kinds, drinks and spa treatments and chips and so on.

So they want you to join. You have to give your personal information. They'll know an incredible amount of what you do inside the space of the

casino. and in exchange for that information they will give you those perks.

Now they don't sell the information beyond the casinos. And that's actually what stays in Vegas. Unlike a lot of the information that you

share on the internet, which may be then shared beyond with other companies.

So that's why I think it's interesting to see what companies are doing with the data and who is being transparent about what goes on beyond.

LU STOUT: It's incredible and very worrying, isn't it, that in this era of mass data collection the cliche is true. There was no such thing as

a free lunch. It applies in certain casinos in the real world, it applies to Facebook where they're collecting our personal data for this free

service. And this is something that we need to remind ourselves of.

TANNER: Well, of course.

So countless millions use Facebook and love it, but they do use your data to target information to you very -- and advertising very directly.

Now what you keep in mind that sometimes having even social networks can lead to inferences about you that you did not expect to be known.

So, for example, who your friends are could reflect on details about you that you had not shared.

So, studies have shown, for example, if you don't declare a sexual preference, who your friends are could indicate that you're gay based on

the percentage of people -- or who your likes are could suggest a similar kind of thing.

Now these are things you may not have expected, but are possible through the big world of big data.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: As Adam Tanner suggests, encryption is one good way to safeguard your personal data before a foolproof approach. Just don't make

any sensitive purchases online. He recommends you go to the store and you pay in cash.

That is News Stream. I'm Kristie Lu Stout. But don't go anywhere, because World Sport with Alex Thomas is up next.

END