data

data miner

Something that extracts or gathers data from a computer. "Spyware" is a malicious type of data miner. IT is going to use a data miner to get us that information. I bet Ben put a data miner on my computer to spy on me!
See also: data, miner

spyware

Malicious software designed to surreptitiously record and transmit a computer user's private information to someone or something. The judge ruled that the tech company was installing spyware by virtue of the fact that users were at no point warned that their information was being collected. I've only ever downloaded a movie illegally once, and I ended up with such nasty spyware as a result that I never did it again.

the plural of anecdote is not data

You cannot use anecdotal evidence in lieu of well researched scientific data. A: "I mean, you can tell just by reading people's experiences on Spacebook that this legislation isn't working." B: "Come on, Spacebook stories are hardly the standard by which this legislation's success or failure should be measured. The plural of anecdote is not data, after all."
See also: data, not, of
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

spyware

and data miner
n. a kind of malicious software that gathers private information from a personal computer and sends it to another computer. I have a little program that roots out spyware from my computer. It found a data miner lurking among my digital images.

data miner

verb
See spyware
See also: data, miner
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions
See also:
  • data miner
  • miner
  • LIFO
  • take a long look at something
  • take a long, hard look at (something)
  • in sympathy (with something)
  • in sympathy with something
  • on automatic
  • on autopilot
  • be second nature
References in periodicals archive
Charging into the frontier of geospatial Web services, Steve Morris from North Carolina State University (NCSU) tackles the opportunities and challenges related to streaming geospatial data and geoarchiving in libraries.
Since restoration quality is based on the integrity of the original data, it is important to preserve integrity when files are stored for backup.
At DePauw, university staff spent four years integrating data into a central repository, known as Client Information Service, which also serves as a university-wide address book.
A data system at the Metropolitan School District of Wayne Township discovered that classroom instruction was not always aligned to state standards nor the state assessment test.
An operator usually performs only a few mouse clicks to open a data entry form, and only a couple more mouse clicks are required to save data and exit the application.
-- Survivor Bias Free Database -- data is available on inactive companies allowing researchers to remove survivorship bias from their research.
Definitions of data mining abound, and they vary among practitioners.
A major interest of NIDDK is supporting secondary data analyses in the causes, burden, natural history, and treatment and medical care of overweight and obesity, including analyses of behavioral/environmental factors that may be predictive of long term weight maintenance or prevention of weight gain.
System integration is the key to using third-party data efficiently.
With data auditing procedures in place, there is a record of what happened--what data was accessed, when it was changed and how it changed--long before financial reports are issued.
PMs and their support staff must understand the true costs and benefits associated with UID and the significant benefits to be gained through accurate and reliable automated data capture.
These types of data include tracking the contributions from external donors (bilateral, World Bank, Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria; and international foundations) as well as national expenditures and "out of pocket" spending from families and persons affected by HIV/AIDS.
These techniques are required to generate the volume of data necessary for evaluations in a reasonable amount of time.
They then convert those documents' data into hypertext markup language (HTML) format and post them on the Web for public viewing.
The UCR Program data collection guidelines stipulate that a hate crime may involve multiple offenses, victims, and offenders within one incident; therefore, the hate crime data collection program is incident-based.