How many celebrities do - or not do - NYC Cab Drivers Tip

Morgan Dess / ABACÁ US

Big Data - crunching to learn a lot of information, what people do not know - usually with companies that are connected. But it is, there is an incredible amount can be learned by data analysts. Even things like the number of people as actors Bradley Cooper and Jessica Alba have changed drivers on taxi rides, which can be: zero, according to Gawker.

Apparently, the Taxi & Limousine Commission of the City of New York has drivers to collect large amounts of information, including origin and destination, level of tariffs and all indications reported. With a Freedom of Information request Law tradesmen Chris Wong received about 50 gigabytes of data from the Agency , as he explains.

Another expert, Vijay Pandurangan, analyzes the results. Realize that despite all the information must be anonymous, if you do not get specific details on more than 173 million individual journeys, it is easy to undo the protection and receive the latest information, including the number of taxis and the number of driver's license.

It was bad enough, but the names of the passengers, fortunately, were not taken into account. But on the Internet, all information you can go around the dams. A student named Northwest Tockar Anthony realized that might sometimes correspond driving information with pictures of celebrities . If you are someone like Bradley Cooper and Jessica Alba image and no timely date and a taxi license number or medallion get in sight, more information is easy.

In the case of Brad Cooper, we now know that the taxi took him in Greenwich Village, perhaps Meliboea dinner and paid $ 10.50 without saving tip. Ironically, in the cabin he came to escape the photographers! We also know that Jessica Alba in his taxi to your hotel, the Trump SoHo, and somewhat surprisingly not add a point to its price of $ 9. Now, even if this information is relatively benign, especially in the years down the line, you I did not show the information in the public domain. Given the speculative nonsense that usually accompanies these photos (believe me, I know!) If, a celebrity journalist pleased to hear this additional information.

Yes, the paparazzi are probably putting scientific data retention, even now.

At Gawker, author JK Trotter combined data files booth with pictures of celebrities, including Obviously there are many. Trotter was able to find specific information cabin height of Jessica Biel, Emma Roberts and Evan Peters.

What is surprising is the number of the celebrities mentioned here that the driver is not a point above the base price sign: Jessica Alba, Jessica Biel, Amanda Bynes, Bradley Cooper and Olivia Munn. The database was wrong?

Some celebrities have denied the allegations. Spokeswoman Dawn and Cooper denied the stories:

"This story is not correct," said her publicist Gawker. "Jessica always makes a point in bar tip, even if you pay by credit card." After a decline in the early to comment and to ask us to kill this story, sent us Cooper's publicist made a statement. "Bradley takes the subway, when he too in New York and if he is a taxi, the very good advice no truth, this."

As it stands, the "vast majority of passengers, the money paid for walks" are defined as providing a point of $ 0. Maybe everyone is listed cheap. Maybe some driver record anything for which there is no trace, compared to check if they say their taxes.

Or maybe some celebrities are attracted with a dollar and a bad tipper. God knows, there are other alleged examples of how Boxer Floyd Mayweather or football player LeSean McCoy .