--- title: "Data Leak Reveals Hundreds of Visitors to Epstein’s Private Island" description: "Leaks have revealed the locations of hundreds of people who visited the notorious private island owned by Jeffrey Epstein." date: "2024-03-28" modified: "2024-03-28" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai.md" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/data-leak-epstein-island" categories: - "Cybersecurity" - "Data Privacy" - "Future Society" tags: - "data" - "epstein" - "geofencing" - "the digest" --- # Data Leak Reveals Hundreds of Visitors to Epstein’s Private Island ![Leaks have revealed the locations of hundreds of people who visited the notorious private island owned by Jeffrey Epstein.]() *\Image: Davidoff Studios via Getty / Futurism\* ## Data Talks Leaks from a sketchy data broker have seemingly revealed the locations of hundreds of people who visited Little St. James, the notorious US Virgin Islands haunt owned by convicted — and now deceased — sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein. In an ongoing investigation, [*Wired* has found]() that the firm in question, Near Intelligence, not only collected data that points to Little St. James' visitors returning home to their wealthy neighborhoods all over the US and the world, but also to lower-income areas — some of which were known to be hunting grounds for the pedophile's trafficking scheme. Near Intelligence [filed for bankruptcy]() last December after the [*Wall Street Journal* reported]() that it not only collected and compiled so-called "geofenced" data, or data from location-based targeted ads, but also that it sold some of that information to military contractors. ## Shell Game When you see any targeted ad on a website or app, you're experiencing the end result of a complex and automatic [bidding process]() in which data about your demographics and shopping preferences are sent lightning-fast to a marketing platform. The highest-bidding ad wins, and in exchange, advertisers — and, in many cases, firms like Near Intelligence — get your data to do with as they please. Throwing geofencing into the mix means that firms like Near Intelligence are privy not just to who you are, but also to where you go. In this case, location data from multiple cell tower "pings" allowed Near Intelligence to track each individual users' movements and create maps of where they went. Using a product called Vista, which has since been purchased and folded into another product named Pinnacle, Near Intelligence produced data reports, which included cross-referenced maps, for all kinds of locations — including, as *Wired* discovered, multiple maps related to Little St. James' visitors. The magazine learned of this data when looking through Pinnacle's public source code, which linked to reports like those gleaned from Epstein's so-called "[Pedophile Island]()." In a statement to *Wired*, a spokesperson for Near Intelligence declined to comment on why those specific maps were created or if the data they contained were sold to anyone. As the report indicates, the firm has quietly resumed its operations since filing for bankruptcy. The magazine has declined to provide specifics about the location data it accessed via Near Intelligence's insecure vendors to protect the privacy of those who might have been Epstein's victims. The report does, however, detail some of the tonier locations the data firm had information on, including Martha's Vinyard, a Miami nightclub, and — fascinatingly — Trump Tower in Manhattan. **More on Epstein associates:** [*Stephen Hawking Implicated in Jeffrey Epstein Documents*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]() ## More - [You Know Those Three Brothers Who Buy Struggling News Sites and Turn Them Into AI-Powered Content Farms? It Turns Out One of Them Has Extensive Connections to Ghislaine Maxwell]() - [Elizabeth Warren: If Data Gets Stolen, Throw Tech CEOs in Prison]() - [Verizon Is Wrong. Throttling Emergency Responders’ Data Is Definitely About Net Neutrality.]() - [Leaked Data Shows China Is in Deep Trouble]() - [Facebook Got Busted Paying Teenagers $20 a Month for Private Data]() - [Facebook Is Asking Banks to Share Data on Customers’ Spending Habits]() - [Prison Phone Company Leaked User Data and Didn’t Tell Them, FTC Says]() - [Twitter Caught Selling Data to Government Spies While Complaining About Surveillance]()