Well after citizens in the U.K. voted for Brexit, they continued to Google “What is the EU” and “What is Brexit.” In the nearly four years after the initial vote, this passive data has continued to tell an interesting story. This is just one example of what we’re now able to learn from the crowd by monitoring various networks.

Our smartphone ownership has reached critical mass, and so has our use of various networks. Our data not only follows us around, it’s often available for anyone to search, collect and analyze. We anticipate that more news organizations—as well as marketers, activists and other groups—will start harnessing this data in creative ways. That’s because our thinking results in behavior (like searching for “what is the EU?”), and our behavior results in data—and that data can be used to learn something about us.