API - short for Application Programming Interface, is a computer language and message format used by an application to communicate with the operating system or some other control program such as a database management system or communications protocol

digital shadow – is the online data that is left behind by users on digital services

entity resolution - is the process of identifying and “resolving” the user accounts of a single person (“entity”) on different social media platforms

EXIF – short for Exchangeable Image File Format, is a standard that specifies the formats for images, sound, and ancillary tags used by digital cameras (including smartphones), scanners and other systems handling image and sound files recorded by digital cameras.  EXIF data is often found attached to multimedia on the internet and can provide valuable technical information about when, how and when the footage was captured

firehose - the massive, real-time stream of user-generated content published to a social media channel.  Most free sources of social data only provide a small percentage of total social media traffic.  A firehose provides 100 percent of publicly available data.

geo-location – information that is tagged with GPS or specific geographic data as added by the user or the social network as per the user’s consent and settings, and correlated to the place where that user-generated content is created

geo-referenced – content in which a geographic location is mentioned

GPS – short for Global Positioning System, is a space-based satellite navigation system that provides location and time data, anywhere on or near the Earth where there is an unobstructed line of sight to four or more GPS satellites

hashtag – a word or an unspaced phrase prefixed with the hash character, “#”, to form a label such as #CanadaStrong. A hashtag is a type of metadata tag that enables the easy filtering of similar content

Image search – is a technology that allows users to find images that are visually similar from online sources.  Google Image Search and TinEye are popular Image Search engines

keyword – is a term used to search for relevant or related content on the internet

metadata – Metadata is "data about data". Metadata consists of details about information, (such as author, creation date, location and device used), that makes finding and working with data easier

the mosaic effect - is the process by which small pieces of information from disparate sources produces a larger, clearer picture of an individual, event or location

thumbnail – is a smaller sized version of a picture, used to index original files making it easier to identify and organise

triangulation – is the application of two or more methods or sources used to verify the accuracy of information

user-generated content – any form of content (such as video, blog posts, discussion forums, digital images, audio files, social network posts etc.) created by consumers or end-users of an online system or service and that is publicly available to other consumers and end-users