<p>Metadata is a word that was once reserved for the halls of high-tech companies and academia. But since the revelation of mass surveillance programs by the National Security Agency (NSA) which collect troves of big-picture data on American citizens the concept of data about data has entered the lexicon. Now, the techies over at MIT's Media Lab are giving us a glimpse at our own metadata, giving us a cold, hard look at the bread crumbs of personal data we freely scatter across the Web.</p><p>(MORE: What I Want for Independence Day: Freedom From the Patriot Act)</p><p>Immersion, which launched on June 30 after years in development, asks participants for access to their Gmail accounts, and in exchange, it creates a visual map of their networks. Each "collaborator" or person with whom the participant has exchanged at least three e-mails is represented by a circle, which is then connected to all the other circles in one big web of relationships. Professor Cesar Hidalgo, who spearheaded the project, told TIME that the result is a piece of very personal art. "It's a picture you've been painting not with pigments and brushes, but every time you send an e-mail or get in touch with someone," he says.</p><p>The program received such heavy Web traffic more than 43,900 views between Monday and Tuesday alone that the site temporarily broke. Hidalgo and his team are working to equip the program to handle the thousands of requests for metadata mapping, and currently, interested participants must add their name to a queue.</p><p><a href="http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/07/05/this-mit-website-tracks-your-digital-footprint-through-gmail/">Keep reading...</a></p><p>Read also:</p><p><a href="http://www.networkworld.com/news/2013/070313-mit-researchers-immerse-you-in-271531.html?hpg1=bn">MIT researchers immerse you in your Gmail data</a> (Network World)</p><p>Explore: <a href="http://news.google.com/news/more?ncl=dhLKV5Dr8QRdqPMDdflkW4A8yV14M&ned=us">10 additional articles.</a></p>