Even in death,

the secrets of Jeffrey Epstein remained tightly guarded.

But earlier this year,

I spearheaded a WIRED investigation

that uncovered the data of almost 200 mobiles phoness

belonging to visitors to his infamous Pedophile Island.

The data was so precise,

we were able to map the paths

of these visitors to within centimeters,

including their neighborhoods, buildings of origins,

and the paths they took to get to the island.

These digital trails document the numerous trips

of wealthy and influential individuals,

seemingly undeterred by Epstein's status

as a convicted sex offender.

WIRED's analysis of the data is ongoing

and it raises profound questions

about privacy and surveillance.

This is Epstein Island's Secret Data, On The Grid.

This is Little Saint James, AKA Epstein Island.

These red dots on the map

represent some of the 11,279 coordinates I obtained.

They were left exposed online by a locations data broker

with ties to the Defense Department

called Near Intelligence.

Between 2016 and Epstein's final arrest in 2019,

Near collected data on more than 200 cell phoness

that visited the island.

We don't know why they did that,

or which client or prospective client of Near

decided to query the data in this way to produce the maps.

But the maps you'll see in this video,

show where visitors to Epstein Island

spent most of their time.

Let's take a step back.

You might be wondering, Where is Epstein Island anyways?

Well, it's here, Little Saint James is a private island

that is part of the U.S .Virgin Islands,

an unincorporated territory

of the United States in the Caribbean Sea.

Epstein purchased Little Saint James

in 1998 for $7.95 million.

It's about 71 acres, the size of 54 football fields.

He made the island his primary residence,

and soon after, began welcoming visitors

and throwing infamous parties where he was accused

of having groomed, sexually assaulted,

and trafficked untold numbers of women and girls.

The maps of the data collected by Near,

and which we at WIRED recreated here,

indicate the most visited spots on the island.

From the main house here with the pool,

to the beaches and the large sundial,

it's all on display,

including the enigmatic Hilltop Temple site over here,

which has been the focal point and speculations

about Epstein's mysterious activities on the island.

But the tracking of phoness,

wasn't contained to Little Saint James,

surveillance continued long after the visitors left.

The data reveals the locationss of visitors

30 minutes before and after arriving on the island,

which shows us the exact routes everyone took to get there.

Some landed here, at the Cyril E. King Airport

on neighboring Saint Thomas Island.

With its private jet and VIP terminals,

it was the go-to hub

for Epstein's 200-seater Boeing 727 plane

dubbed Lolita Express.

We see data points clustered at various area beaches,

hotels, and luxury resorts,

including the Ritz Carlton Hotel here.

To get to Epstein's Island,

many visitors got on a boat at a designated dock

at the American Yacht Harbor,

a private marina on Saint Thomas,

co-owned by Epstein at the time.

From there, we see a flow of movement

through Great Saint James Island,

a larger island just to the north,

which Epstein purchased in 2016 for $22 million.

He had hoped to develop it,

but was met with legal challenges

after damaging the island's coral reefs

and protected habitats.

The data then traces visitors' movements

as they were ferried to Epstein's private dock

on Little Saint James.

Epstein also had a helipads on the island

and owned at least one helicopter, a Sikorsky S-76

which he used often to transport himself, guests,

and victims from the airport or elsewhere,

according to legal documents and testimony.

It's worth noting that the data reveals

a regular flow of traffic to and from Little Saint James,

between 2016 and 2019.

A lot of people were visiting the island,

even after eps Epstein had pleaded guilty in 2008,

and served jail time for procuring a minor for prostitution.

If we keep following the data trail

and we widen our view,

we'll see that the tracking of visitors

continues once they have left the island,

and presumably gone back home.

The Near Intelligence data we uncovered,

pinpoints 166 locationss throughout the United States,

in 80 cities across 26 states.

Topping the list were Florida, Massachusetts, Texas,

Michigan, and New York.

The data points are labeled as Common Evening locationss,

or Common Daytime locationss.

Typically, their homes are work.

Many of the visitors were likely wealthy,

as indicated by coordinates

pointing gated communities in Michigan,

as well as homes in Martha's Vineyard,

and Nantucket in Massachusetts.

We even have data points from a Downtown Miami nightclub,

and also the sidewalk across the street

from Trump Tower in New York City.

Before we jump to conclusions,

some sources have highlighted interactions

between Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein at social events.

But after Epstein's 2008 conviction,

there are no verified reports

of Trump maintaining a relationship

with a convicted pedophile.

Take a look at this point over here in New Mexico,

this is a property that was owned by Epstein,

a secluded 8,000-acre ranch.

Another property of Epstein's

is seen over here on El Brillo Way in Palm Beach, Florida.

This waterfront mansion was sold, demolished,

and is now being rebuilt,

but it was where prosecutors claimed Epstein trafficked

numerous underage girls

with the intention of molesting and abusing them.

But we don't just see the coordinates

of wealthy homes amongst the data.

The median household income of Palm Beach

is more than twice that of nearby communities

where we also see data points.

Some of these points could represent victims or employees

who worked on the island,

which is why we're careful about revealing names,

and continue to carefully analyze the data.

If we zoom out more, we notice something strange.

There are no data points anywhere in Europe.

Does this mean it was strictly Americans

visiting Jeffrey Epstein on his island?

No, we do see data points from the cache identifying

origin cities in Australia, the Cayman Islands,

and way over here in Kiev in Ukraine.

We know that Epstein himself had a place in Paris,

and we know from victim testimony and flight logs

that his associate, Jean-Luc Brunel,

owner of a modeling agency in Paris

did visit the island.

So why don't we see these data points?

One possibility could be Europe's extensive privacy laws.

Considered the strongest

privacy and security law in the world,

the General Data Protection Regulation, GDPR,

gives Europeans robust rights to their personal data,

even outside of Europe.

Under comparatively lax US privacy laws,

Near intelligence was able to source its locations data

for this precision surveillance.

To explain how this data

might have been collected in the first place,

we need to talk about

the world of digital advertising and data brokers.

The reason you get a targeted ad

displayed on an app or a website

is because apps on your phones

have been transmitting information about you

to ad exchanges in real-time bidding platforms,

that information often includes your locations data.

Data brokers, like Near Intelligence,

extract, repackage, analyze,

and sell the data from these ad platforms.

In fact, according to internal company documents from 2019,

Near Intelligence, which has roots in Singapore

and Bengaluru, India,

claimed to have information

on around 1.6 billion people in 44 countries.

They offer a platform for searching

that allows their clients to query their vast dataset,

by drawing a box around a specific area

like Little Saint James,

Near then provides insights

about the devices that observed within the selected area.

We don't know who or why someone searched Epstein Island,

but the reports and maps they created

were sitting unprotected and totally searchable

as publicly accessible code,

and that's where we found them.

And those aren't the only

Near Intelligence data sets that we found.

Google's web crawlers were able to locate

at least two other reports,

one geofencing the Westfield Mall in the Netherlands,

and another target in a park in El Paso, Texas.

This is data

unrelated to our investigation about Epstein Island,

but it shows how unsafe personal data can be.

In some cases, it's just a Google search away.

So Pro Tip, if you don't want your personal data

swimming around in the murky waters

or programmatic advertising,

make sure you limit ad tracking on your phones,

disable locations services and third-party cookies,

and use an ad blocker.

So what happened to the island

after Epstein reportedly committed suicide

in a Manhattan federal jail

while awaiting trial for sex trafficking?

Well, in May of 2023,

billionaire investor Stephen Deckoff,

purchased both Little Saint James

and Great Saint James for $60 million.

He's currently building a luxury resort

on Little Saint James,

that he says could open as early as 2025.

Also, Ghislaine Maxwell,

former British socialite and Epstein accomplice,

was convicted in 2021 on five counts,

including sex trafficking of minors by force.

Maxwell was arrested in Bradford, New Hampshire

tracked to a million-dollar home by federal agents

using locations data pulled from her cell phones.

I'm Dhruv Mehrotra,

the WIRED Investigation

into the Secret Data of Epstein's Island continues.