60 Minutes (1968) s46e23 Episode Script
Season 46, Episode 23
Over the past six months or so, a huge amount of attention has been paid to government snooping, and the bulk collection and storage of vast amounts of raw data in the name of national security.
What most of you don't know, or are just beginning to realize, is that a much greater and more immediate threat to your privacy is coming from thousands of companies you've probably never heard of, in the name of commerce.
They're called data brokers, and they are collecting, analyzing and packaging some of our most sensitive personal information and selling it as a commodityto each other, to advertisers, even the government, often without our direct knowledge.
Much of this is the kind of harmless consumer marketing that's been going on for decades.
What's changed is the volume and nature of the data being mined from the Internet and our mobile devices, and the growth of a multibillion dollar industry that operates in the shadows with virtually no oversight.
Companies and marketing firms have been gathering information about customers and potential customers for years, collecting their names and addresses, tracking credit card purchases, and asking them to fill out questionnaires, so they can offer discounts and send catalogues.
But today we are giving up more and more private information online without knowing that it's being harvested and personalized and sold to lots of different peopleour likes and dislikes, our closest friends, our bad habits, even your daily movements, both on and offline.
Federal Trade Commissioner Julie Brill says we have lost control of our most personal information.
Steve Kroft: Are people putting this together and making dossiers? Julie Brill: Absolutely.
Steve Kroft: With names attached to it? With personal identification? Julie Brill: The dossiers are about individuals.
That's the whole point of these dossiers.
It is information that is individually identified to an individual or linked to an individual.
Steve Kroft: Do you think most people know this information is being collected? Julie Brill: I think most people have no idea that it's being collected and sold and that it is personally identifiable about them, and that the information is in basically a profile of them.
No one even knows how many companies there are trafficking in our data.
But it's certainly in the thousands, and would include research firms, all sorts of Internet companies, advertisers, retailers and trade associations.
The largest data broker is Acxiom, a marketing giant that brags it has, on average, 1,500 pieces of information on more than 200 million Americans.
It's much harder for Americans to get information on Acxiom.
The company declined our request for an interview and is fairly vague about the methods it uses to collect information and who its customers are.
Tim Sparapani: It's not about what we know we're sharing, it's about what we don't know is being collected and sold about us.
And Tim Sparapani says it's a lot.
He has been following the data broker industry for years, first as a privacy lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, then as Facebook's first director of public policy.
He's currently advising tech companies and app makers.
Sparapani thinks people would be stunned to learn what's being compiled about them and sold, and might end up in their profiles; religion, ethnicity, political affiliations, user names, income, and family medical history.
And that's just for openers.
Steve Kroft: What about medications? Tim Sparapani: Certainly.
You can buy from any number of data brokers, by malady, the lists of individuals in America who are afflicted with a particular disease or condition.
Steve Kroft: Alcoholism? Tim Sparapani: Yes.
Absolutely.
Steve Kroft: Depression? Tim Sparapani: Certainly.
Steve Kroft: Psychiatric problems? Tim Sparapani: No question.
Steve Kroft: History of genetic problems? Tim Sparapani: Yes.
Cancer, heart disease, you name it, down to the most rare and, and most unexpected maladies.
Steve Kroft: Sexual orientation? Tim Sparapani: Of course.
Steve Kroft: How do they determine that? Tim Sparapani: Well, based on a series of other data points they bought and sold.
What clubs you may be frequenting what bars and restaurants you're making purchases at, what other products you may be buying online.
Steve Kroft: And all of this can end up in a file somewhere that's being sold maybe to a prospective employer.
Tim Sparapani: Yeah, not only can it, it is, Steve.
Steve Kroft: With all this information and your name attached to it? Tim Sparapani: Yes.
Exactly.
Sparapani says data brokers have been flying under the radar for years, preferring that people know as little as possible about the industry and the information that's being collected and sold.
But the evidence is there if you know where to look.
We were able to go online and find all sorts of companies peddling sensitive personalized information.
A Connecticut data broker called "Statlistics" advertises lists of gay and lesbian adults and "Response Solutions" -- people suffering from bipolar disorder.
"Paramount Lists" operates out of this building in Erie, Pa.
, and offers lists of people with alcohol, sexual and gambling addictions and people desperate to get out of debt.
A Chicago company, "Exact Data," is brokering the names of people who had a sexually transmitted disease, as well as lists of people who have purchased adult material and sex toys.
Tim Sparapani: No one has ever looked into these lists.
In fact, most of this has been completely opaque until just recently.
The depths of this industry, the really darkest corners, have yet to be exposed to any light whatsoever.
Every piece of data about us now seems to be worth something to somebody.
And lots more people are giving up information about people they do business with, from state Departments of Motor Vehicles, to pizza parlors.
Tim Sparapani: Most retailers are finding out that they have a secondary source of income, which is that the data about their customers is probably just about as valuable, maybe even more so, than the actual product or service that they're selling to the individual.
So, there's a whole new revenue stream that many companies have found.
That data becomes much more valuable when it's married up to the much more personal information that's being volunteered on the Internet.
"Take 5 Solutions," a data broker in Boca Raton, Fla.
, runs 17 websites like "GoodParentingToday.
com" and "T5 HealthyLiving.
Com," where people can share stories about their families and health.
What web visitors don't realize is that "Take 5's" real business is collecting and selling the information.
Steve Kroft: There's all sorts of people coming on now.
Ashkan Soltani: That's right.
And there is also an invisible side to the Internet that most people have never seen.
When you are online visiting websites, you may think you're alone.
But you are not, as digital privacy expert Ashkan Soltani showed us using a software program called "Disconnect," which was created by a former Google engineer.
Steve Kroft: What's this stuff? Ashkan Soltani: So when you visit the New York Times homepage, there's a number of companies on the page that are essentially tracking your visits.
When we clicked on "NewYorkTimes.
com," the software revealed the presence of more than a dozen third parties that the website had allowed in to observe our movements.
Ashkan Soltani: These are all companies that either place ads or measure people's behaviors on that site.
Steve Kroft: So as you are going thru the web, and doing your searching, you've got a whole crowd following you? Ashkan Soltani: That's right.
There were ad networks and marketing and analytics companies, measuring traffic and page views and cataloging our interests.
Steve Kroft: And some of this information, you think is going to data brokers? Ashkan Soltani: Oh, definitely.
Steve Kroft: Wow, look at that.
We found the same thing going on at the 60 Minutes website.
They are everywhere.
Steve Kroft: A lot of them.
Steve Kroft: So, they're really inside your computer? Ashkan Soltani: They're inside your browser usually, or your mobile device.
Yes.
Steve Kroft: And you haven't necessarily invited them in? Ashkan Soltani: You've not invited them in.
And most computers or browsers allow them in by default is the way to think about it.
Steve Kroft: Do companies collect your web browsing history? Ashkan Soltani: Yes.
Absolutely.
Yeah, this is the primary piece of data collected online.
As you click through the web and view car sites or read about the news, companies, these third parties, will collect your click stream, as you click from site to site to site, to see what you may be reading, what you may be interested in, what types of things you might buy.
And almost all of it is for sale, especially any personal information that you might volunteer.
The more companies know about us, they say, the more efficient they can make the advertising.
You are looking at one of the commercial pillars of the Internet.
Soltani took us to an online dating site called "OkCupid," which asks visitors for all sorts of personal information.
Ashkan Soltani: Are you a vegetarian or vegan? Do you drink? What's your relationship with marijuana? And what people don't realize that, so, you know, here you're seeing all the third parties that are present on this site.
Steve Kroft: So all these people are getting the information? Ashkan Soltani: They're getting some of this information.
The website doesn't require users to give their real name.
But the IP address and the computer ID number are recorded and it is not difficult for data brokers to match that information with other online identifiers.
There are firms that specialize in doing it.
Steve Kroft: So you can combine this data with other data that's available and figure out who someone is? Ashkan Soltani: That's right.
Steve Kroft: By name, by email? Ashkan Soltani: That's right.
That's right.
The only way you would have known that is by going to the legal section of "OkCupid's" website, presuming you could find it, then you'd have to scroll through three pages of terms and conditions before finding the privacy policy, which says, "You should appreciate that all information submitted on the Website might potentially be publicly accessible.
" And if you're one of the billion people who have downloaded the popular game app Angry Birds to your smart phone, or you were one of the 50 million people who downloaded "Brightest Flashlight Free" app, you didn't realize that the companies that gave them to you for free were using the apps to track your every movement and pass it along to other companies.
Julie Brill: Your smartphones are basically little mini tracking devices.
And it's collecting information about where you are traveling through the day as it's on in your pocket or in your purse.
Federal Trade Commissioner Julie Brill says geo-location data on individuals has become a hot commodity.
Steve Kroft: How sensitive is that information? Julie Brill: It's the kind of information that really talks about who you are on a day to day basis.
Where you go and who you might be visiting with, what shops you may frequent.
What time you come home.
What time you leave.
And that's not all, the iPhone app for "Path Social," which was designed to help young people share photos and memories with friends, was caught sneaking into users' digital address books and filching their contact information.
Steve Kroft: This app was going into people's phones and collecting that information without their knowledge? Julie Brill: Right.
It was downloading their contact list off of their phone, their smartphone.
Right.
Steve Kroft: You say information from the address book.
What does that or contact information, what does that include? Julie Brill: It could include, and did in this case, include things like Facebook usernames, Twitter usernames, birth dates.
So it can be fairly detailed in personal information that is contained within a contact list or address book.
The FTC, which is one of the few agencies with any jurisdiction over data brokers, fined the company $800,000 dollars for deceptive trade practices.
Commissioner Brill is pushing for more oversight and transparency.
She says people should be able to see the information the companies have on them, be able to challenge it if it's incorrect, and opt out of the system if they don't want personal data collected.
Julie Brill: Consumers don't know who the data brokers are.
They don't know the names of these companies.
They have no way to know, "What -- well, what website am I supposed to go to? Who do I call? What letter do I write?" The Senate Commerce Committee and its chairman, Jay Rockefeller, have proposed legislation that would do just that.
The committee has been investigating the industry for more than a year and Sen.
Rockefeller says he is being stonewalled by three of its biggest players: Axciom, Epsilon and Experian.
[Jay Rockefeller: I am putting these three companies on notice today that I'm not satisfied with their responses and I'm considering further steps.
.]
Steve Kroft: Sen.
Rockefeller called companies like Epsilon "the dark underside of American life.
" Bryan Kennedy: Yeah, that's an interesting phrase.
And one I would take offense at.
Bryan Kennedy is chairman and CEO of Epsilon, which claim to have "the world's largest cooperative database" including more than 8 billion consumer transactions, combined with an extensive network of online sources.
He doesn't like the term "data broker," and says Epsilon is a marketing firm that uses data.
Steve Kroft: Can I go on your website and see everything you have about me? Bryan Kennedy: You can go on our website today and we offer a method by which we can show you the kind of information that we have about you.
Steve Kroft: The kind of information.
Bryan Kennedy: Right.
Steve Kroft: Not all the information.
Bryan Kennedy: What we've done is we've collected the data into categories, into the basic information that is meaningful and understandable to a consumer.
Kennedy says Epsilon has provided the Senate Commerce Committee with binders full of information and calls the hearings political theater.
He sees no need for more oversight or regulation of one of the fastest-growing sectors of the economy.
Bryan Kennedy: If there are abuses out there, we don't believe those happen within our company.
And we would be the first to raise our hand and say if there are specific uses of data that are problematic, then the government should focus on those particular uses of data.
Not attempt to regulate the entire industry in a way that could cripple our economy.
That's our concern in the debate.
Steve Kroft: You're saying that any kind of regulation on this could cripple the economy? Bryan Kennedy: I am.
Steve Kroft: And this should be left to industry groups? To self-enforce? Bryan Kennedy: We think that self-regulation has been very effective.
What we're hearing today is a lot of discussion in Washington.
We're not hearing a lot of discussion, frankly, from consumers.
It's one of the odd things.
So, consumers are rushing to the Internet to provide more information about themselves than, you know, we would've ever imagined.
Steve Kroft: That surprise you? Bryan Kennedy: It does surprise me.
I don't do it myself.
I'm a consumer, like, like you are.
Steve Kroft: So, you think it's imprudent? Bryan Kennedy: I think that consumers ought to understand that the Internet is an advertising medium.
This is also the position of the Direct Marketing Association, which is one of the most powerful lobbying groups in Washington.
Its members include Google and Facebook, the two companies that probably know more about us than anyone else.
They were not mentioned in our story because they don't sell the information they gather about us.
They keep it all to themselves.
Ukraine has been dominating the news for weeks.
Nearly 100 protesters were killed in a revolution that toppled the president, after he reneged on a promise to sign a trade agreement with Europe that would bring the country closer to the West and reduce its dependence on Russia.
Russia responded to the revolution angrily, seizing control of Ukraine's southern Crimea region and ratcheting up tensions reminiscent of the Cold War.
Our story tonight is about the people behind Ukraine's revolution.
What we found was surprising.
They are an unusual collection of characters from very different worlds.
They came together in Kiev's central square, a place that became a battleground and the heart of the revolution.
This is Independence Square, known as the Maidan, a sprawling community of tents and barricades and European Union flags.
Tens of thousands of Ukrainians have been camped out here for three months, braving sniper fire and sub-zero temperatures to topple their government.
But this revolution isn't over.
We were surprised to find this past week protesters digging in and building up the barricades.
They're here to take a stand against Russian interference and to ensure that the demands of the revolution are met.
Already paid for in blood, this real estate is just too valuable to give up.
Sviatoslav Yurash: I think this whole square will remain a very powerful symbol for generations to come.
army of young organizers who keep the square running.
He's in charge of the media operation.
He walked us past the burned out hulk of the building where he lived and worked before government forces attacked it.
Sviatoslav Yurash: We never thought it could turn into something like this.
We never thought the main street of Kiev can be drenched in blood.
We never thought that we would come up there and see shells of sniper bullets there.
Every day people pour in from across the country to lay flowers at the spots where demonstrators were gunned down.
At times, it almost seems the protesters are re-enacting revolutions of the past.
One major intersection is now guarded by a medieval-looking catapult.
Soup is cooked in wood-fired boilers that look like steam locomotives.
This woman has been ladling out that soup for months now.
Clarissa Ward: How long will you stay here? Woman, translated: However long it takes.
These people see themselves as guardians of Ukraine's revolution.
It's hard work.
Squads of volunteers clean up debris from recent battles while others chop wood.
Night and day self defense units in camouflage uniforms patrol the square.
For many, tents are the only shelter against the cold.
Clarissa Ward, entering tent: Can we have a look inside? Sviatoslav Yurash: Of course we can.
Clarissa Ward: There are people sleeping.
Sviatoslav Yurash: Of course.
Clarissa Ward: So, people are living here? Sviatoslav Yurash: Every day for the last three months, there have been people here sleeping, eating, they've been working, they've been essentially doing everything they can to help the Maidan continue.
We were struck by how well organized and well supplied the Maidan is -- most people don't realize this but Ukraine's revolution was not your average populist movement.
It was supported by some of the most powerful people in the country, like billionaire Petro Poroshenko, one of a handful of incredibly wealthy and influential businessmen known as the oligarchs -- though he bristles at that term because unlike other oligarchs, Poroshenko didn't make his money privatizing state industries after the collapse of the Soviet Union, he made it through chocolate.
Petro Poroshenko: I'm not expert on oligarch.
My-- but-- because-- to explain you.
But-- Clarissa Ward: You don't consider yourselves an oligarch? Petro Poroshenko: For sure.
Not-- but people not consider for me.
Because-- many of the-- Clarissa Ward: But you're the seventh-richest man in Ukraine? Petro Poroshenko: Ninth.
Clarissa Ward: Ninth.
Seeing billionaires on the barricades may come as a surprise, but for Petro Poroshenko, the rampant corruption of Yanukovych's regime was simply bad for business.
Clarissa Ward: Why do you think the oligarchs started to support the Maidan protest movement? Petro Poroshenko: First of all, this is about the values.
The values, the justice, the absence of the corruption, the fair system of the courts when everybody can defend themselves.
If you're asking me, "What is that?" In one word it is just modernize my country.
Clarissa Ward: Where does the money come from to fund this protest movement? Petro Poroshenko: There is no sponsor of Maidan, please believe.
Clarissa Ward: So you're saying you haven't given any money to this movement? Petro Poroshenko: No.
This is not true.
But I was together with many people.
I am not giving more money than the maybe hundreds of thousands people, please believe.
Clarissa Ward: Surely you can't be implying that this revolution could've happened without the support of this country's uber-elite businessmen, the so-called oligarchs? Petro Poroshenko: Not at all.
That was not the movement led by the politician.
This is not true.
And this was not a movement-- organizing by the oligarch, which is completely not true.
People-- this is first time in our history, people go in the street by millions of the people demanding not rising up salary not lowering up taxes, or not moving something.
They're demanding the modernization of the country.
Clarissa Wrd: How much time did you spend in the square during those months? Petro Poroshenko: Almost all the time.
So if you-- if you want the people-- being with you, you should be together with the people.
That's important.
With his high profile role in the revolution and a seat in parliament, Poroshenko is widely regarded as a likely candidate to be prime minister.
If Poroshenko is the CEO of the revolution, then retired heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko is its face.
He now leads a parliamentary block.
When Secretary Of State John Kerry flew to Kiev this past week to meet with the country's top leaders, Klitschko was right beside Poroshenko.
Klitschko is used to being the center of attention.
He has won 15 heavyweight championship fights.
But now he's going for a different title: president.
The election is in May.
It may be his toughest fight yet.
Vitali Klitschko: In sport, we have a clear rules.
If you break rules, you will be disqualified.
Clarissa Ward: But in Ukrainian politics there are no rules? Vitali Klitschko: In the Ukraine, no rules.
Clarissa Ward: No rules and violence? Vitali Klitschko: No rules and violence.
This is what Ukraine's parliament looked like before the revolution, when Klitschko became a party leader.
When the protests began, Klitschko tried to be a voice of moderation.
At one point he was even attacked by more extreme elements of the movement.
But it was the government's bloody crackdown that really shocked him.
More than 70 protesters were killed in one day, the center of Kiev was on fire.
Vitali Klitschko: We never expect the police will use guns.
Clarissa Ward: Shooting their own people.
Vitali Klitschko: Yeah, and shooting we own people, and using snipers.
Clarissa Ward: What was your reaction when you saw that? Vitali Klitschko: I can't believe.
Grenade exploding and-- everywhere is fire.
I have-- it's unreal.
It's unreal.
It's-- it's-- I have a feeling I'm in movie.
What's-- what's happen with my country? What's happen with my city? After the horror of the killings came another shock.
President Yanukovych fled the country to Russia and protesters who had endured a brutal winter in the square were told that $37 billion was missing from government accounts.
They got a glimpse of where some of that money may have gone when Yanukovych's private home was opened to the public.
Yurash was one of the first to get inside.
Clarissa Ward: I mean, this is what your revolution was about, in a sense, this opulence, this complete lack of respect, almost.
Sviatoslav Yurash: This complete lack of taste as well, on top of that.
Clarissa Ward: On top of that.
Sviatoslav Yurash: -- this is all stolen money.
This is all bribe.
This is all corruption.
This is nothing that he earned.
This is a man who is sitting two times in prison, one of them for stealing hats, and now he builds this Versailles for himself.
The house has become an instant tourist attraction with entrepreneurs outside the gates hawking maps of the estate.
Documents found on the scene indicate that Yanukovych spent $30 million on the chandeliers alone.
A private elevator adorned with Swarovski crystals can't have been cheap either.
Some activists want this to be turned into a museum of state corruption.
There is certainly a lot to see, including a boat that was used for dinner parties and a private zoo.
Remarkably, there was almost no looting when the house was taken over.
When we sat down for a chat in the lavish main hall, flower arrangements from the last days of the old regime had just begun to wilt.
Clarissa Ward: For an ordinary Ukrainian person, what's their reaction to this? Sviatoslav Yurash: Shock and outrage.
We all knew Yanukovych was corrupt.
We all knew he stole money.
But the quantity of it is mind boggling in every way.
Yanukovych is now gone.
But his allies in Russia are not letting go.
As the world saw first hand when Russian forces moved into Ukraine's southern Crimea region.
Clarissa Ward: You fought Viktor Yanukovych and you won.
Are you ready to get in the ring with Vladimir Putin? Vitali Klitschko: It's very difficult fight.
It's very difficult fight for democracy in our country.
Russia have idea to rebuild empire.
Clarissa Ward: The Soviet Union? Vitali Klitschko: Some new kind of Soviet Union.
But without Ukraine, it's impossible to do it.
Clarissa Ward: But you've said before no fight, no win.
Vitali Klitschko: No fight, no win.
Clarissa Ward: So are you ready to fight? Vitali Klitschko: Yeah, I fight for my country.
I fight for the future.
I fight for democracy, and I fight for the justice.
And I'm not alone.
When the billionaire Petro Poroshenko flew down to Crimea on his private jet to negotiate, he was chased away by an angry pro-Russian mob.
This may be the revolution's biggest challenge yet, a showdown with a much more powerful neighbor.
Clarissa Ward: Do you want to see America take stronger action against Russia? Petro Poroshenko: My answer would be America should use all instruments which held in their disposal to stop-- Clarissa Ward: Including force? Petro Poroshenko: --to stop the war.
Clarissa Ward: Including force? Petro Poroshenko: All instrument.
On the Maidan, there are now religious services for the dead every day and constant cries from the crowd that "heroes never die.
" But many Ukrainians are tired of fighting.
The victory of this revolution has come at a horrifyingly high price.
Vitali Klitschko: Is difficult, because I feel-- some part of responsibility for the people I take over as politician.
People go behind-- behind me, and people died.
I still alive.
Clarissa Ward: You feel guilt.
Vitali Klitschko: I have-- I feel guilty for everything what happened in my country, also.
I take responsibility for everything because I call to the people to fighting for the future.
At this very moment, astronomers are exploring parts of space that have never been seen before.
They are seeing the actual birth of planets and stars, countless millions of them, from the top of a remote plateau in Northern Chile.
Deep in the Atacama Desert, they've built a revolutionary new observatory, known as the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, ALMA for short.
It's a different kind of telescope, not the kind you look through.
ALMA is the world's most powerful radio telescope, which means it deciphers wave lengths of light -- colors really -- that the human eye cannot see, giving scientists a window on parts of the universe that are otherwise invisible.
It's a project that's been 30 years in the making and cost $1.
3 billion.
ALMA is just getting started, but has already made some astonishing discoveries.
For centuries, people have come to this high plateau in Northern Chile to look far into the heart of space.
It's called Chajnantor, which means "place of departure.
" As these time lapse pictures show, it is the Earth's window to the stars.
At 16,500 feet, it's above most of the Earth's atmosphere, there's very little here separating man from the heavens.
The result is a night's sky that's more brilliant than anything you can see without actually being in orbit.
The landscape is otherworldly, and the harsh terrain stretches hundreds of miles.
But the same features that make the desert so inhospitable also make it an ideal place to gaze at the galaxies.
It's high and it's dry.
ALMA is comprised of 66 radio antennas.
The expertise and technology assembled here make it the most ambitious astronomical project on Earth.
Bob Simon: Has there ever been an enterprise on this scale before? Pierre Cox: On this scale, no.
It's the biggest one.
Pierre Cox is ALMA's Director.
His job is to coordinate the 19 different countries involved in the project.
Pierre Cox: When I took my job, people said, "Oh my goodness.
That would be like being the Secretary General of United Nations.
" Bob Simon: That's what I would have thought.
Pierre Cox: I thought it also.
But then I thought a little bit about it.
And I think no.
It's much easier, because all the members have the same goal, which is not true for the United Nations.
But it is a herculean task.
Everything you see here had to be manufactured in Europe, Asia and North America, and shipped to the Atacama.
It was assembled and tested here at ALMA's base camp at the foot of the mountain, an altitude of 10,000 feet.
Then the trip to the top at eight miles-an-hour.
Each one of these $7 million instruments has to make the 17-mile journey on a specially built transporter: more crab than carrier, designed to protect this ultrasensitive cargo from even the slightest bump in the road.
Bob Simon: You put one of these on a truck? Pierre Cox: Yes.
Bob Simon: Haul it up to 5,000 meters, more than 16,000 feet, and you still expect the kind of accuracy-- Pierre Cox: Yes.
Bob Simon: --that is a tiny fraction of a human hair? Pierre Cox: Yes, that gives you an idea about how complex this whole endeavour is.
It's a journey into thin air.
The altitude is such a strain on the body that you have to pass a medical exam to go there.
Bob Simon: Do you find that when you're on top your thinking gets a little bit hazy? Pierre Cox: Yes, sometimes it does.
I mean, people react very differently.
There are people who are starting to babble all the time.
Other ones who don't say a word.
Very little can survive at these heights.
There's a point at which even the llamas stop climbing.
We came here in May - the middle of fall in the Southern Hemisphere.
It's supposed to be the driest place on Earth.
We found snow.
Bob Simon: You know what's going on at a trillion miles from here.
But you couldn't forecast the weather.
Pierre Cox: Yeah, that's right.
So we have to live with it.
There you see the antennas.
Bob Simon: My God, what a sight.
That looks extraterrestrial.
Pierre Cox: It is.
It's absolutely mind-boggling.
We were fitted with oxygen tanks.
Still, we found it difficult to think or breathe or walk.
Right now the antennas are spread out on the plateau over a distance of a mile.
But they're moveable, and eventually, they could spread out over 10 miles.
That will mimic a single telescope dish 10 miles wide.
Then, ALMA will be able to see far off objects with greater detail than ever before.
And because light takes so long to get to us from distant objects, the farther away ALMA sees the farther back in time it looks.
Soon, they will be able to get close to the start of it all, to the Big Bang.
ALMA will offer us a glimpse at the formation of the very first galaxies 13 billion years ago.
Bob Simon: The very first galaxies? Pierre Cox: Yes.
The ones which were born just after the Big Bang, about a billion years after the Big Bang.
Bob Simon: Just after the Big Bang is a billion years Bob Simon: --after the Big Bang-- Pierre Cox: In terms of astronomy we have those terms.
Bob Simon: And that's never been before? Pierre Cox: No, or very few.
ALMA's brain is a supercomputer housed in one of the highest buildings in the world, second only to a tiny train station in the Tibetan Himalayas.
Physicist Alison Peck helped oversee ALMA's construction.
Alison Peck: We had to oxygenate the entire room.
That means we need to-- needed to pump additional oxygen into the room in order for the guys to be able to make decisions correctly, to focus correctly, to compensate for the altitude.
Bob Simon: So they wouldn't have been able to do this without oxygen? Alison Peck: There's absolutely no way they would have been able to assemble this without additional oxygen.
Bob Simon: Has anything like this ever been done before? Alison Peck: Not at this altitude, no.
This is definitely the highest altitude supercomputer in the entire world.
It's as powerful as three million laptops and it synchronizes all the data coming in from those antennas.
Bob Simon: How precise does the computer have to be? Alison Peck: This computer has to be able to synchronize the data to within just a few femtoseconds.
Bob Simon: What's that? Alison Peck: That is a millionth of a billionth of a second.
ALMA isn't actually the world's highest telescope.
Hubble, for example, has been orbiting hundreds of miles above the Earth for more than two decades.
But Hubble is an optical telescope, a very different creature from ALMA.
Alison Peck: ALMA is a radio telescope which means that we are observing things that are radiating at wavelengths longer than what the eye can see.
Optical telescopes observe the visible light.
They observe things that light up that we can see with our eyes.
Bob Simon: So, ALMA can see colors that we cannot see? Alison Peck: Effectively, yes.
ALMA can see wavelengths of light that we cannot see with our eyes.
Take a look.
What you're seeing is an image from an optical telescope.
It looks like little more than a dark cloud in space.
But THIS is how ALMA sees it.
Suddenly that cloud is lifted.
Bob Simon: What's there? Alison Peck: Gas, generally, and dust.
And that doesn't sound so exciting when you say that.
I mean, dust-- we just vacuum it up, normally.
But in the context of the evolution of galaxies and solar systems, dust is extremely important.
It's in these dense patches of gas and dust where stars, new solar systems, are born.
And that's exactly what we're seeing in this picture: a new star.
Alison Peck: Hubble can see stars immediately after they're born.
But it can't detect the regions before the stars are born.
It can't see the cradles, if you will, where the stars will appear.
Bob Simon: Hubble sees the baby, you're seeing the birth? Alison Peck: Exactly.
That's exactly right.
Not just the birth of stars, ALMA can also see planets as they form.
Stuart Corder is ALMA's deputy director.
Inside the control room, he showed us some of the remarkable things they're already observing.
Bob Simon: So essentially, in language I can understand, we are looking at a young star.
Stuart Corder: Young star, yes.
Bob Simon: And we're looking at the birth of planets around it.
Stuart Corder: Right.
Yeah, I mean, the-- the emit-- the-- the colors that we're seeing in the image are the gas around the star.
And that gas, and the dust that's also surrounding the star, eventually comes together into small pebbles, and then large rocks, and then bigger rocks, and eventually forms planets.
So I mean, this is really the-- you're seeing the natal environment of planets.
This ALMA graphic illustrates just how new planets are formed.
But will there be life on them? We all know that's the ultimate question.
And even at this early stage in its journey, ALMA has seen evidence that there might be.
It has identified chemicals close to newborn stars that are similar to what we find here on Earth, which form the building blocks of life.
Alison Peck: We found a simple sugar called glycolaldehyde.
Now this is a molecule that we consider pre-biotic.
That means that it could lead to conditions where life could form Bob Simon: Excuse me.
I can't resist.
There's sugar out there? Alison Peck: Yes.
There's sugar out there, there's alcohol.
Bob Simon: This is very good news.
Alison Peck: Yes, indeed.
Indeed.
The scientists at ALMA aren't the first people to gaze at the skies from this desert.
For generations, the indigenous people of the Atacama were fascinated, not by the brilliance of the stars, but by the very same dark corners of space.
Chilean physicist Eduardo Hardy, ALMA's director of North American Operations showed us how they saw the universe.
Eduardo Hardy: They saw the equivalent of constellations.
But instead of looking at stars to draw the shapes of the constellations, they used the dark patches to do that.
Bob Simon: The Greeks used the stars.
Eduardo Hardy: The Greek used the stars.
The local populations used the dark patches, which is precisely what ALMA is looking at.
And in these dark patches, they saw reflections of their daily livesllamas, for example.
They spun a whole mythology around them.
Bob Simon: The Milky Way.
Eduardo Hardy: Here, the Milky Way is a river.
And it actually does look like a river.
But it's a river that will take the souls of the dead people and take them to heaven.
It's fitting, then, that scientists at ALMA are scanning the skies on Chajnantor, this "place of departure.
" And even though they've already taken us far into darkness, they're just getting started.
Eduardo Hardy: We don't even know what has been discovered.
People who have made observation with ALMA are working hard to get the data out and publish it.
In the next few years, we will be very surprised.
The only thing I can predict is that we will be very surprised.
Surprised, yes.
But ALMA is destined to take science further back in space and time than had ever been imagined -- closer than ever to an understanding of what it means to say: "in the beginning.
"
What most of you don't know, or are just beginning to realize, is that a much greater and more immediate threat to your privacy is coming from thousands of companies you've probably never heard of, in the name of commerce.
They're called data brokers, and they are collecting, analyzing and packaging some of our most sensitive personal information and selling it as a commodityto each other, to advertisers, even the government, often without our direct knowledge.
Much of this is the kind of harmless consumer marketing that's been going on for decades.
What's changed is the volume and nature of the data being mined from the Internet and our mobile devices, and the growth of a multibillion dollar industry that operates in the shadows with virtually no oversight.
Companies and marketing firms have been gathering information about customers and potential customers for years, collecting their names and addresses, tracking credit card purchases, and asking them to fill out questionnaires, so they can offer discounts and send catalogues.
But today we are giving up more and more private information online without knowing that it's being harvested and personalized and sold to lots of different peopleour likes and dislikes, our closest friends, our bad habits, even your daily movements, both on and offline.
Federal Trade Commissioner Julie Brill says we have lost control of our most personal information.
Steve Kroft: Are people putting this together and making dossiers? Julie Brill: Absolutely.
Steve Kroft: With names attached to it? With personal identification? Julie Brill: The dossiers are about individuals.
That's the whole point of these dossiers.
It is information that is individually identified to an individual or linked to an individual.
Steve Kroft: Do you think most people know this information is being collected? Julie Brill: I think most people have no idea that it's being collected and sold and that it is personally identifiable about them, and that the information is in basically a profile of them.
No one even knows how many companies there are trafficking in our data.
But it's certainly in the thousands, and would include research firms, all sorts of Internet companies, advertisers, retailers and trade associations.
The largest data broker is Acxiom, a marketing giant that brags it has, on average, 1,500 pieces of information on more than 200 million Americans.
It's much harder for Americans to get information on Acxiom.
The company declined our request for an interview and is fairly vague about the methods it uses to collect information and who its customers are.
Tim Sparapani: It's not about what we know we're sharing, it's about what we don't know is being collected and sold about us.
And Tim Sparapani says it's a lot.
He has been following the data broker industry for years, first as a privacy lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, then as Facebook's first director of public policy.
He's currently advising tech companies and app makers.
Sparapani thinks people would be stunned to learn what's being compiled about them and sold, and might end up in their profiles; religion, ethnicity, political affiliations, user names, income, and family medical history.
And that's just for openers.
Steve Kroft: What about medications? Tim Sparapani: Certainly.
You can buy from any number of data brokers, by malady, the lists of individuals in America who are afflicted with a particular disease or condition.
Steve Kroft: Alcoholism? Tim Sparapani: Yes.
Absolutely.
Steve Kroft: Depression? Tim Sparapani: Certainly.
Steve Kroft: Psychiatric problems? Tim Sparapani: No question.
Steve Kroft: History of genetic problems? Tim Sparapani: Yes.
Cancer, heart disease, you name it, down to the most rare and, and most unexpected maladies.
Steve Kroft: Sexual orientation? Tim Sparapani: Of course.
Steve Kroft: How do they determine that? Tim Sparapani: Well, based on a series of other data points they bought and sold.
What clubs you may be frequenting what bars and restaurants you're making purchases at, what other products you may be buying online.
Steve Kroft: And all of this can end up in a file somewhere that's being sold maybe to a prospective employer.
Tim Sparapani: Yeah, not only can it, it is, Steve.
Steve Kroft: With all this information and your name attached to it? Tim Sparapani: Yes.
Exactly.
Sparapani says data brokers have been flying under the radar for years, preferring that people know as little as possible about the industry and the information that's being collected and sold.
But the evidence is there if you know where to look.
We were able to go online and find all sorts of companies peddling sensitive personalized information.
A Connecticut data broker called "Statlistics" advertises lists of gay and lesbian adults and "Response Solutions" -- people suffering from bipolar disorder.
"Paramount Lists" operates out of this building in Erie, Pa.
, and offers lists of people with alcohol, sexual and gambling addictions and people desperate to get out of debt.
A Chicago company, "Exact Data," is brokering the names of people who had a sexually transmitted disease, as well as lists of people who have purchased adult material and sex toys.
Tim Sparapani: No one has ever looked into these lists.
In fact, most of this has been completely opaque until just recently.
The depths of this industry, the really darkest corners, have yet to be exposed to any light whatsoever.
Every piece of data about us now seems to be worth something to somebody.
And lots more people are giving up information about people they do business with, from state Departments of Motor Vehicles, to pizza parlors.
Tim Sparapani: Most retailers are finding out that they have a secondary source of income, which is that the data about their customers is probably just about as valuable, maybe even more so, than the actual product or service that they're selling to the individual.
So, there's a whole new revenue stream that many companies have found.
That data becomes much more valuable when it's married up to the much more personal information that's being volunteered on the Internet.
"Take 5 Solutions," a data broker in Boca Raton, Fla.
, runs 17 websites like "GoodParentingToday.
com" and "T5 HealthyLiving.
Com," where people can share stories about their families and health.
What web visitors don't realize is that "Take 5's" real business is collecting and selling the information.
Steve Kroft: There's all sorts of people coming on now.
Ashkan Soltani: That's right.
And there is also an invisible side to the Internet that most people have never seen.
When you are online visiting websites, you may think you're alone.
But you are not, as digital privacy expert Ashkan Soltani showed us using a software program called "Disconnect," which was created by a former Google engineer.
Steve Kroft: What's this stuff? Ashkan Soltani: So when you visit the New York Times homepage, there's a number of companies on the page that are essentially tracking your visits.
When we clicked on "NewYorkTimes.
com," the software revealed the presence of more than a dozen third parties that the website had allowed in to observe our movements.
Ashkan Soltani: These are all companies that either place ads or measure people's behaviors on that site.
Steve Kroft: So as you are going thru the web, and doing your searching, you've got a whole crowd following you? Ashkan Soltani: That's right.
There were ad networks and marketing and analytics companies, measuring traffic and page views and cataloging our interests.
Steve Kroft: And some of this information, you think is going to data brokers? Ashkan Soltani: Oh, definitely.
Steve Kroft: Wow, look at that.
We found the same thing going on at the 60 Minutes website.
They are everywhere.
Steve Kroft: A lot of them.
Steve Kroft: So, they're really inside your computer? Ashkan Soltani: They're inside your browser usually, or your mobile device.
Yes.
Steve Kroft: And you haven't necessarily invited them in? Ashkan Soltani: You've not invited them in.
And most computers or browsers allow them in by default is the way to think about it.
Steve Kroft: Do companies collect your web browsing history? Ashkan Soltani: Yes.
Absolutely.
Yeah, this is the primary piece of data collected online.
As you click through the web and view car sites or read about the news, companies, these third parties, will collect your click stream, as you click from site to site to site, to see what you may be reading, what you may be interested in, what types of things you might buy.
And almost all of it is for sale, especially any personal information that you might volunteer.
The more companies know about us, they say, the more efficient they can make the advertising.
You are looking at one of the commercial pillars of the Internet.
Soltani took us to an online dating site called "OkCupid," which asks visitors for all sorts of personal information.
Ashkan Soltani: Are you a vegetarian or vegan? Do you drink? What's your relationship with marijuana? And what people don't realize that, so, you know, here you're seeing all the third parties that are present on this site.
Steve Kroft: So all these people are getting the information? Ashkan Soltani: They're getting some of this information.
The website doesn't require users to give their real name.
But the IP address and the computer ID number are recorded and it is not difficult for data brokers to match that information with other online identifiers.
There are firms that specialize in doing it.
Steve Kroft: So you can combine this data with other data that's available and figure out who someone is? Ashkan Soltani: That's right.
Steve Kroft: By name, by email? Ashkan Soltani: That's right.
That's right.
The only way you would have known that is by going to the legal section of "OkCupid's" website, presuming you could find it, then you'd have to scroll through three pages of terms and conditions before finding the privacy policy, which says, "You should appreciate that all information submitted on the Website might potentially be publicly accessible.
" And if you're one of the billion people who have downloaded the popular game app Angry Birds to your smart phone, or you were one of the 50 million people who downloaded "Brightest Flashlight Free" app, you didn't realize that the companies that gave them to you for free were using the apps to track your every movement and pass it along to other companies.
Julie Brill: Your smartphones are basically little mini tracking devices.
And it's collecting information about where you are traveling through the day as it's on in your pocket or in your purse.
Federal Trade Commissioner Julie Brill says geo-location data on individuals has become a hot commodity.
Steve Kroft: How sensitive is that information? Julie Brill: It's the kind of information that really talks about who you are on a day to day basis.
Where you go and who you might be visiting with, what shops you may frequent.
What time you come home.
What time you leave.
And that's not all, the iPhone app for "Path Social," which was designed to help young people share photos and memories with friends, was caught sneaking into users' digital address books and filching their contact information.
Steve Kroft: This app was going into people's phones and collecting that information without their knowledge? Julie Brill: Right.
It was downloading their contact list off of their phone, their smartphone.
Right.
Steve Kroft: You say information from the address book.
What does that or contact information, what does that include? Julie Brill: It could include, and did in this case, include things like Facebook usernames, Twitter usernames, birth dates.
So it can be fairly detailed in personal information that is contained within a contact list or address book.
The FTC, which is one of the few agencies with any jurisdiction over data brokers, fined the company $800,000 dollars for deceptive trade practices.
Commissioner Brill is pushing for more oversight and transparency.
She says people should be able to see the information the companies have on them, be able to challenge it if it's incorrect, and opt out of the system if they don't want personal data collected.
Julie Brill: Consumers don't know who the data brokers are.
They don't know the names of these companies.
They have no way to know, "What -- well, what website am I supposed to go to? Who do I call? What letter do I write?" The Senate Commerce Committee and its chairman, Jay Rockefeller, have proposed legislation that would do just that.
The committee has been investigating the industry for more than a year and Sen.
Rockefeller says he is being stonewalled by three of its biggest players: Axciom, Epsilon and Experian.
[Jay Rockefeller: I am putting these three companies on notice today that I'm not satisfied with their responses and I'm considering further steps.
.]
Steve Kroft: Sen.
Rockefeller called companies like Epsilon "the dark underside of American life.
" Bryan Kennedy: Yeah, that's an interesting phrase.
And one I would take offense at.
Bryan Kennedy is chairman and CEO of Epsilon, which claim to have "the world's largest cooperative database" including more than 8 billion consumer transactions, combined with an extensive network of online sources.
He doesn't like the term "data broker," and says Epsilon is a marketing firm that uses data.
Steve Kroft: Can I go on your website and see everything you have about me? Bryan Kennedy: You can go on our website today and we offer a method by which we can show you the kind of information that we have about you.
Steve Kroft: The kind of information.
Bryan Kennedy: Right.
Steve Kroft: Not all the information.
Bryan Kennedy: What we've done is we've collected the data into categories, into the basic information that is meaningful and understandable to a consumer.
Kennedy says Epsilon has provided the Senate Commerce Committee with binders full of information and calls the hearings political theater.
He sees no need for more oversight or regulation of one of the fastest-growing sectors of the economy.
Bryan Kennedy: If there are abuses out there, we don't believe those happen within our company.
And we would be the first to raise our hand and say if there are specific uses of data that are problematic, then the government should focus on those particular uses of data.
Not attempt to regulate the entire industry in a way that could cripple our economy.
That's our concern in the debate.
Steve Kroft: You're saying that any kind of regulation on this could cripple the economy? Bryan Kennedy: I am.
Steve Kroft: And this should be left to industry groups? To self-enforce? Bryan Kennedy: We think that self-regulation has been very effective.
What we're hearing today is a lot of discussion in Washington.
We're not hearing a lot of discussion, frankly, from consumers.
It's one of the odd things.
So, consumers are rushing to the Internet to provide more information about themselves than, you know, we would've ever imagined.
Steve Kroft: That surprise you? Bryan Kennedy: It does surprise me.
I don't do it myself.
I'm a consumer, like, like you are.
Steve Kroft: So, you think it's imprudent? Bryan Kennedy: I think that consumers ought to understand that the Internet is an advertising medium.
This is also the position of the Direct Marketing Association, which is one of the most powerful lobbying groups in Washington.
Its members include Google and Facebook, the two companies that probably know more about us than anyone else.
They were not mentioned in our story because they don't sell the information they gather about us.
They keep it all to themselves.
Ukraine has been dominating the news for weeks.
Nearly 100 protesters were killed in a revolution that toppled the president, after he reneged on a promise to sign a trade agreement with Europe that would bring the country closer to the West and reduce its dependence on Russia.
Russia responded to the revolution angrily, seizing control of Ukraine's southern Crimea region and ratcheting up tensions reminiscent of the Cold War.
Our story tonight is about the people behind Ukraine's revolution.
What we found was surprising.
They are an unusual collection of characters from very different worlds.
They came together in Kiev's central square, a place that became a battleground and the heart of the revolution.
This is Independence Square, known as the Maidan, a sprawling community of tents and barricades and European Union flags.
Tens of thousands of Ukrainians have been camped out here for three months, braving sniper fire and sub-zero temperatures to topple their government.
But this revolution isn't over.
We were surprised to find this past week protesters digging in and building up the barricades.
They're here to take a stand against Russian interference and to ensure that the demands of the revolution are met.
Already paid for in blood, this real estate is just too valuable to give up.
Sviatoslav Yurash: I think this whole square will remain a very powerful symbol for generations to come.
army of young organizers who keep the square running.
He's in charge of the media operation.
He walked us past the burned out hulk of the building where he lived and worked before government forces attacked it.
Sviatoslav Yurash: We never thought it could turn into something like this.
We never thought the main street of Kiev can be drenched in blood.
We never thought that we would come up there and see shells of sniper bullets there.
Every day people pour in from across the country to lay flowers at the spots where demonstrators were gunned down.
At times, it almost seems the protesters are re-enacting revolutions of the past.
One major intersection is now guarded by a medieval-looking catapult.
Soup is cooked in wood-fired boilers that look like steam locomotives.
This woman has been ladling out that soup for months now.
Clarissa Ward: How long will you stay here? Woman, translated: However long it takes.
These people see themselves as guardians of Ukraine's revolution.
It's hard work.
Squads of volunteers clean up debris from recent battles while others chop wood.
Night and day self defense units in camouflage uniforms patrol the square.
For many, tents are the only shelter against the cold.
Clarissa Ward, entering tent: Can we have a look inside? Sviatoslav Yurash: Of course we can.
Clarissa Ward: There are people sleeping.
Sviatoslav Yurash: Of course.
Clarissa Ward: So, people are living here? Sviatoslav Yurash: Every day for the last three months, there have been people here sleeping, eating, they've been working, they've been essentially doing everything they can to help the Maidan continue.
We were struck by how well organized and well supplied the Maidan is -- most people don't realize this but Ukraine's revolution was not your average populist movement.
It was supported by some of the most powerful people in the country, like billionaire Petro Poroshenko, one of a handful of incredibly wealthy and influential businessmen known as the oligarchs -- though he bristles at that term because unlike other oligarchs, Poroshenko didn't make his money privatizing state industries after the collapse of the Soviet Union, he made it through chocolate.
Petro Poroshenko: I'm not expert on oligarch.
My-- but-- because-- to explain you.
But-- Clarissa Ward: You don't consider yourselves an oligarch? Petro Poroshenko: For sure.
Not-- but people not consider for me.
Because-- many of the-- Clarissa Ward: But you're the seventh-richest man in Ukraine? Petro Poroshenko: Ninth.
Clarissa Ward: Ninth.
Seeing billionaires on the barricades may come as a surprise, but for Petro Poroshenko, the rampant corruption of Yanukovych's regime was simply bad for business.
Clarissa Ward: Why do you think the oligarchs started to support the Maidan protest movement? Petro Poroshenko: First of all, this is about the values.
The values, the justice, the absence of the corruption, the fair system of the courts when everybody can defend themselves.
If you're asking me, "What is that?" In one word it is just modernize my country.
Clarissa Ward: Where does the money come from to fund this protest movement? Petro Poroshenko: There is no sponsor of Maidan, please believe.
Clarissa Ward: So you're saying you haven't given any money to this movement? Petro Poroshenko: No.
This is not true.
But I was together with many people.
I am not giving more money than the maybe hundreds of thousands people, please believe.
Clarissa Ward: Surely you can't be implying that this revolution could've happened without the support of this country's uber-elite businessmen, the so-called oligarchs? Petro Poroshenko: Not at all.
That was not the movement led by the politician.
This is not true.
And this was not a movement-- organizing by the oligarch, which is completely not true.
People-- this is first time in our history, people go in the street by millions of the people demanding not rising up salary not lowering up taxes, or not moving something.
They're demanding the modernization of the country.
Clarissa Wrd: How much time did you spend in the square during those months? Petro Poroshenko: Almost all the time.
So if you-- if you want the people-- being with you, you should be together with the people.
That's important.
With his high profile role in the revolution and a seat in parliament, Poroshenko is widely regarded as a likely candidate to be prime minister.
If Poroshenko is the CEO of the revolution, then retired heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko is its face.
He now leads a parliamentary block.
When Secretary Of State John Kerry flew to Kiev this past week to meet with the country's top leaders, Klitschko was right beside Poroshenko.
Klitschko is used to being the center of attention.
He has won 15 heavyweight championship fights.
But now he's going for a different title: president.
The election is in May.
It may be his toughest fight yet.
Vitali Klitschko: In sport, we have a clear rules.
If you break rules, you will be disqualified.
Clarissa Ward: But in Ukrainian politics there are no rules? Vitali Klitschko: In the Ukraine, no rules.
Clarissa Ward: No rules and violence? Vitali Klitschko: No rules and violence.
This is what Ukraine's parliament looked like before the revolution, when Klitschko became a party leader.
When the protests began, Klitschko tried to be a voice of moderation.
At one point he was even attacked by more extreme elements of the movement.
But it was the government's bloody crackdown that really shocked him.
More than 70 protesters were killed in one day, the center of Kiev was on fire.
Vitali Klitschko: We never expect the police will use guns.
Clarissa Ward: Shooting their own people.
Vitali Klitschko: Yeah, and shooting we own people, and using snipers.
Clarissa Ward: What was your reaction when you saw that? Vitali Klitschko: I can't believe.
Grenade exploding and-- everywhere is fire.
I have-- it's unreal.
It's unreal.
It's-- it's-- I have a feeling I'm in movie.
What's-- what's happen with my country? What's happen with my city? After the horror of the killings came another shock.
President Yanukovych fled the country to Russia and protesters who had endured a brutal winter in the square were told that $37 billion was missing from government accounts.
They got a glimpse of where some of that money may have gone when Yanukovych's private home was opened to the public.
Yurash was one of the first to get inside.
Clarissa Ward: I mean, this is what your revolution was about, in a sense, this opulence, this complete lack of respect, almost.
Sviatoslav Yurash: This complete lack of taste as well, on top of that.
Clarissa Ward: On top of that.
Sviatoslav Yurash: -- this is all stolen money.
This is all bribe.
This is all corruption.
This is nothing that he earned.
This is a man who is sitting two times in prison, one of them for stealing hats, and now he builds this Versailles for himself.
The house has become an instant tourist attraction with entrepreneurs outside the gates hawking maps of the estate.
Documents found on the scene indicate that Yanukovych spent $30 million on the chandeliers alone.
A private elevator adorned with Swarovski crystals can't have been cheap either.
Some activists want this to be turned into a museum of state corruption.
There is certainly a lot to see, including a boat that was used for dinner parties and a private zoo.
Remarkably, there was almost no looting when the house was taken over.
When we sat down for a chat in the lavish main hall, flower arrangements from the last days of the old regime had just begun to wilt.
Clarissa Ward: For an ordinary Ukrainian person, what's their reaction to this? Sviatoslav Yurash: Shock and outrage.
We all knew Yanukovych was corrupt.
We all knew he stole money.
But the quantity of it is mind boggling in every way.
Yanukovych is now gone.
But his allies in Russia are not letting go.
As the world saw first hand when Russian forces moved into Ukraine's southern Crimea region.
Clarissa Ward: You fought Viktor Yanukovych and you won.
Are you ready to get in the ring with Vladimir Putin? Vitali Klitschko: It's very difficult fight.
It's very difficult fight for democracy in our country.
Russia have idea to rebuild empire.
Clarissa Ward: The Soviet Union? Vitali Klitschko: Some new kind of Soviet Union.
But without Ukraine, it's impossible to do it.
Clarissa Ward: But you've said before no fight, no win.
Vitali Klitschko: No fight, no win.
Clarissa Ward: So are you ready to fight? Vitali Klitschko: Yeah, I fight for my country.
I fight for the future.
I fight for democracy, and I fight for the justice.
And I'm not alone.
When the billionaire Petro Poroshenko flew down to Crimea on his private jet to negotiate, he was chased away by an angry pro-Russian mob.
This may be the revolution's biggest challenge yet, a showdown with a much more powerful neighbor.
Clarissa Ward: Do you want to see America take stronger action against Russia? Petro Poroshenko: My answer would be America should use all instruments which held in their disposal to stop-- Clarissa Ward: Including force? Petro Poroshenko: --to stop the war.
Clarissa Ward: Including force? Petro Poroshenko: All instrument.
On the Maidan, there are now religious services for the dead every day and constant cries from the crowd that "heroes never die.
" But many Ukrainians are tired of fighting.
The victory of this revolution has come at a horrifyingly high price.
Vitali Klitschko: Is difficult, because I feel-- some part of responsibility for the people I take over as politician.
People go behind-- behind me, and people died.
I still alive.
Clarissa Ward: You feel guilt.
Vitali Klitschko: I have-- I feel guilty for everything what happened in my country, also.
I take responsibility for everything because I call to the people to fighting for the future.
At this very moment, astronomers are exploring parts of space that have never been seen before.
They are seeing the actual birth of planets and stars, countless millions of them, from the top of a remote plateau in Northern Chile.
Deep in the Atacama Desert, they've built a revolutionary new observatory, known as the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, ALMA for short.
It's a different kind of telescope, not the kind you look through.
ALMA is the world's most powerful radio telescope, which means it deciphers wave lengths of light -- colors really -- that the human eye cannot see, giving scientists a window on parts of the universe that are otherwise invisible.
It's a project that's been 30 years in the making and cost $1.
3 billion.
ALMA is just getting started, but has already made some astonishing discoveries.
For centuries, people have come to this high plateau in Northern Chile to look far into the heart of space.
It's called Chajnantor, which means "place of departure.
" As these time lapse pictures show, it is the Earth's window to the stars.
At 16,500 feet, it's above most of the Earth's atmosphere, there's very little here separating man from the heavens.
The result is a night's sky that's more brilliant than anything you can see without actually being in orbit.
The landscape is otherworldly, and the harsh terrain stretches hundreds of miles.
But the same features that make the desert so inhospitable also make it an ideal place to gaze at the galaxies.
It's high and it's dry.
ALMA is comprised of 66 radio antennas.
The expertise and technology assembled here make it the most ambitious astronomical project on Earth.
Bob Simon: Has there ever been an enterprise on this scale before? Pierre Cox: On this scale, no.
It's the biggest one.
Pierre Cox is ALMA's Director.
His job is to coordinate the 19 different countries involved in the project.
Pierre Cox: When I took my job, people said, "Oh my goodness.
That would be like being the Secretary General of United Nations.
" Bob Simon: That's what I would have thought.
Pierre Cox: I thought it also.
But then I thought a little bit about it.
And I think no.
It's much easier, because all the members have the same goal, which is not true for the United Nations.
But it is a herculean task.
Everything you see here had to be manufactured in Europe, Asia and North America, and shipped to the Atacama.
It was assembled and tested here at ALMA's base camp at the foot of the mountain, an altitude of 10,000 feet.
Then the trip to the top at eight miles-an-hour.
Each one of these $7 million instruments has to make the 17-mile journey on a specially built transporter: more crab than carrier, designed to protect this ultrasensitive cargo from even the slightest bump in the road.
Bob Simon: You put one of these on a truck? Pierre Cox: Yes.
Bob Simon: Haul it up to 5,000 meters, more than 16,000 feet, and you still expect the kind of accuracy-- Pierre Cox: Yes.
Bob Simon: --that is a tiny fraction of a human hair? Pierre Cox: Yes, that gives you an idea about how complex this whole endeavour is.
It's a journey into thin air.
The altitude is such a strain on the body that you have to pass a medical exam to go there.
Bob Simon: Do you find that when you're on top your thinking gets a little bit hazy? Pierre Cox: Yes, sometimes it does.
I mean, people react very differently.
There are people who are starting to babble all the time.
Other ones who don't say a word.
Very little can survive at these heights.
There's a point at which even the llamas stop climbing.
We came here in May - the middle of fall in the Southern Hemisphere.
It's supposed to be the driest place on Earth.
We found snow.
Bob Simon: You know what's going on at a trillion miles from here.
But you couldn't forecast the weather.
Pierre Cox: Yeah, that's right.
So we have to live with it.
There you see the antennas.
Bob Simon: My God, what a sight.
That looks extraterrestrial.
Pierre Cox: It is.
It's absolutely mind-boggling.
We were fitted with oxygen tanks.
Still, we found it difficult to think or breathe or walk.
Right now the antennas are spread out on the plateau over a distance of a mile.
But they're moveable, and eventually, they could spread out over 10 miles.
That will mimic a single telescope dish 10 miles wide.
Then, ALMA will be able to see far off objects with greater detail than ever before.
And because light takes so long to get to us from distant objects, the farther away ALMA sees the farther back in time it looks.
Soon, they will be able to get close to the start of it all, to the Big Bang.
ALMA will offer us a glimpse at the formation of the very first galaxies 13 billion years ago.
Bob Simon: The very first galaxies? Pierre Cox: Yes.
The ones which were born just after the Big Bang, about a billion years after the Big Bang.
Bob Simon: Just after the Big Bang is a billion years Bob Simon: --after the Big Bang-- Pierre Cox: In terms of astronomy we have those terms.
Bob Simon: And that's never been before? Pierre Cox: No, or very few.
ALMA's brain is a supercomputer housed in one of the highest buildings in the world, second only to a tiny train station in the Tibetan Himalayas.
Physicist Alison Peck helped oversee ALMA's construction.
Alison Peck: We had to oxygenate the entire room.
That means we need to-- needed to pump additional oxygen into the room in order for the guys to be able to make decisions correctly, to focus correctly, to compensate for the altitude.
Bob Simon: So they wouldn't have been able to do this without oxygen? Alison Peck: There's absolutely no way they would have been able to assemble this without additional oxygen.
Bob Simon: Has anything like this ever been done before? Alison Peck: Not at this altitude, no.
This is definitely the highest altitude supercomputer in the entire world.
It's as powerful as three million laptops and it synchronizes all the data coming in from those antennas.
Bob Simon: How precise does the computer have to be? Alison Peck: This computer has to be able to synchronize the data to within just a few femtoseconds.
Bob Simon: What's that? Alison Peck: That is a millionth of a billionth of a second.
ALMA isn't actually the world's highest telescope.
Hubble, for example, has been orbiting hundreds of miles above the Earth for more than two decades.
But Hubble is an optical telescope, a very different creature from ALMA.
Alison Peck: ALMA is a radio telescope which means that we are observing things that are radiating at wavelengths longer than what the eye can see.
Optical telescopes observe the visible light.
They observe things that light up that we can see with our eyes.
Bob Simon: So, ALMA can see colors that we cannot see? Alison Peck: Effectively, yes.
ALMA can see wavelengths of light that we cannot see with our eyes.
Take a look.
What you're seeing is an image from an optical telescope.
It looks like little more than a dark cloud in space.
But THIS is how ALMA sees it.
Suddenly that cloud is lifted.
Bob Simon: What's there? Alison Peck: Gas, generally, and dust.
And that doesn't sound so exciting when you say that.
I mean, dust-- we just vacuum it up, normally.
But in the context of the evolution of galaxies and solar systems, dust is extremely important.
It's in these dense patches of gas and dust where stars, new solar systems, are born.
And that's exactly what we're seeing in this picture: a new star.
Alison Peck: Hubble can see stars immediately after they're born.
But it can't detect the regions before the stars are born.
It can't see the cradles, if you will, where the stars will appear.
Bob Simon: Hubble sees the baby, you're seeing the birth? Alison Peck: Exactly.
That's exactly right.
Not just the birth of stars, ALMA can also see planets as they form.
Stuart Corder is ALMA's deputy director.
Inside the control room, he showed us some of the remarkable things they're already observing.
Bob Simon: So essentially, in language I can understand, we are looking at a young star.
Stuart Corder: Young star, yes.
Bob Simon: And we're looking at the birth of planets around it.
Stuart Corder: Right.
Yeah, I mean, the-- the emit-- the-- the colors that we're seeing in the image are the gas around the star.
And that gas, and the dust that's also surrounding the star, eventually comes together into small pebbles, and then large rocks, and then bigger rocks, and eventually forms planets.
So I mean, this is really the-- you're seeing the natal environment of planets.
This ALMA graphic illustrates just how new planets are formed.
But will there be life on them? We all know that's the ultimate question.
And even at this early stage in its journey, ALMA has seen evidence that there might be.
It has identified chemicals close to newborn stars that are similar to what we find here on Earth, which form the building blocks of life.
Alison Peck: We found a simple sugar called glycolaldehyde.
Now this is a molecule that we consider pre-biotic.
That means that it could lead to conditions where life could form Bob Simon: Excuse me.
I can't resist.
There's sugar out there? Alison Peck: Yes.
There's sugar out there, there's alcohol.
Bob Simon: This is very good news.
Alison Peck: Yes, indeed.
Indeed.
The scientists at ALMA aren't the first people to gaze at the skies from this desert.
For generations, the indigenous people of the Atacama were fascinated, not by the brilliance of the stars, but by the very same dark corners of space.
Chilean physicist Eduardo Hardy, ALMA's director of North American Operations showed us how they saw the universe.
Eduardo Hardy: They saw the equivalent of constellations.
But instead of looking at stars to draw the shapes of the constellations, they used the dark patches to do that.
Bob Simon: The Greeks used the stars.
Eduardo Hardy: The Greek used the stars.
The local populations used the dark patches, which is precisely what ALMA is looking at.
And in these dark patches, they saw reflections of their daily livesllamas, for example.
They spun a whole mythology around them.
Bob Simon: The Milky Way.
Eduardo Hardy: Here, the Milky Way is a river.
And it actually does look like a river.
But it's a river that will take the souls of the dead people and take them to heaven.
It's fitting, then, that scientists at ALMA are scanning the skies on Chajnantor, this "place of departure.
" And even though they've already taken us far into darkness, they're just getting started.
Eduardo Hardy: We don't even know what has been discovered.
People who have made observation with ALMA are working hard to get the data out and publish it.
In the next few years, we will be very surprised.
The only thing I can predict is that we will be very surprised.
Surprised, yes.
But ALMA is destined to take science further back in space and time than had ever been imagined -- closer than ever to an understanding of what it means to say: "in the beginning.
"