Cookies help us display personalized product recommendations and ensure you have great shopping experience.

By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
SmartData CollectiveSmartData Collective
  • Analytics
    AnalyticsShow More
    big data analytics in transporation
    Turning Data Into Decisions: How Analytics Improves Transportation Strategy
    3 Min Read
    sales and data analytics
    How Data Analytics Improves Lead Management and Sales Results
    9 Min Read
    data analytics and truck accident claims
    How Data Analytics Reduces Truck Accidents and Speeds Up Claims
    7 Min Read
    predictive analytics for interior designers
    Interior Designers Boost Profits with Predictive Analytics
    8 Min Read
    image fx (67)
    Improving LinkedIn Ad Strategies with Data Analytics
    9 Min Read
  • Big Data
  • BI
  • Exclusive
  • IT
  • Marketing
  • Software
Search
© 2008-25 SmartData Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: Big Brother… or do I mean Big Data?
Share
Notification
Font ResizerAa
SmartData CollectiveSmartData Collective
Font ResizerAa
Search
  • About
  • Help
  • Privacy
Follow US
© 2008-23 SmartData Collective. All Rights Reserved.
SmartData Collective > Data Management > Privacy > Big Brother… or do I mean Big Data?
PrivacySocial Data

Big Brother… or do I mean Big Data?

Barry Devlin
Barry Devlin
5 Min Read
SHARE

1984first.png“Social networks already know who you know”, “recommendation engines get much smarter”, “early detection mitigates catastrophes”. 

1984first.png“Social networks already know who you know”, “recommendation engines get much smarter”, “early detection mitigates catastrophes”. 

Three of ten ways big data is creating the science fiction future.  These types of headlines appeal to the geek optimists in many of us.  We think that mitigating a catastrophe is certainly a good thing.  That smarter recommendations to whom we should connect and what we might be interested in buying could probably save us time, that most precious of commodities. 

More Read

big data in trading
Leveraging Big Data and AI: How Forex Trading Robots Are Transforming Financial Markets
Miss the Right Connections at Your Own Peril
The Ray Project Harnesses Vehicle Telematics Data For A Smart Highway
Understanding The Phenomenal Impact of Social Data on B2B Funnels
Reasons Why Business Intelligence is the New BFF of All Online Marketers

Most of us have grown up with a belief system that science and, by extension, technology and computers, are a sine qua non in today’s world.  In truth, the world we live in today could not exist without them.

But, at what cost?

Three further headlines from the same blog: “surveillance gets really Orwellian”, “doctors can make sense of your genome–and so can insurers”, “dating sites that can predict when you’re lying”.  Perhaps these items give pause for thought.  Security cameras lurk in every corridor and public place.  And, as of last August, the NYPD has been monitoring Facebook and Twitter.  Even in our bedrooms, smart phones can be turned on remotely to monitor our most intimate indiscretions.  It’s open season on our actions and communications.  Our genomes are fast becoming public property, ostensibly for our better health management; but, clearly, for better risk management–read profit–for insurance companies.  Even our thinking is being analyzed.

We’re fast reaching 1984 some 30 years later than George Orwell imagined.  At least in our ability to monitor the actions, communications, genetic makeup and thoughts of an ever-increasing swathe of humanity.  As BI experts and data scientists, we celebrate our ability to gather and analyze ever more data with ever more sophistication and effort deeper granularity.  For marketeers, Utopia is a segment of one whose buying behavior is predictable with certainty.  As traders on the commodities or currency markets, our algorithms gamble on the Brownian motion of microscopic movements in prices.  For insurers, statistical averaging of risk across populations gives way to cherry picking the low-risk individuals for discounted premiums.

Am I overly pessimistic or even paranoid in imagining that big data brings risks at least as large as the benefits it promises?  Are the petabytes and exabytes of information we’re gathering, storing and analyzing open to misuse?  We celebrate the role of social networking in pro-democracy movements around the world imagining that tweets and texts that are unassailable weapons for freedom, forgetting that the networks that carry them are run by big businesses whose bottom line is profit.  We reveal the secrets of our lives in dribs and drabs, in recordable phone conversations and even through the GPS tracking of our smart phones, oblivious that the technology exists to meet all the clues together, Sherlock Holmes-like, given sufficient time and money.

In my last post, I challenged us to take a step back and apply human insight to the results of big data analysis rather than take the results from statistical analyses at face value, to question the sources and play with other possible explanations before jumping to conclusions.  Now, knowing how fallible your own interpretation of big data may be, please give some consideration to the possibility that others, particularly those in positions of power, such as governments and businesses, can accidentally or deliberately misinterpret or misuse the big data resource.

But what can we do as an industry?  As individual analysts, consultants, data administrators and more?  At the very least, we can revisit the privacy and security controls we build into our systems.  Take a look at “Why you can’t really anonymize your data” by Pete Warden and begin pressing the industry and academia to search for new solutions.  Look again at your business processes and evaluate if and how the use of big data subverts the intentions or ethics of how you work.  And, finally, reread George Orwell’s “1984”.

TAGGED:big data
Share This Article
Facebook Pinterest LinkedIn
Share

Follow us on Facebook

Latest News

big data analytics in transporation
Turning Data Into Decisions: How Analytics Improves Transportation Strategy
Analytics Big Data Exclusive
AI and fund manager software
AI And The Acceleration Of Information Flows From Fund Managers To Investors
Artificial Intelligence Exclusive
sales and data analytics
How Data Analytics Improves Lead Management and Sales Results
Analytics Big Data Exclusive
ai in marketing
How AI and Smart Platforms Improve Email Marketing
Artificial Intelligence Exclusive Marketing

Stay Connected

1.2kFollowersLike
33.7kFollowersFollow
222FollowersPin

You Might also Like

local SEO companies
Big DataExclusive

5 Ways Local SEO Companies Are Optimizing Their Models With Big Data

7 Min Read
rise of blockchain technology shaping big data
Big DataBlockchainData ManagementData QualityExclusivePrivacySecurity

What Does The Rise of Blockchain Technology Mean For Big Data?

6 Min Read
choosing data science as career
Big DataData ScienceExclusiveJobs

5 Ingenious Tips For A Promising Big Data Career

7 Min Read

Big Data and the Enterprise CIO

4 Min Read

SmartData Collective is one of the largest & trusted community covering technical content about Big Data, BI, Cloud, Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, IoT & more.

data-driven web design
5 Great Tips for Using Data Analytics for Website UX
Big Data
AI and chatbots
Chatbots and SEO: How Can Chatbots Improve Your SEO Ranking?
Artificial Intelligence Chatbots Exclusive

Quick Link

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
Follow US
© 2008-25 SmartData Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Go to mobile version
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Username or Email Address
Password

Lost your password?