Friday, September 30, 2016

Big Data, why should we care?



This video from Forbes gives a very concise explanation of big data, and some of its many uses.

For those concerned about the misuse of data, I found some of these ted talks insightful (and a bit frightening): http://www.ted.com/playlists/130/the_dark_side_of_data

If you want to look more into the benefits of big data, there are some talks about that as well: http://www.ted.com/playlists/56/making_sense_of_too_much_data

And then, some questions that big data raised for me:

With the amount of  data that is being collected, should people have more rights regarding their data?

What are some of the potential costs to society for Big Data?

Do the benefits of Big Data make it worth surrendering our information? (obviously many people are willing, but would they be as willing if they knew the extent of the data collection?)

And lastly, what would you do about it? do you care?

4 comments:

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    1. I think the use of big data is one of the defining issues of our time. I have two major areas where I find big data troubling. Big data concerns me because their use is leading to an imbalance of information between the public and corporations/government. Further, the collection and storage of data creates privacy concerns.

      The immediate issue is that our information is being collected, stored and tracked by large entities. In many cases, our names are stripped from the data to protect us when there is data theft. However, a recent study has shown that even with identifying information like the name, address, and credit card number removed from data, the majority of people can still be identified, sometimes using as little as 3 kinds of tracked data. (1) Your data can also be used to determine your daily movement, connect you to other people, and even can be used to steal your health insurance, frequent flier miles and money. (2)

      The second issue I take with big data is a little less concrete. There is a huge advantage to be gained by having useful information about people. I am not comfortable with the idea that large entities are gaining a lot of information about the public. While I would love to think that governments are made up of the people and exist for the people, it’s pretty clear that they can also fail, imprison and murder people. Corporations also can do absolutely abhorrent things. I don’t really feel the need to empower these sorts of entities. In a particularly chilling way on how the collection of data can affect a person directly, enter Sesame Credit. This is a program in which Alibaba, China’s massive analog to Amazon, and the Chinese government work together to rate Chinese citizens. Chinese citizens who think “correctly” on social media and purchase goods the government approves of are rewarded with higher Sesame Credit scores. High Sesame Credit scores lead to opportunities that those with low Sesame Credit scores will not receive. Further, your friends with high Sesame Credit scores are provided incentives to stop associating with you. (3)

      While I believe big data can be used for any number of useful things and benefit society, I think there is enough room for abuse that we should all be wary of offering up any information about ourselves. People should have more say in how much data they share with companies. Currently, we can choose to opt out of information sharing, but it is often difficult to opt out. People who aren’t particularly technologically proficient would probably just give up on trying to opt out. I would prefer it if people chose to opt into information sharing. Further, I think the public should be made more aware of the risks of sharing information. Most people feel safe when they are told that their names are removed from data. They do not understand that their daily lives are a fingerprint that can be used to identify them.


      (1) : http://www.tomsguide.com/us/shopping-data-not-anonymous,news-20377.html
      (2) : http://time.com/money/3724976/bizarre-identity-theft/
      (3) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHcTKWiZ8sI

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  2. I think that people should have more rights regarding their data, mostly more rights to knowledge of what their data is being used for. It's important for people to have information about their decisions before making them so that they can make rational choices.

    I suppose privacy issues are a problem with Big Data since someone might not want a company to know all that much about them, because they do not know what that company might do.

    The benefits of Big Data do make surrendering our data worth it because there are a lot of different benefits and I do not think that there are really any drawbacks. I'm not worried about what a company might know about me.

    I don't really think that there is a lot to do about it except make sure that what the companies are doing is transparent. Other then that I don't really care what happens with Big Data.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I think that people should have more rights regarding their data, mostly more rights to knowledge of what their data is being used for. It's important for people to have information about their decisions before making them so that they can make rational choices.

    I suppose privacy issues are a problem with Big Data since someone might not want a company to know all that much about them, because they do not know what that company might do.

    The benefits of Big Data do make surrendering our data worth it because there are a lot of different benefits and I do not think that there are really any drawbacks. I'm not worried about what a company might know about me.

    I don't really think that there is a lot to do about it except make sure that what the companies are doing is transparent. Other then that I don't really care what happens with Big Data.

    ReplyDelete