Big Data has been holding my
attention for a while, as it might by now be obvious. I was lucky enough to accompany
a group of C-level executives from Germany on an East Coast trip to industry
leaders in Big Data to gain a glimpse at the cutting edge this spring.
The question I think is less,
what Big Data is, but where Big Data is, because it’s
everywhere, literally. Think George
Orwell’s 1984 on steroids times
infinity plus one. Big Data is the information the NSA requested from Verizon,
Big Data is the advertising pushed to your screen after doing research for blue
socks. You get to see are blue socks for the next few days, until your next
search and then you see LED light bulbs everywhere. Big Data is all the
information we output all the time with the many devices we use and the endless
apps on them. Keep a training log online? Play solitaire on your iPhone? Upload
your photos with geo-tagging, as default, courtesy of your camera? Your metro
card? Your built-in car GPS? And that’s just the simplest of lists from our
consumer world.
A bit of light is being shed on
what Big Data is and how it can be constructively used in The Human Face of Big Data
by Rick Smolan and
Jennifer Erwitt. The coffee table book and the iPad app do an amazing job
describing everything Big Data. It’s the
most enjoyable science book I’ve ever read (OK, the second) and I’m going page
by page although with the coffee table layout it would be easy just to
browse. It’s GREAT, fascinating,
thrilling and eye opening.
Big Data is awesome and it is
super scary. And that’s where the questions start that makes it such a hot
topic: how do we use and manage Big Data? The big discussion will be around
ethics, privacy and Big Data mining. Who owns the data – how will it be used,
how transparent is its use.
If we look at consumer behavior
and societal trends we have moved from being consumers to co-creator (or
co-conspirators as I prefer to call it), social media has taught us to be
empowered not controlled, we no longer consume passively, but participate while
we interact as a community, as media caters to ever smaller niche groups. We have power as communities of common interest;
we are networked and no longer sit in our own social group. The products we
consume are influenced by “us”. We, the people, have a voice. We have so far
used the voice to make our dissatisfaction known with products we consume; we
have used our voice to bring on societal change – not as much in ‘fat and happy
America’, although the 99% movement and Anonymous have been heard loud and
clear. The Arab Spring has brought about
REAL and far reaching change and continues to do so.
But in all of this I want to know
where my privacy is? I have not given explicit permission for my set of data do
be mined, used or analyzed. Yet – the data exists that knows if I leave my
house and turn right, I’m going to the subway, I go straight ahead I’m going to
work out in Central Park. However if I break a geographical patterns; what
then? Am I visiting a new friend who’s radicalizing me to be an antigovernment terrorist,
or have I discovered a new nail spa?
The credit card company that warns
you of potentially fraudulent charges and knows your preference in food choices,
also knows that you are about two years out from having a divorce, or are planning
to get pregnant. Oops.
I want to know what happens with my
data. How secure or traceable it is. And what data gets mined to begin
with? We need transparency and we need
to educate ourselves better on what Big Data we generate and for whom. No one reads any of the disclaimers we so
quickly click on to get the part where we are able to download something, pay
something or have access to something. Maybe an app that skims through all that
legal stuff and alters us to red flags would be useful; then again, we unfortunately
cannot red-line a software usage agreement… or can we?
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