Big Data.....The New Big Brother

The modern digital era as we know it is not really all that old. Google, Facebook, Amazon, and the progress of smartphones and their apps have exploded into what they have become in a short amount of time. The future rates of disruption and advancement look to take even larger strides in a shorter amount of time.

Big Data is a term that we all will become aware of if we haven't already. It is not all that new in the world of baseball they refer to it as sabermetrics. The information that can be assessed via all huge amounts of what may seem like irrelevant data is remarkable and corporations and governments are starting to utilize it in ways that you may or may not find alarming.

Those frequent shopper points cards you use at Best Buy, Target, or any other store create data logs of your spending habits. With this data the stores can determine what is going on in your life and create those customized flyers you receive in the mail. Those flyers are not always the same for everyone. Target has gone so far as to create an algorithm that can tell them when a woman is pregnant as pregnant women and expecting parents are regarded as the holy grail amongst consumers. Those Google searches that seem to finish those sentences for you are simply the Google algorithm assuming your search inquiry will be among the three most common most people search using the same terms. If you think those search terms you punch into the Google box are private, think again. Although no one can identify you, not yet, as the individual typing those intimate questions into the box, that information is bundled up and accessible to draw conclusions about you collectively as part of that group that searches for those types of things.

Currently there is no legislation to keep these types of data monitoring within a certain set of boundaries. The technology is advancing at a rate faster than anything congress or our courts have known. Judges still instruct jurors to 'disregard' things that are said in court. Really? The best we can do is become as knowledgeable about big data and small data as we can so we can know what is going on in the world around us.



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