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BIG DATA IN A NEW QUANTIFIED WORLD
Big Data in a New Quantified World
Megan Arcayan
Virginia Commonwealth University
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BIG DATA IN A NEW QUANTIFIED WORLD
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Abstract
Everything we do now can be quantified and tracked through the internet. That is the
power of Big Data. Our world will soon be unrecognizably data mined. Almost everything we do
now leaves a digital trail that can be tracked and studied. With the use of advanced analytics, we
are now able to use this Big Data to predict outcomes with a significant level of accuracy. Big
data is the future and has huge potential for progress in various different industries, but with new
technology there is always danger involved. Because of the lack of oversight, Big Data can be
abused by companies and governments entities for their personal agenda. Awareness is key in
the new Big Data conversation about our transparency and anonymity.
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Big Data in a New Quantified World
Big Data is everywhere, and it is being commoditized faster than we know it. As discussed in
A.D. Williams’ article discusses, we are coming to a point where “every animate and inanimate
object on earth will soon be generating data, including our homes, our cars, and yes, even our
bodies” (Williams, 2011). With all this data being generated out in a society moving towards
technology, it is important to think about who will be controlling this data? Corporations and
governments are now taking advantage of such vast data with sophisticated analytics to solve
society's problems using data driven decision making. As big data rapidly progresses, decisions
by these corporations and governments are being made through layers of software laws with very
little oversight. As our lives are becoming continuously quantified, these corporations and
governments lay claim to our personal data for their own benefit. But although it raises these
ethical questions of the transparency and privacy of the data, it is important to acknowledge the
progress it has made for us. Companies such as Knewton have been harnessing this data to create
automotive study plans for students. This is a huge milestone in education and big data.
Knewton’s adaptive learning program has the abilities to track student progress and if considered
off track, students may be forced to change majors. This allows for study plans to be automated
and customized to the students’ benefit. The world in the next years to come is almost going to
be unrecognizably data-centric. This purpose of this essay is to acknowledge the privacy risks
weighed against the rewards of big data points including:
1. Revolutionary potentials of large scale data mining
2. Is big data the end to individual anonymity?
3. Transparency even possible in large scale data mining?
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Revolutionary Potentials of Large Scale Data Mining
Although there are many fears that ally with data mining there is also so much potential for
human progress. For example, in education, Knewton is an adaptive learning company that has
learned to harness big data to create automotive and customized study plans for students. By
tagging every data point students produce, Knewton is able to use advanced analytics to predict
the strengths and weaknesses of the students in the courses. They are even able to predict the
performance and measure proficiency with great accuracy. (Knewton) Not only in academia but
all over big data will be revolutionary. For the first time we can get real time feedback on
societal issues using Google. For example, Google was trying to determine when a flu breakout
would occur in real time. Google was able to backtrack flu related searches and was actually able
to calculate the outbreak faster than the CDC. They were able to do this through the correlation
of searches with the intensity of the symptoms searched. They were able to do this two weeks
before the CDC. This only shows the potential big data has on a global scale. This is only the
beginning; the whole world is being recorded in real time. And now that we can see the world as
a whole, quantified, the possibilities are endless.
Is big data the end to individual anonymity?
Everyone who is on social media should know that every interaction they have with the
website is a transaction. Each individual is donating their data where Facebook can then sell for
profit. And in turn they get this service that is now so pivotal and essential in society. People
don’t realize how much information is really out there about themselves. Through various
services data is collected about ourselves constantly and somehow people do not equate that with
surveillance. These “free” services such as google, Facebook, twitter etc. are being paid for with
the data mined with every click. Every time a person receives a text or a call, their location is
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being recorded which is then sent to a server owned by the mobile operator. All this information
being collected about individuals without any promise of anonymity. And even if promised
anonymity, “in many cases a reverse process in order to identify individuals is possible; it is also
possible to identify individuals using originally anonymous data” (Mantelero, 2014) Not only
that, but the government seizes such data, regardless of if the individuals have done anything
illegal or not. (Hamami, 2014) We now live in a world where we seem to have already given
away our right to privacy through the conveniences of social media and these new devices that
can continuously track our lives. Public awareness of the government’s constant secret
surveillance of our lives is extremely important. People may say that if you do nothing wrong
then you shouldn't have to worry about surveillance but it's the fact that the government doesn't
even respect our civil liberties. Every violation of civil liberties to someone else is a violation to
yourself as well.
Transparency even possible in large scale data mining?
A current issue in big data management is the transparency of the information. Data is
always perpetually being mined from our browser history to our click patterns and basically
anything that can be now quantified. This large scale data mining is happening almost invisibly.
Our data is being stored in these large scale databases that we don’t even have access to. An
example of this is the story of Hugo Campos, when he decided he wanted to see the data
produced from his defibrillator but was denied by the manufacturer. The question is, who really
owns this data? This is a device that is a part of him and he was denied the access to see what his
own body was telling to the device. It raises the questions of the motives behind keeping data in
such secrecy. Is it for medical companies to profit from post market surveillance of their
products? This is only an example of how little access we truly have to our own data. By design,
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these companies’ privacy policies are covered by legal and technical software laws that make
access extremely difficult. (Richards, 2013) The intention of large scale sets of data is to solve
societal problems using data analytics. This using the personal data of the individuals the data is
mined from. This concept is based upon relinquishing some civil liberties for the potential
solutions the calculations can produce. But if data mining causes the end to our personal privacy,
why are these corporations doing their data mining mostly in secret?
As shown big data has the potential to solve many social issues such as education,
healthcare and more. But although these large data sets can do as such, awareness is key. The
people need to start to be aware that personal information about themselves are all recorded and
made of profit without the knowledge of the consumer. We have reached a point where we have
traded our individual anonymity for the convenience. The convenience that people wait days
camping for a product that would have government and companies have constant surveillance
for. These are the things we must be aware of. With progress comes the need for great concern,
and education into the matter so that people might be more careful where they leave their internet
footprint.
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References
Hamami, O. (2014). Big Data Security: Understanding the Risks. Buisness Intelligence Journal .
Knewton. KNEWTON TECHNOLOGY HELPED MORE ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY
STUDENTS SUCCEED. Knewton.
Knewton. (n.d.). KNEWTON TECHNOLOGY HELPED MORE ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY
STUDENTS SUCCEED. Retrieved from https://www.knewton.com/assetsv2/downloads/asu-case-study.pdf
Mantelero, A. (2014). Social Control, Transparency, and Participation in the Big Data World. J
O U R N A L O F I N T E R N E T L AW .
Richards, N. M. (2013, Sept 3). Three Paradoxes of Big Data. Standford Law Review .
Williams, A. D. (2011, March 30). SCIENCE’S BIG DATA REVOLUTION YIELDS LESSONS
FOR ALL OPEN DATA INNOVATORS. Retrieved March 15, 2016, from
AnthonyDWilliams: http://anthonydwilliams.com/2011/03/30/sciences-big-data
revolution-yields-lessons-for-all-open-data-innovators/
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