Big Data and Information Privacy – Is It A Future Challenge?

Technology is generating data whenever you use a smartphone, when you chat with your friends and family on Facebook and when you shop anytime you go online, you’re producing data and leaving a digital trail of information. All of this data is very complex; there is so much if it from many different sources in many formats and it’s coming quickly in real-time. This is big data. Businesses use all of this data to create customized and improved experiences for all of us. Coca-cola produced its new drink cherry sprite. This drink was invented by monitoring the data from digital service fountains where customers were able to create and mix their drinks. Coca-cola knew that people wanted cherry sprite because customers were making this drink themselves. These organizations like many others are generating a massive amount of data every second. All of this data is being analyzed to create insights that can drive imagination and innovations. Big data shape’s the way companies use information from digital technology to deliver better products and services to their customers and create a unique marketing strategy and to make their businesses run more efficiently. Technologies and people use billions of gigabytes every single day.

When you use Fitbit you are generating real-time data about your exercise habits, Which allows you to monitor and manage your health using insights about your calorie intake sleeping patterns and activity level. When you stop at Starbucks to get a new coffee that just came out, Starbucks collects data about what drinks are popular at the specific Store location and what time of the day is busiest. They use this data to figure out what kind of new drink people will like, or where would be a good place to open up a new store location. We are living in a world of big data, businesses are not just simply collecting all of this data that we are generating, they are analyzing it and finding ways to improve its products and services which in turn shapes our lives and experiences that we are having with the world around. That’s what big data is, it’s all of the data being generated in the digital era from all of the different types of technologies out there.

What is the specific purpose and what are major companies doing with it:

 Data is mostly generated by digital technology, whether we’re using apps on our phones, interacting on social media, or buying products, all of this information combined with other data sources and becomes big data. companies even compare big data with technologies like machine learning and AI to further improve the power to reinforce our daily lives with faster and more personalized experiences. Data is being produced by manufacturing machinery, healthcare equipment at the hospital or doctor’s office, electronic airline tickets at the airport, and from the computer in a connected car. The data comes from text, audio, video, and images. Big data is analyzed by organizations and businesses for reasons like discovering patterns and trends related to human behavior and other interaction with technology.

Does big data guarantee safety?

DATA IS YOU. You are the subject, the product, and the prize. You are worth a small fortune to people who want to market things at you, people who want to predict your behavior, people who want to know everything about you. Data controllers are the architects and controllers of the devices operating systems and apps you use. Essentially they follow you around both online and offline and include the companies and government departments you knowingly interact with and also the ones you know nothing about. Sometimes they tease data out of you with a checkbox or privacy setting, sometimes they obtain it via things you post or publish or generate but they also do it secretly involving emitted information about you, which you know nothing about. All this is collated and analyzed to produce fast dossiers to be sold and share their whim because, in their eyes, they own you. This is where data protection law comes in. Data protection law is designed to defend your personal information and your rights to know what happens to it. It’s about safeguarding data from all those who want it and preventing it from being abused but it’s more Powerful and complicated than you might think.

Legal protections on data differ enormously around the world. More than 100 countries have implemented some level of data protection law but these don’t always cover every industry sector or government functions and because information travels around the world through borderless networks even if you live somewhere, where your data is protected it will likely end up in countries that have different laws or none at all, which means you have no remedies if your rights are abused. This reaches new realms of problematic when you consider that most of the world’s information passes through tech HQs and almost all of them are in the US and under US law non-American have no rights at all. US industry is spending crazy money all around the world lobbying for decreased protection of your data, in short, they know that the more rights you have the more control you have and less they will learn off of your information and this often works the same way for government because your protection limits their control over you and your day. Data protection law needs to prevent all this from happening. It needs to endure that there are no secret databases and that the purpose of the data its uses are specific at the time and not ever extended.

Only necessary data should be collected and it should be maintained so far secure and be deleted when not necessary no information should ever be passed on without consent. Crucially we should have access to our information and the rights to challenge what’s being held and to seek its deletion rectification on modification at any time we choose all these rights are vital but the final missing piece to this privacy protection puzzle has got to be ongoing accountability. We need an independent regulator to whom we can appeal, who can investigate and you can entire decisions against the organization. This is where the questions hang on. Big data needs big privacy. What time we wake, what food we ate, where did we go, how much time we spend there, when did we go to sleep, what is our heartbeat rate through the day, every little detail of our life is being recorded knowingly or unknowingly. But humans need to keep certain things about their life to themselves. This need for privacy should be acknowledged. It remains a question that need solutions and leaves a challenge for future!