The Ethics of Big Data and an Individual’s Privacy What is Big Data? Big Data is the mass collection of user data by mathematical algorithms, databases, data mining, and the use of datasets that were once believed to be static and unusable. Big Data’s history goes way back “…70 years to the first attempts to quantify the growth rate in the volume of data, or what has popularly been known as the “information explosion” (Press, Gil).” Researchers had predicted the massive growth of information and how our ability to collect and store it would need to continue to grow as well. Libraries would be considered the first cataloging of human information, but as software and hardware continued to grow in the ability to collect and store data information is now happening at an astronomical rate. To get a glimpse, or bigger picture, of Big Data here are a few facts of how much data is being generated and managed (Villanova University): 1) Per IBM, users create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day. In practical terms, this means that 90% of the data in the world today has been created in the last two years alone. 2) Walmart controls more than 1 million customers transitions every hour, which are then transferred into a database working with over 2.5 petabytes of information. 3) Per FICO, the credit card fraud system helps to protect over two billion accounts all over the globe. 4) Facebook holds more than 45 billion photos in its user database, a number that is growing daily 5)
Big Data is not just simply come from itself it is been recorded and generated by some data generating source. For instance, if we have our ability to feel and realize the arena around us, from our own heart rate and getting the data of toxins that are present in the air we leave this will produce more than one million terabytes of unparalleled data for every day. Furthermore, scientific experiments will also produce petabytes of data today.
Big data and its definition has changed over the years. In a 2011 research project by MGI and Mckinsey’s Business’ defined big data as
Big Data is the act of compiling large sets of data based on a single individual or groups. Everyone encounters data in their daily life--you are experiencing it when you log onto a social media account, when you stream entertainment online, or even when you are online shopping. When you do any of these things you are leaving behind a digital trace that can be accessed by just about anyone. In “Six Provocations for Big Data,” danah boyd and Kate Crawford raise questions regarding the nature of Big Data. What is considered public information? What is the ethical way to go about retrieving data from online sources? Is Big Data more harmful or helpful? How often do you encounter Big Data, or data in general? What is the relationship between data
Like Luna et al., Kuo, Sahama, Kushniruk, Borycki, & Grunwell (2014) note the inconsistency of the definition of big data in research. They, however, say this inconsistency is because big data is an evolving concept. They describe big data as data that is so large, so complex, and growing so fast that traditional data management methods cannot hold or organize it. Kuo et al.’s and Luna et al.’s definitions varied among syntax, but both stressed the complex nature of big data. This variation seemed to be a trend among several of the researchers. While each researcher’s definitions somewhat differed, each seemed to agree that big data is data that is so complicated that traditional methods cannot handle it. The researchers continued to agree that the complex health data available today falls under the definition of big data.
According to the article, 2.8ZB of data has been created and replicated in 2012. The proliferation of devices such as PCs and smartphones worldwide, increased Internet access within emerging markets and the boost in data from machines such as surveillance cameras or smart meters has contributed to the doubling of the digital universe. IDC projects that the digital universe will reach 40 ZB by 2020, an amount that exceeds previous forecasts by 14%. Thus, data is not narrowed to big only; it is actually huge. Like, 40 ZB data is the equivalent of 1.7 MBs of new information created by the every single human for every second of the day. Developing countries like China and India are currently covering 36% of digital universe; the prediction says it will be increased up to 62% by 2020. So the companies will have numerous scopes to dig out more data and analyze them as per their requirement. Despite the unprecedented expansion of the digital universe due to the massive amounts of data being generated daily by people and machines, IDC estimates that only 0.5% of the world’s data is being analyzed.
The industry is inundated with articles on big data. Big data news is no longer confined to the technical web pages. You can read about big data in the mainstream business publications such as Forbes and The Economist. Each week the media reports on breakthroughs, startups, funding and customer use cases. No matter your source for information on big data, one thing they all have in common is that the amount of information an organization will manage is only going to increase; this is what’s driving the ‘big data’ movement.
What does it mean to say “big data”? Big Data is more than just massive amounts of data stored together. It is more than just data delivered or analyzed fast. Meta Group’s Doug Laney described it as data that has volume, velocity, and variety (2001). This is the 3 V’s of Big Data and is widely used to define it. Additions to this definition include other V’s, such as veracity and value (XXX). What is volume? Volume could be 7 billion people speaking at once. It can be the data created by millions of Americans uploading photos, buying shoes online, or searching for the definition of Big Data. It is the volume of data being created by researchers at unprecedented amounts to chart the stars, to map the human genome, or to trend
Data is the most valuable tool in your business. Based on a Gartner survey, 73% of organizations have invested or plan to invest in big data within the next two years.
Big Data is a term for very large amounts of formal and informal information that can be analyzed to find trends and patterns. The information can be about anything, but it needs to be processed in a way that will give it value and relevance. It can come in multiple formats and from different sources such as large databases, electronic records, social media, mobile phones, apps, wearable devices such as pedometers, and others. Different data sets are combined and contrasted in different ways to give perspectives and insights about a topic. It can be used in a seemly endless number of ways and people are discovering new ways to use it all the time, some of them entertaining. The largest areas of use include those relating to consumer behavior and choices, business procedures, healthcare, science and research, and law enforcement. People are also discovering its use in their personal lives as well for things like buying a home, dating, fitness routines and travel.
"Such ‘Data Explosions ' has led to one of the most challenging research issues of the current Information and Communication Technology (ICT) era: how to effectively and optimally manage such large amount of data and identify new ways to analyze large amounts of data for unlocking information. The issue is also known as the ‘Big Data ' problem, which is defined as the practice of collecting complex data sets so large that it becomes difficult to analyze and interpret manually or using on-hand data management applications. From the perspective of real-world applications, the Big Data problem has also become a common phenomenon in domain of science, medicine, engineering, and commerce"
In today’s world, data is being amassed at an unprecedented scale. Large amounts of data generated by and about people and their interactions are being collected, analyzed, and stored for future use. Organizations are able to gain access to a variety of data sources including call logs, text messages, emails, client chats, social media pictures, videos, and posts, RFID, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and much more. The reception of Big Data is described by boyd and Crawford (2012) as being “seen as a powerful tool to address various societal ills, offering the potential of new insights into areas as diverse as cancer research, terrorism, and climate change” as well as being “seen as
large amounts of data everyday . Big data is the technology which analyses large sets of data
Big-Data can be defined as the large amounts of digital information companies and governments collect about human beings and the environment we are living in. The amount of data that is getting generated is expected to double every two years,
The word Big data describes the large data sets, which contains a large amount of data. The data may exist in structured, semi structured and unstructured forms. The structured data is a type of data whose degree of organization is high, with a well-defined data model, whereas Unstructured data is quite opposite to structured data which doesn’t have well defined data structure and is not classified. The semi-structured data is cross of structured data and unstructured data, it doesn’t have a well-defined structure, but has some properties of structured data. The Big data is a combination of these different data
Every individual has a right to retain the information of their own tax, medical and other government related documents and this highly sensitive and personalized information is not revealed by the hospitals/doctors, financial institutions, business parties or the government agencies to irrelevant third parties. The Capitalistic societies are trading with the personal data as a saleable commodity (Jan, 2005), resulting in the privacy and free market policies being at odds with each other. Advanced data management technologies have resulted in sophisticated “Consumer database and management systems” which in turn has become a fast growing and highly profitable business activity by itself. Data stored digitally has an indefinite span of life; because of which, consumers are apprehensive about their personal information being shared with unintended third parties (Warren & Brandies, 1890). In the present day context, the “rights to privacy” is directly conflicting with the “freedom or the right to information” being implemented by various democratic societies (Udo, 2001).