A Quick Intro to Big Data

What is Big Data?

Big Data exists as a solution that aids both individuals and businesses. Simply using your phone or computer, huge amounts of data gets collected about you, your friends, your colleagues and even your pets. As the digital age grows and expands, your computer can become your best friend, a sort of nosey, extremely informed-about-you kind of friend.

This data is stored, allowing marketers to specifically advertise to you. This data helps your phone recommend restaurants to you that are nearby. Social media allows you to interact with others over the internet, easily allowing you to share mass amounts of almost pointless data.

This data is readily accessible and easy and cheap to store. With cloud computing, companies can easily use Big Data to bring themselves into the digital age. And this data can be used to benefit the human race in so many ways, but are there risks that come along with this? As the technical arms race continues to quickly try the new technology, how will this affect privacy? How does this affect us as a human race? How will this data get used and how will this affect our public and private lives?
Benefits of Big Data
I’m currently shopping for my brother’s birthday present. Like any good millennial, I do all my gift shopping online. It’s easy, fast and I don’t have to waste time wandering from store to store; not when I have amazon on my side. With few good ideas, I give up and instead take to random social media, where I’m already bombarded with ads from amazon boasting Lego and organizers, all things my brother enjoys.
                                Social_media_icon (1).png 

It happens daily. Advertisements from places I’ve been on road trips to. Suggestions for books I should read. New music or restaurants that youtube, Google, Yahoo, the internet in general thinks I would like. It’s a browsing experience made specifically for me. And it’s available for everyone.

With all of this data stored and used and analysed, an individualized digital experience is made for any user. By analyzing Twitter trends (or any other mass social media application, such as Facebook or Instagram), even the American election can be predicted.

Big Data exists in our modern society as a way of simplifying life for both the individual and for industry. Our social media, our online businesses, our advertisements are all made possible thanks to Big Data. It has formed our lives and the internet today.

Big Data allows companies the capability to quickly research and study and adapt according to the mass amount of information collected. The technology that supports this is cheap and affordable, and the information it creates is easy to copy, making the information age accessible, and making research and analysis efforts fast and efficient and doable by any company.

Though this allows companies an area of fast growth, giving them the capability of adapting quickly to user needs and though Big Data gives individuals a unique and personalized experience, there are some risks involved with this data collection.
Privacy and Big Data

The internet itself is considered a free service. Millions of websites have free memberships and free trials, allowing you to browse and be amused for countless hours on countless of different sites available online. You can learn, play, and watch countless of different applications, games, videos that are available for any user for free.

How do companies make money this way? By keeping their services free but by collecting information and advertising. As Big Data becomes common use, the discussion about privacy becomes important. Our own information has become monetized. Worst of all, we accept it.

Most of the services we use come with a hand “Terms and Conditions” that must be accepted before the company allows you use. These large documents, usually written in legalese are frequently ignored, with users accepting conditions without any concern.

(Parodies of these long documents now exist, including a ITunes Terms and Conditions: the Graphic Novel by R. Sikoryak, title of which is pictured above) These conditions usually include having the right to store whatever information the company finds valuable in their servers, for future use and for analyzing.

 Along with having your information taken by companies you could potentially trust, their are black market style operators that work on taking valuable information in order to steal identities and to steal banking information.

 There’s unfortunately very little you can do to fight a company and their use of your information, unless you decide to simply live life as a technophobe.
Big Data and Crime

By utilizing Big Data law enforcement agencies can predict crimes. By analyzing the mass amount of data, and using up to date tools that allow for investigation, criminals can be identified even before a crime is committed.

Though it’s still in it’s early development stages, the use of Big Data for crime prevention is only logical. By creating inventive algorithms that study criminal patterns, certain crimes can be ultimately prevented.

Along with these helpful tools, the use of Big Data by law enforcement agencies has created a great source of information. With plenty of sources for evidence including mobile phones, to which most of us carry around, it is easy for anyone to document and provide useful information regarding crime.
History and Big Data (or the possible future of Big Data)

The Land of Punt was an incredibly important and valuable friend to ancient Egypt. Trading ebony, myrrh, gold and even leopard skins, the Land of Punt (ancient drawing pictured left) was an extremely valuable trade partner. Unfortunately, through the passage of time and the lack of records, historians can only guess at where this mysterious trade partner used to be.
Along with this another story of history lost is one of cruet stands from before the 1850s. These old stands held multiple containers, a bottle for oil and one for vinegar, along with a container for salt and one for pepper and a third one for something else. Historians to this day are still unsure of what exactly that third container stored, though some likely guesses have been made.

Though these are surely not the only examples of history lost to lack of information, perhaps Big Data will be able to assist in the tracking of information for future historians. Even though monotonous and seemingly uninteresting aspects of our lives are shared and stored, perhaps not only modern benefits will be achieved but benefits for humans hundreds and maybe thousands of years from now. Perhaps one day, a historian from far, far ahead will glance back and the simple data from this day, the coffee purchase or the shoes bought online will help them form an idea of what life was like today.


Sources






By Hans Bernhard (Schnobby) (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons
By Ibrahim.ID [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons (Social Media Icons)

Sikoryak, R. ITUNES TERMS AND CONDITIONS: The Graphic Novel. Digital image. ITUNES TERMS AND CONDITIONS: The Graphic Novel. N.p., 18 Jan. 2016. Web. <http://itunestandc.tumblr.com/>.

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