Big Data is the term for a collection of data sets so large and complex that it becomes difficult to process using conventional data mining techniques and tools. The overall goal of the big data analytics is to extract useful information from a huge data set and transform it into an understandable structure for further use(Balachandran & Prasad ,2017). This looks very useful for business to interest people and provocates them to buy things they need, but how do they do it ? Do they violate our privacy ? Are they with us when we need privacy at most? We can think that as we don’t trust somebody we don’t know. We have mobile phones with us everywhere including our most privacy times.The point is why we trust them that much? Why should we? Because there are monsters which are always trying to collect data from us , they see us a currency. Big Data can be useful for companies but it doesn’t mean it is violating our privacy. Big Data is the one of the biggest violations of privacy.
“Data is the real currency for your company” Satya Nadella(CEO,Microsoft)
First of all,we should know what the privacy is. Richards & King says: Definiton of privacy matters but the important point is however we define privacy, it will have to do with the information. Privacy should not be thought of merely as how much is secret, but rather about what rules are in place (legal, social, or otherwise) to govern the use of information as well as its disclosure(2014).We have privacy and private life.Sometimes somebody or something may violate our privacy.Best example of this is companies.For instance Facebook. According to NBC News,Facebook sold data of 87 millions users for money (Fitzpatrick S. ,2017).This scandal shows us one of the biggest companies (which company says to 2.2 billion users to protect their privacy often) can sell data.Another example to privacy violation is Android phones or Google is listening to us AI(Artifical Intelligence) using the microphone to collect data.There so many articles written about that .Google says that we authorize them to collect data from us when we confirm privacy policy(including listening to us)(Google Analytics[Youtube Channel],2017).Another proof of we have no privacy Richards & King mention in their article:
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We are lured to think that the Big Data Revolution will eliminate privacy when many of its leading proponents declare that “Privacy is dead” or “Privacy is dying.” In January 1999, Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy famously declared, “You have zero privacy anyway.Get over it.”(as cited by Sprenger in 1999).McNealy’s outburst made headlines at the time, and it has outlived Sun’s own existence as an independent company. More recently, Vint Cerf, a leading figure in the creation of the Internet and Google’s “Chief Internet Evangelist,” suggested that privacy might be a historical anomaly(as cited by Ferenstein in 2010). Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was more blunt, declaring that “the age of privacy is over.”(as cited in Kirkpatrick in 2010).Such techno-centric worldviews carry an implied undertone of technology infallibility. We must yield our expectations of privacy, they suggest, to make way for the inevitable, and get out of the way of technological innovation.(2014)
Also, government is in this job too.In his book David Bollier mentions that :A website for the Committee to Establish the National Institute of Finance states the rationale for the new agency this way:
While financial institutions already report a great deal of data to federal regulators, they don’t report the types of data needed at the level of detail required that would enable a holistic assessment of firms’ exposures to each other. More fundamentally, firms currently report data in a diversity of formats that are often mutually incompatible and require conversions that are difficult, expensive and error-prone.(citation retrieved from: http://www.ce-nif.org)
In spite of these privacy scandals, you may consider the benefits of Big Data.Actually you are right.Big Data has a lot of benefits for people.These benefits can be thought like: Cost reduction, faster and better decision making, new products and services, product recommendation,Fraud detection (Balachandran and Prasad,2017).An example from Balachandran and Prasad:Storing and working on huge data has been always a challenge for any trade. Big data has constructed the road for managing such huge data making business much simpler and profitable(2017).Big Data is has benefits this might be true some extent but it is also violating our privacy when doing this.So having benefits don’t make Big Data innocent.
If Big Data has no link with people , it is about business (like stock control ,etc.),then we can’t mention that there is private life or privacy.There is no problem with that. But if it is about collecting data from people, then there is a privacy violation. Facebook is a best proof of that. We should read privacy policies , otherwise they clear themselves by saying that we authorized them to collect our data.People Although Facebook scandal , millions of people still use it.We should be more sensitive about that.
References
- Balachandran B. & Prasad S.(2017,September 6-8). Challenges and Benefits of Deploying Big Data Analytics in the Cloud for Business Intelligence.Paper presented at International Conference on Knowledge Based and Intelligent Information and Engineering Systems, KES2017, , Marseille, France. doi:0.1016/j.procs.2017.08.138
- Bollier D.,(2010). The Promise and Peril of Big Data.Washington , DC:The Aspen Institute.
- Ferenstein G.,(2013,November 20).Google’s Cerf Says “Privacy May Be An Anomaly.”
- Historically, He’s Right.,TechCrunch.Retrieved from: http://techcrunch.com/2013/11/20/googles-cerf-says-privacy-may-be-an-anomaly-historically-hes-right/.
- Fitzpatrick Sarah,(2018,April 9). Facebook to send Cambridge Analytica data-use notices to 87millionusersMonday,NBCNews. Retrieved from: https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/soc ial-media/facebook-send-cambridge-analytica-data-use-notices-monday-n863811
- Google Analytics , (2017,June 9). How Google Analytics collects data (5:39)[Video File].Retrieved from: https://youtu.be/lpMmIPWuKTk
- Kirkpatrick M.,(2010,January 9).Facebook’s Zuckerberg Says the Age of Privac Over[Blog Post].Retrieved from: http://readwrite.com/2010/01/09/facebooks_zuckerberg_says_the_age_of_priva cy_is_ov#awesm=~oo2UUoqssyO3eq.
- Richards N.M.& King J.H.(2014,May 19).Big Data Ethics, Wake Forest Law Review,Volume 49.pp.393-432.Retrieved from: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2384174
- Sprenger P.,(1999,January 26). Sun on Privacy: “Get Over It,” ,WIRED.Retrieved from: http://archive.wired.com/politics/law/news/1999/01/17538.
- (n.n.),(n.d.).Retrieved from : http://www.ce-nif.org
