Posts tagged ‘Google’
Privacy, Big Data, Civil Rights, and Personalization Versus Discrimination: When does someone else’s problem become ours?
There has been a great deal of media attention on the benefits of big data (just look at our @bigdatapbi twitter stream) lately. Certainly, PatternBuilders has been busy helping financial markets become more efficient, working with data scientists on various research projects, as well as helping other businesses with their big data initiatives. In fact, there are a number of companies (like ours) that are making significant strides in reducing the costs associated with legacy big data systems, helping to move big data out of the early adopter phase and into the mainstream. But as technology innovates, there is usually some “bad” thrown in with all that good. Such is the case with big data and privacy.
Two thought provoking articles on privacy were published this month—both considering privacy through a civil rights prism. In “Big data is our generation’s civil rights issue, and we don’t know it,” Alistair Croll states that:
“Personalization” is another word for discrimination. We’re not discriminating if we tailor things to you based on what we know about you — right? That’s just better service.”
Big Data Hype, Supernovas, McKinsey’s Latest Survey, and AIIM’s Digital Landfill Dive
A few years ago, Terence and I were trying to get our arms around the world of big data and how to effectively communicate its size and challenges as we were talking to analysts, media, prospects, partners, and, of course, the venture community. Hopefully, most of our readers would acknowledge that we have a fine grasp of language (we like to engage in a Scrabble battle of wits upon occasion) but I must admit that we have been eclipsed by many in the race to illustrate just how “big” big really is. My favorite is this:
“We are engulfed by a supernova of data.”
Now, Webster’s defines supernova in two ways:
“1: the explosion of a star in which the star may reach a maximum intrinsic luminosity one billion times that of the sun or 2: one that explodes into prominence or popularity.”
McKinsey Study: Location, Location, Location, Part 1
Yes, it’s that time again: a deep drill-down into a specific big data area, courtesy of McKinsey’s voluminous report on “Big data: The next frontier for innovation, competition, and productivity.” You may be wondering about the five month delay since my last foray into this particular study but, well, we have been just a bit busy with our book (Privacy and Big Data) while working on some very cool features for our Analytics Platform as well as handling all our other PatternBuilders responsibilities!
I also must confess to a bit of angst regarding location data, especially when it pertains to where we are located as opposed to where things (like shipping boxes) are located. From a privacy standpoint, this is a rather large (okay, huge) area of concern but it’s not the data itself that we should be worried about. As in most things surrounding the privacy debate, it is how the myriad of companies, organizations, and government agencies collect and use our personal location information without our knowledge or consent that we should be worried about. (more…)
Roundup: About 4 Tech Giants, All Things Private, Social Media Stats, Maps, and Big Data!
Greetings one and all! It’s been a while since I posted about the more interesting articles, blogs, videos, etc., that I have come across and I thought that now is as good a time as ever to cover some interesting items you may have missed in the past few weeks. The topics are far ranging, thoughtful, illuminating, and at times, contentious, but that’s why they are interesting. So without further ado, let’s get to it!
Four Tech Giants Battle It Out
If you haven’t already, set aside some time to read Fast Company’s take on the (coming soon) great tech war of 2012. The combatants? Apple, Facebook, Google and, Amazon. The prize? Us—I think! This thoughtful piece by Farhad Manjoo looks at how these four goliaths will battle it out on the technology innovation field to, essentially, win the hearts, minds, and wallets of all of us:
“Think of this: You have a family desktop computer, but you probably don’t have a family Kindle. E-books are tied to a single Amazon account and can be read by one person at a time. The same for phones and apps. For the Fab Four, this is a beautiful thing because it means that everything done on your phone, tablet, or e-reader can be associated with you. Your likes, dislikes, and preferences feed new products and creative ways to market them to you. Collectively, the Fab Four have all registered credit-card info on a vast cross-section of Americans. They collect payments (Apple through iTunes, Google with Checkout, Amazon with Amazon Payments, Facebook with in-house credits). Both Google and Amazon recently launched Groupon-like daily-deals services, and Facebook is pursuing deals through its check-in service (after publicly retreating from its own offers product).”
All Together Now: All You Need is a Text Box!
All you need is text, Text is all you need (sing to the tune of The Beatles’ All you need is love). If you are one of our regular readers you will remember that several months ago I wrote a manifesto on what the perfect analytics system would look like. One of the last points was:
It must be as accessible as Excel (still the number one analytics tool in the world).
I was wrong – Excel is the number one non-specialized analytics tool in the world but in terms of usage, it is dwarfed in comparison to a very well know specialized analytics toolkit. The creators of this tool are a little company that you may have heard of: it does no evil and analyzes the Internet to bring you back everything on the web based on a simple text query. But behind that simple text box, Google has one of the most sophisticated analytics infrastructures in the world:
- It can deduce your interests.
- Give you the most relevant results.
- And show you appropriate information based on them, as well as bring back highly personalized ads.
Google is not only the largest big data analytics company in the world, but it also has the easiest to use tools—proof that text is all you really need!
Thoughts on Identity Theft, Government IT, Facebook and Google Plus
Before I begin, I must admit to being in a very grumpy mood which may (ever so slightly) color the topics in the post title. As you know, Terence and I are not only “work-working” but in our copious amounts of spare time, working on our book (plug fully, absolutely intended). While the book is going well, I must say that it has affected my Zen-like ability to remain calm (I can hear Terence chortling) when others may “lose it.” This leads me (you’ll understand in a minute) to the issue of identity theft. (more…)
Weekly Roundup: Privacy, Security, Amazon Reviews, Infographic Resumes, and the Comma!
Folks, I am neck deep in writing “stuff” this week (from my final McKinsey health care post to working with Terence on another chapter for our upcoming Ebook—yep, shameless plugs strike again!) but so many great posts and articles came through my “inbox” this week that I just have to “talk” about them. If you have some time over this long weekend, every single one of these items is worth a thorough read.
Privacy is Every Where and No Where
One of the most thoughtful posts on privacy in the digital world, courtesy of John Jordan, came out today. John’s use of real world examples to illustrate his own angst on the topic made me stop and think:
“Does it matter that a person’s political alignment, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, and zip code (a reasonable proxy for household income) are now a matter of public, searchable record? Is her identity different now that some many facets of it are transparent? Or is it a matter of Mark Zukerberg’s vision—people have one identity, and transparency is good for relationships—being implicitly shared more widely across the planet? Just today, a review of Google Plus argued that people don’t mind having one big list of “friends,” even as Facebook scored poorly on this year’s customer satisfaction index.” (more…)
Friday Roundup: Data, Analytics, Privacy, Security and a PR Imbroglio
Happy Friday the 13th! It’s been a very busy week in story-land so in honor of this auspicious day, I thought I’d post about some of the more interesting stories that came across my Twitter feed, Google alerts, and email updates. So without further ado, let’s get cracking!
It’s All About the Data (Plus Analytics)
I don’t know about you, but I cannot wait to wade through McKinsey’s study on “Big Data: The Next Frontier for Innovation, Competition and Productivity.” Full disclosure: it comes in at 156 pages of fascinating information so it will take me a while to read and absorb, but once I’m done look for a post or two on my key takeaways. Until then, a recent New York Times article provides some of the highlights:
“It makes estimates of the potential benefits from deploying data-harvesting technologies and skills. The McKinsey research unit, for example, says the value to the health care system in the United States could be $300 billion a year, and that American retailers could increase their operating profit margins by 60 percent.”
Data Security and You: There’s Got to Be a Better Way
A non-rant rant on data security.
Have you ever had one of those days when you throw up your hands and simply say, “There’s got to be a better way!” Well, this is one of those days. Recently, Jenn Webb, in an O’Reilly Radar piece, asked the following:
“How much convenience are you willing to give up for security?”
Webb was talking about Google’s 2-step verification process (I remembered reading about this a couple of months ago) which essentially “jumps” the user through a number of “hoops” to ensure more secure access to Google applications. I ended my comment on the article with the following: “Google, could you have made this any more difficult for people operating in the real world to use?” And once I clicked Submit, I thought I was done. Nope. The more I thought about this, the more I felt a rant coming on. I mean, really, how hard is it for companies like Google (and many others) to come up with a user-friendly way to ensure secure access? They certainly have the money to do it and by all accounts, they definitely have the engineering talent to do it. So what’s the problem? (more…)
The State of Social Media Analytics: Listening is Not Analyzing
As I mentioned in a previous post, we are working on a vertical solution for Social Media Analytics. I chatted with a few folks yesterday over lunch who posited that the recent acquisition of Radian6 (R6) by Salesforce.com (a good post on the acquisition by Susan Etlinger can be found here) meant that opportunities for a social media analytics product had passed. I thought this discussion was interesting enough for a post. But before I begin, my congratulations to the folks at R6 on a great exit and on being acquired by such a great company.
I think the best way to think about the current state of Social Media Analytics is to look at the history of brick and mortar retail. In any industry, it is initially very difficult to communicate with, and learn from, important external entities, be they suppliers or customers. The communication typically starts as a manual process and as the relationship becomes better understood, you then move on to automation, storing key interactions in some sort of digital system (such as a database, data store, or data warehouse). Over time, as the ecosystem gets more sophisticated, the signals (red cell phones are selling, inventory is continually low in the Southeast, Retailer X always pays late) become richer, more varied, and frequent. Automation then speeds up the pace of business and those important or missing parts of the signal become visible. For example, in traditional retail, we went from manual PO’s, to faxes, to fully automated Supply Chain Management with EDI, and continue to enrich the signal between retailers and consumers with technologies like near field communication (NFC) that enables things like mobile payments, mobile ticketing, and smart posters. (more…)
Big Data Big Analytics 