#bis 315

[madelynswolfe]

The Legal Side of Big Data

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Big data, which is described as volumes of collected data, can be both a powerful but dangerous tool, if it falls into the wrong hands. The security of big data can be problematic, as hackers have been able to access consumers’ data that’s stored by businesses. 

Businesses & Big Data

Businesses collect data from their customers and store all of it, meaning that they store millions upon millions of pieces of data. One example in which a business’s data was hacked that Doug LaLone discusses in his lecture is Target, where around 740 million data records were exposed. This can deeply hurt businesses and their relationship with their customers, because the customers will lose trust in the business. It’s crucial that customers are able to trust the companies that they purchase from because if there’s no trust, they’ll choose to do business with other businesses instead. 

Consumers & Big Data

Consumer data is collected by nearly every business that they visit, including e-mail, address, phone number, and even their purchase history. It’s important that we, as the consumers, are aware of how we can protect our data, including solutions I’ll discuss later in my post. At times, we may even be unaware of what data of ours is accessible on online websites such as Facebook, which is scary to think about. We like to think that we’re in control when it comes to our private information, but that may not always be the case.

Possible Solutions

In the lecture “The Legal Side of Big Data”, given by Doug LaLone, he discusses possible solutions to the issue of how we can protect our personal data. For businesses, this may include using strict contracts to ensure the confidentiality of your data from third party companies. As for consumers, we can always check our privacy settings on websites that we frequent, and be cautious when giving out our personal information. Our personal information is a valuable tool, and it’s important that we take measures to protect it.

[madelynswolfe]

How Junk News Spreads On Social Media

The article “Three reasons junk news spreads so quickly across social media”, published by the Oxford Internet Institute, discusses how algorithms, advertisements and exposure are the three key explanations as to how junk news is able to spread throughout social media platforms at such a fast rate.

Algorithms

Each one of our social media feeds are designed by algorithms- the article describes our social media feed and our Google search results as the “product of calculations”, and they push out certain content meant to be tailored for us specifically. This creates a more personalized experience as we browse our feeds, and also sometimes means that we’ll see more or less of certain users’ content. This reminds me of my personal experience using Instagram. I noticed that the more that I interacted with a certain user’s posts, including liking or commenting, I tended to see their posts more often; on the other hand, I tended to not see posts from users that I did not interact with often. Algorithms, and the calculations that they’re made up of, play a huge role in what we view while browsing online.

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Advertisements

The way advertising works is that social media sites sell our data as a way to make a profit; so, although it seems that the site is free, in reality we’re sacrificing some of our personal data. This led to a huge increase in the use of clickbait, which uses shocking or graphic images or titles in order to gain more clicks onto a link. Advertising also can be tailored to each user, which is how we can see ads for something that we’ve recently searched or shopped for online. Personally, seeing clickbait online always annoys me, because most of the time it’s easy to tell that the title is exaggerated and untrue. Ads also play a role in politics, as political candidates use them to showcase their campaign and may also use them to portray their opponents in a negative way. 

Exposure

A large part of what we are exposed to online is due to the other users and pages that we follow online. Each user posts about different topics, meaning that your personal social media feed will be different from other users on the same site. This means that every individual has a personalized experience while online, and may not see certain information that is on other user’s feeds. 

Raising Our Awareness

In order to become more aware of junk news, including clickbait and the spread of political propaganda, both businesses and individuals need to take precautions when reading online. We can all avoid falling for junk news by not taking the headline at face value, and investigating more into a topic before believing it and spreading it. 

[clutchingmypearlss]

Client Project Reflection

Coming into this class I had no idea the amount of  knowledge I would be able to soak up. Usually in college course the professor just feeds you information off slides and talks about information out of a textbook you would probably will never pick up again. This wasn’t the case for me at all. I have truly gained valuable and real life skills during my time in this course; all thanks to Professor Dimaria and this client project. Having real world experience and applying the concepts we have learned in real time has been very beneficial to my learning. As a result, I have retained a lot of information I will carry with me into my own personal life as well as in my career.

This client project as taught me a plethora of skills. It has taught me that the key to a successful social media account as a business for organization is collaboration. Having a social media account is not about just simply pushing your agenda, but tailoring that agenda to the wants and needs of your audience. I have learned that each social media platform has specific uses and should not be utilized in the same manner as all other social media platforms. Once you are able to understand this, you will start to get the most engagement from your audience if done correctly. On top of that, I have learned the importance of having clear goals and objectives as a business and organization. If you are able to know what your goals and objectives are when sharing content on social media, only then will you be able to fully analyze and assess what you are doing and what changes need to be made to reach those goals. Otherwise, you will continue to see the same results. The goals of your social media accounts should always be to seek engagement.

Aside from the knowledge I have gain, I was lucky enough to have fully been able to understand what my clients goals and objectives were. Which made it easy for me to make suggestions and steer them in the right direction. I also was able to present the materials in the way that was easy to understand. If given more time on this project, I would have like to actively assistance will implementing these changes with them. As someone who is a part of the organization, I saw lots of opportunity for improvement with social media. I would have also like to see the progress or improvement in their engagement over time when they implemented my suggestions. This would have given me some kind of reassurance that my suggestion were actually useful.

Overall, this experience has provided me with useful information not only on consulting, but social media as a whole. If you are equipped with the knowledge and skill sets that others do not possess, just about anyone can provide consultation. You just have to be wiling to continuously perfect your craft and stay up to date on the material you are giving consultation on to stay the expert in the particular field or topic. And most importantly, you have to remember to tailor each job specifically to the needs and wants of the client. Don’t try to push your own agenda.