Obsessed with Data
Our obsession with information has caused the inundation of data on the storage capacity of the internet. The collection of data sets has become so large and complex that it is difficult to understand information without the use of processing applications (Snigders, Matzat, Reips, 2012, p 1-2). And these databases are growing at a phenomenal rate. Figures suggest that the volume of data doubled approximately every three since the beginning of the internet in the public domain. In 2007, the volume of data is believed to have reached 295 exabytes and, it is predicted that it will exceed 1000 exabytes by 2015. This is far more information than anyone could process in their lifetime, or even 100 lifetimes (Hilbert, 2011). So why is so much information being created?
Much of this data has come to existence through the prevalence of Big Data mining in almost every information industry. Mass amounts of data are being extrapolated from the keystrokes we use on social media websites, the web pages we visit most often and the videos that hold our attention the longest. In fact, any click or non-click has the potential to be mined, catalogued and sold to any business or government (Siegel, 2013). Big data has become a valuable commodity as the information attained can be used to create economic/scientific/business models and predict the success of a product through patterns in the habits of consumers (Woodford, 2014) (Siegel, 2013). It’s kind of like the way television studios use ratings to create and buy content but on a much more personal scale.
This ability to predict patterns in human behaviour has valuable applications for the rest of society outside of the internet too. A trial is currently underway in Los Angeles where law enforcement officers must rely on the use of data to patrol and respond to crimes. In the most dangerous parts of LA where gang violence is rampant and the production and distribution of narcotics is used to fund criminal activity, the quick response of a law enforcement officer is vital in protecting the innocent. A computer algorithm based on the collection of crime data over the past 80 years attempts to predict the location of a crime before it occurs. By projecting the current data on to our understandings of human behavioural patterns, scientists have been able to further isolate potential crime hot spots, leading to the arrest of offenders before a more serious crime is committed (BBC, 2013). Certainly, this has had a considerable impact on the way law enforcement works in the United States, but when does predicting big data impede on innocence? The potential to abuse criminal data may have detrimental effects on implicating criminals on a crime they haven’t committed. Much like Steven Speilberg’s Minority Report, data has the potential to be manipulated and used for political gain (Yaniv, 2014). With our obsession over data and its application in almost all aspects of life, it’s almost impossible to comprehend its positive or negative potential. Like most innovations, Big Data could be used for either but its up to us to dictate its future.
References:
BBC. 2013. “The Age of Big Data.” BBC Video posted 18 July 2013. Accessed May 9th http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01rt4c7
Martin Hilbert & Priscila López (2011). The World's Technological Capacity to Store, Communicate, and Compute Information. Science, 332(6025), 60-65.
Mor, Yaniv. 2014. “Big Data and Law Enforcement – Was ‘Minority Report’ Right?” Wired. Accessed May 9th http://www.wired.com/2014/03/big-data-law-enforcement-minority-report-right/
Siegel, Eric. 2013. “Introduction – The Prediction Effect.” In Predictive Analytics, 1-16. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons Inc.
Snijders, C., Matzat, U., & Reips, U.-D. 2012. ‘Big Data’: Big gaps of knowledge in the field of Internet. International Journal of Internet Science, 7, 1-5
Woodford, Darryl. 2014. “New Media, Big Data and Telemetrics (guest lecture by Darryl Woodford)”. Accessed May 9th http://www.dpwoodford.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/KCB206-Big-Data-Lecture_Small.pdf











