Analyzing Big Data is one of the biggest technology
trends right now. What is Big Data? According to Wiki, Big Data is a collection
of data sets so large and complex that it becomes difficult to process using on-hand
database management tools or traditional data processing applications. Using
business analytics tools, big data can be used to determine customer trends and
thereby provide targeted marketing strategies. Big data has revolutionized
customer analysis approach.
Pricing,
Out of home advertising, finding customer behavioral patterns are a few
examples of what big data could be used for. In the olden days, marketers
sought to identify consumers and spend millions to catch him/her at the right
time, in the right place, with the right message. Therefore the probability of
being successful was comparable to wining a lottery. In the digital age,
marketers identify a target markets and bombard them with banner ads, online videos
and tweets. Slowly things changed, and now it is said that Businesses sit on Data
Goldmines. Big Data has gotten a lot of attention over the past 18 months as
retail, manufacturing and technology companies realize the gold mines they are
sitting on and rush to scour them for competitive advantage. Amazon is the best
example I could think of. Using customer information, amazon has built a
gigantic database of customer interests and history of purchases. Though competitors
could potentially mimic Amazon’s business model, it’s still seems impossible to
compete with Amazon solely because of the rich customer big data Amazon has
built over time. Target, for example, has figured out how to data-mine its way
into a girl’s womb, to figure out whether you have a baby on the way long
before you need to start buying Diapers. Surprising part was, 1Target
found out a teen girl was pregnant even before her parents knew about it.
If it is so useful, then why does big data create
large amount of controversies? This is mainly because of the ethical
implications behind it. Who really owns this information? What are the privacy
issues and obligations? Face book and Google are one of the top 10 sources of
big data. Google in fact knows every user in and out, through Gmail, Google +
and Google search. Google then uses Google Analytics to predict customer
behavior patterns. Then this information is sold to retailers such as Target, in
order to help them improve customer reach. Is this not intruding into the
privacy of a young girl? In my opinion it is.
Apart from the big companies misusing big data,
security of this data is another big issue. 2Adobe was a victim of cyber-attack,
resulting in 2.9 million customer information. Adobe sent out an email to
customers saying that customers must reset their passwords. The thieves grabbed
credit and debit card information. Should Adobe not be severely punished for
this? Why should the customer suffer for Adobe not having high levels of
security implemented? Though government has placed strict regulations in place,
such as HIPAA for health care, organizations still seem to not follow these,
just to save on the system security implementation costs. Another example of a
data breech was 3Advocate Health Care- who lost social security
numbers of more than 4 million people because of losing four unencrypted
laptops. Not only did they not encrypt the data, but they were careless enough
to lose them. Eventually the people impacted due to such incidents are the end
users. This leads us to our topic, is it ethical to gain customer insights
using big data. Of course not, if you do not know to protect such big data in
the first place.
Privacy is the next biggest concern. Customers end up
filling surveys, posting information in public sites such as face book, not
knowing the implications. Companies such as Facebook, knows the data to day activities
of through the pictures posted, location tracking and chats. It annoys me
sometimes, how Google and Facebook misuse my searches. Yesterday, I goggled for
some Nike products, and surprisingly my Facebook feed is filled with Nike deals
and product offerings. As if this was not bad enough, Google even tracks the
emails people send out. Once I mailed my friend about fit bit, and next minute I
know, my Google page is full of fit bit advertisements. I feel this is
intruding into my privacy. The minute you search for something on the internet,
it is public information. The use of computer technology has increased
dramatically over the past few years. It has become common for users to share
personal information online everyday using PC’s and smartphones. This data,
along with credit card purchases, medical records, and other material is stored
in numerous powerful databases. As a result, the importance of privacy
protection for consumers has grown substantially. How can firms balance between
using the big data to gain customer insights and at the same time not intrude
into his/her privacy?
One approach would be to balance between risk
and innovation. Big data represents massive opportunities to benefit business,
education, healthcare, government, manufacturing, and many other fields. The
risks, however, to personal privacy, the ability to manage our individual
reputations and online identities, and what it might mean to lose — or gain —
ownership over our personal data are just now becoming topics of discussion,
some parts of which naturally generate ethical questions. To take advantage of
the benefits big data innovations offer, the practical risks of implementing
them need to be understood. Customers must be informed about the risks of tying
in information before companies use such information!
Source - 1 - http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-target-figured-out-a-teen-girl-was-pregnant-before-her-father-did/
2 - http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2013/10/adobe-data-breach/index.htm
