Is that what they’re using my data for?

This is precisely the question you will ask yourself as you read this fast-paced article describing all the ways in which the private sector, the government, academia, and even local communities and businesses are using the information collected about you to drive predictive and sometimes morally difficult decision making.

The article begins with an emphatic assertion: big data not only exists, but it has existed since the 1990s. It was even being defined in the literature then. Corporations have collected big data for decades. They saw the complex, highly disparate, noisy, potentially conflicting information as a target for commercial exploitation, product marketing, ads, and so on. Now, however, they have come to see this information as a resource to be combined with other potential resources, such as your social media, your purchase preferences, and your habits from other data providers. Some even collect data about you by other more invasive and potentially sinister means, such as aerial photography, smartphones, and satellites.

What’s worse, this information is being collected on individuals all across the Earth, regardless of location, and few if any formal policies or guidelines have been enacted to regulate what can be shared, collected, or merged with other data. The authors describe how keeping this data “under wraps” and hidden inside distributed entities like corporations and governments does much to engender a feeling that, as an individual, you are not contributing to the big data “machine,” when in reality you are.

I find this a scary thought indeed. This amazing article is really addressing a kind of afterthought in all of the big data hype: an awareness of the privacy, protection, and collection of your information, and what it’s being used for.