The Big Data Revolution Will Affect Us From Head To Toe
Consider, for instance, the makers of Stride Rite shoes, who imagined in the book that when you went to the shoe store, a wireless device would measure your foot and the way you walk. It would select your shoe size, produce your shoe from parts the store had on-site, and share data about your foot with supply chain vendors, non-competing retailers, health-care providers and medical researchers.
I’ve heard this story ever since Sun created Java and said that the network is the new computer. What concerns me is that there’re still no clear regulations for data privacy. The minute BigData will spread, it will be too late to do anything.
Companies are collecting more and more data about our habits, activities, and all these connected to personal details. They protect themselves by asking everyone to agree with long, boring legalese papers. Which they can change at any time — what is the last time you saved a copy of the Google ToS?
So even if all this data is about us, we have no control over it. Moreover there is no authority regulating who can access this data, where can it be stored, if and how can it be shared, what level of anonymity is needed to protect it, what happens when the contract between the parts is finished, etc.
Can your hospital share your data with an insurance company? Can your car share your routes with your car service? Can your phone track and report back your identifiable location? Can you delete all data Google collected about you if you terminate using their services?
We are all excited about BigData and the possibilities it is opening. I am too. But with unregulated BigData, we are also opening the doors of malicious usages.
Original title and link: The Big Data Revolution Will Affect Us From Head To Toe (NoSQL databases © myNoSQL)
