Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Who owns big data - people, government or corporations? Part 2.



A person by nature is endowed with the right to own - his body, his actions, his thoughts, finally - the products of his intellectual work and the things that he was able to acquire in exchange for action by his body and mind.
Personal data are an integral part of the human body and its biological indicators. User’s data is a part of “digital DNA”. This unique information must physically and legally belong to the person who produces it. No state or service provider, no one should have the right to full and lifelong access to a person's “digital DNA” without his or her informed consent.
A lot of people don’t understand the value of their data. Only a few understand that this is not just an analog of gold, the data is a new single universal currency, new oil, the only thing that is valuable. If the data will belong to anyone else, except for the people themselves, the system (Goolge, or government) can’t effectively protect these data, but the main thing - it can use data in the selfish interests of the minority - the analysis of big data will control the growth, development and behavior of the masses - the dream of any dictatorship perfectly described in the novel "1984" by George Orwell.
In the US there is no overall law about the protection of private user’s information. According to Albert Jidari, director of the privacy division of the Stanford Internet and Society Center, different approaches to the problem may exist in different states, industries and even individual companies. In society, however, there is no particular concern. "People are ready to sacrifice part of their privacy for the sake of convenience," Jidari states.
"We all are afraid of the government but people are most closely watched by the corporation. Big data processing requires tools and technologies. First of all, the money will be invested by those who will be able to quickly sell the analysis of personal information: Google, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft and similar large international market players that are interested in marketing research of consumer behavior. The game Pokemon Go was launched based on the already calculated model of the behavior of the population."
Part of the big data only the government has. For example, generalized flows on transport or from cellular operators. By signals Wi-Fi they can track the movement of a particular smartphone and person. Special services and police can combine all the data from surveillance cameras into a single system and analyze people's faces in real time on the scale of a city or region. They can combine passive information collection: sound sensors in cities in aggregate will indicate the exact place of the shot or car crashes for example.
So far no one has the answers to the questions "What to do with big data?" and "how to protect this data?" Legislative regulation is fraught with abuses by the authorities in questions of pressure on freedom of speech, and there is also a great risk of using big data for illegal surveillance of citizens, but the process of self-regulation of this industry is not yet visible. In addition, it's not a fact that IT companies that have data about their users won’t take advantage of the temptation to use these data for selfish and not always legitimate purposes. Perhaps, mankind has faced another global problem, the solution of which is possible only with open discussion of the whole "virtual community".


4 comments:

  1. In US there is no overall law about the protection of private user’s information and this need to be adjusted.

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  2. I agree with Haneen! It is quite scary how much private information is collected.

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  3. Way to bring out the big guns Olga! Great analysis.

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  4. Good explanation, thank you for this interesting post.

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