Big Data Blog Post

After completing this weeks assignments on big data, I have learned that there are a lot of ethical concerns that come with the collection of data. Companies use big data to track our daily lives and habits, and use them to for advertisement. The more data that they collect on us, the better idea they have of how to target us with advertisements. These companies take our data, and plug them into algorithms, and it sort us into certain demographics.

While there are countless ethical concerns that stem from big data collection, I believe the biggest privacy concern involving big data is the data that is collected from smart devices. These smart devices are tracking everything we do. They are in our homes, our cars, our offices, and even in our pockets. According to the Ted Talk video “ What your smart devices know (and share) about you” , the amazon Echo connects back to its server every three minutes, regardless if you are using it or not. Overtime, that is a lot of personal data recorded about you. Additionally, later in that Ted Talk, the speakers explained how one company used a smart sex toy, and recorded the amount of time it was used for, how hot it got, the vibration settings, etc. The company was data mining their customers orgasms and not telling anyone about it. Our daily habits, conversations, and thoughts that are being recorded by these big data companies is already invasive enough to our privacy, but recording our orgasms is way too far, and needs to be illegal.

While it may be very unsettling and disturbing learning about big data and its privacy concerns, I am very glad I am educated on that topic now. It is better to be aware of these things, and know that they are happening, rather than to be naïve and unaware of the data that is being collected about you. I know now, I am going to be much more careful and mindful of the data I allow to be collected about me.

Citations:

TEDtalksDirector, director. What Your Smart Devices Know (and Share) about You | Kashmir Hill and Surya Mattu. YouTube, YouTube, 14 Aug. 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=POHYyP4EbzE.