Hello peeps,
Welcome to another issue of Girlsplaining, where I - a girl - explain things. I don't pretend to be an expert on these topics; in fact, I am not. But I'm a fast learner, and I can easily explain the basics to increase your chances of someday winning 'Who wants to be a millionaire?' with every article you read.
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Every time we go online, we leave an absurd amount of data behind, and that thought is as terrifying as The Police song.
Every Snap you take,
every click you make,
every trend you break,
every call you take,
Big Data is there with you.
Oh! Can't you see?
Your personal data belongs to me.
As humans, we've become so hyperconnected that we've created 90% of the world's data in the last two years alone. The Internet is overcrowded with more than 2 billion websites and over 1.5 billion unused ones (Source: Internet Live Stats.)
Note: Want to read about how to remain productive while being hyperconnected? Read this.
But what exactly is Big Data?
According to Investopedia (the Wikipedia I trust), "Big data refers to the large, diverse sets of information that grow at ever-increasing rates. It encompasses the volume of information, the velocity or speed at which it is created and collected, and the variety or scope of the data points being covered."
Meaning, it's not only the size of the data we're leaving behind but also the rate at which we're doing it. According to TechJury, we create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day. To put it in perspective, you would need 195.312.500.000 phones with 128 GB of capacity to store all the data humans produce daily.
Don't believe it's possible? Answer these questions with me:
Have you accepted the cookies on a website today?
Did you check Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, ClubHouse, or Snapchat this morning?
Did you take a shower while listening to Spotify, Deezer, or Apple Music?
Did you fall asleep watching any video streaming platform like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney +, YouTube?
Have you made an online bank transaction recently?
Did you Google something today?
Did you open your emails today?
You've probably done three or more of those things today, and the day is not even over yet. We generate data even if we don't realize it.
The scary thing is there's nothing we can do about it. At least, not if we want to keep using the Internet.
But, the amount of data alone is not what makes this concept so fascinating. What you can do with the information is.
The reason why big data is so relevant is due to the 5 Vs.
Volume: It refers to the amount of data generated daily. When having access to more information, the more accurate the results will be.
Velocity: The speed at which the data is processed. The faster it is, the better the competitive advantage will be to businesses.
Variety: A company can gain data from various sources depending on what they need. The importance of where to regain the information will depend on what serves each business best.
Veracity:In this case, it's a synonym of quality. The data needs to be accurate and adequately filtered to serve the right purposes.
Value: This is the most critical V, at least for me. According to BBVA, "This refers to the ability to transform a tsunami of data into business."
I see Camila, but what can we do with that data?
Us, probably nothing. We just help in the production and benefit from it. But companies use it to gain consumer information and market insights. If companies manage to understand this data correctly and use the information to make decisions, the ability to monetize and serve their consumers is infinite.
Big data allows companies to know what their consumers will need before they even realize it for themselves.
Sure, it's scary to feel that a bunch of companies know what you want or need even before you do. But isn't it amazing to run out of contact lenses, for example, and then get ten different options to buy them on Instagram without even doing any work? I think it is!
How is big data shaping industries?
Since I promised I'd keep the emails short, I will only share three of them, and I'll leave you a link in case you want to read more about what's happening in other industries.
Marketing, we went from massive to extremely personalized advertising in less than ten years. The best way to showcase a product used to be by placing a TV ad at the so-called 'Primetime.' Now, each of us has our own primetime on our mobile phones.
Having access to on-demand content pushed the marketing industry to create ads that spoke to a particular audience. Mass-marketing campaigns no longer have the best ROI; however, direct-marketing does.
People want to feel brands know them, and big data is the reason why those assumptions or knowledge of users is possible. Btw, if you want to be really freaked out, open a browser, login into your Google account, and visit this website: adssettings.google.com. It has all the assumptions Google’s ever made about you based on your searches.
Healthcare, this sector generates an insanely large amount of data used in different areas. My two favorites are i) to predict future pathologies. We can measure everything, heart palpitations per minute, steps per day, hours of sleep, quality of sleep, family health issues, etc. In the near future, it's expected to share this information with doctors from a distance, and they'll be able to come up with a diagnosis. ii) The other usage is to prioritize help. For example, many clinics use big data to keep giving treatment to cancer patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Retail, different components affect the way we shop, and this industry has access to all of the information behind it, building a 360 perspective of consumers. This allows online shoppers to be presented with "hand-picked" items that fit their interests. Amazon has one of the best engines for this.
Internet of things, sports, education, transportation, logistics, politics, journalism, banking, and finances are also sectors in which big data is present. Read more about them here.
What is the biggest watch-out?
Even if Big Data analytics is already helping the world achieve a ton of things that would have never been possible without this technology, the most significant risk is - in my opinion - the ethics behind data usage. In the end, there are still people managing this data, and humans can do good or bad things.
Having all of our information out there includes things we want others to know and the things we don't want to share. Therefore, this data could either be used to improve our lives or manipulate us.
We all remember the lawsuit against the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal, where this company harvested Facebook users' data to fund Donald Trump's first presidential campaign, exposing people to manipulative political propaganda.
That’s an extreme form of manipulation, but it's not the only case. We can be manipulated into buying a product, consuming the same type of content, choosing our next vacation destination, or deciding whether or not to get the COVID vaccine.
It's a funny paradox. Even having access to an insane amount of information, we can still be misinformed.
How do we protect ourselves from big data manipulation?
There’s no way to easily protect from this. But here are some things we could do to increase awareness, and challenge ourselves whenever we’ve made a new opinion or decision:
Triple check big decisions before making them. Talk to friends, experts, and research from trustworthy sources.
Monitor who has access to your internet activity. You can download a browser extension to do this. Block sites you don't want accessing your data.
Delete cookies and cache often.
Unsubscribe from all email blasts you didn't subscribe to.
Request governments to regulate who has access to this data.
Another possible solution is choosing blissful ignorance. If you don’t think about it, you cannot worry about it. Am I right?
Look at all the things you learned today:
Every breath you take by The Police is a creepy song.
We leave data everywhere we go.
Big Data is the name given to the massive storage of data we leave online. Companies use it to create valuable insights for their businesses.
Big Data has 5V's that make it so important: Volume, velocity, variety, veracity, and value.
Many industries are changing the way they work due to it.
We are vulnerable to manipulation and misinformation.
Fact-checking and cookie cleansing can help you protect from data manipulation.
For the record, I do think Big Data is an insanely cool technological achievement, and even if it has some risks, I enjoy my perfectly personalized social media timelines.
Thanks for reading. I hope you learned something. If so, please recommend it, leave a comment if you want me to explain any particular topic, or buy me a beer if you truly enjoyed it.
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