The joy and sorrow in the age of "Big data"

Meyer-Schoenberg, a professor at Oxford University, in his new book Big Data, said it was a "revolution" that would have profound effects on all walks of life and even change the way people think, but it also raised concerns about "data tyranny".

Business: Providing "accurate predictions"

In some companies, laboratories and government agencies, "data" has been touted as the new "oil" or "gold" of the 21st century. Some statisticians, physicists and so-called data scientists have profited from it, serving large data application development companies, one of which is the "Blue Shore".

"The Blue Shore" was established 5 years ago, there are currently 85 employees. Manager Youvet Weiss introduced, the company uses self-developed software, analysis of supermarket credit card records, weather information, school vacation information and traffic reports and other data, to provide customers with "accurate prediction."

For example, the "Blue Shore" found that, on some days, sales of milk, chocolate bars and apples in a supermarket rose sharply, coinciding with the arrival of a group of students in a nearby youth hostel. As a result, the company collects information about school vacations in neighboring states, using software to calculate the number of students that may come at a given time.

Another example, "Blue shore" found that, if encountered in Wednesday for the holiday, the days before and after the children do not go to school, so the demand for bread is reduced, "The blue Shore" of the inventory booking system will automatically make corresponding adjustments.

In addition, the "Blue Shore" helps DM chain pharmacies calculate the most reasonable number of employees and provide sales forecasts for each store.

German mail-order giant Otto Group said that since the use of "Blue Shore" software, sales forecast accuracy increased by 20% to 40%. The group is ready to extend the software to its sports brand Sportscheck, and to acquire a 50% stake in the "Blue Shore".

"Big data is reshaping the economy, and we are just in the beginning." "said Weiss.

Medical: Open Personalized Treatment

The Haso Pratna Institute (H PI), located in the Babelsberg area of Berlin, may be the hope of millions of cancer sufferers. The computer room on the second floor of the Institute remains low for a year to avoid overheating the processor, which is worth 1.5 million euros. The average computer has only 1 processors, but there are 40 processors per computer, 1000 times times faster than the traditional computer.

Plattner is the founder of "Si AI" (SA P), the world's largest provider of enterprise management and systematic business solutions, and the patron of H Pi. He said that the Hanna database technology of H PI began with a project called "Sanssouci D B", which was created by 8 college students who had won the Innovation Award and now has become synonymous with "internal storage processing".

"We are standing on the threshold of personalized care," said Christopher Mainer, a mathematician and director of the H-Pi, who believes that the technology not only has broad business prospects but also provides opportunities for cancer treatment.

Each tumor is different, Mainer says, meaning that the same treatment can have a difference in effect for different people. At present, in order to develop targeted treatment programs for patients, it will take several months to decipher their genome. But with the help of H PI "Super Brain", it only takes a few seconds to decipher the genome.

In addition, H PI's computer can select all the information from the public gene pool, for each patient to find the most appropriate treatment for his symptoms. "Currently, this search pairing process takes months." "Mainer said.

Security: Catching thieves, fighting terror, hacking

In an underground garage in Santa Cruz, Calif., a thief is picking up a car and is being caught by a policeman who is eating lunch in a car a few metres away. The policeman did not happen to be there, but instead sat on the recommendation of a computer software.

Over the past two years, police in the city have been patrolling on shifts, based on instructions issued by the chief executive and the software. The software entered the police all the data, constantly updated to calculate when and where the possibility of burglary, robbery, car theft and other criminal acts, which 2/3 of the real happened.

The software, compiled jointly by computer expert George Moller and anthropologist Jeffrey Brantingham, refers to the program model for predicting earthquake aftershocks. Santa Cruz Police Deputy director of the Clarke 2011 learned that the idea, three people jointly carry out the test. They have entered the 8-year criminal record of Santa Cruz, plus other potentially relevant data, such as weather conditions, park information and bus routes.

"At first, a lot of people were skeptical, including myself," Clark said, "but the data itself proves that it does work." According to his introduction, the use of crime prediction system a year later, the night theft case reduced by 11%, car theft cases reduced by 8%, the detection rate significantly increased by 56%.

The military and intelligence agencies also attach great importance to data analysis. For example, in the search for Bin Laden's process, "Big data" played an important role, it is the database analysis let investigators focus on the Pakistani Abbottabad.

Splunk is a hot software supplier for the intelligence community and the military. Not so long ago, Splunk ranked 5th in the world's most creative companies, and Google listed only 11th place. Governments, institutions and businesses in more than 90 countries are using splunk apps, including the Pentagon and DHS.

Guido Schroeder, senior vice president of Splunk products, said: "The security field is one of the fastest growing areas of application for big data." "In addition to dealing with crime and terrorism, Splunk's software can also identify cyber crimes such as hacker attacks."

Beware of "Data tyranny"

Personalized service is the charm of "Big data" applications. For example, if someone says "like" a pair of jeans on Facebook, the next time he enters the store, he may receive discounts on the same brand of jeans that the shopkeeper sent him. This seems to be good for both retailers and consumers, but advocates of data privacy argue that the idea of "big data" is no different from "autocratic dictatorship".

To dispel concerns, many companies have stressed that they are "anonymous" in collecting, storing and analyzing data, but this may not be the case. According to a recent study in the online journal Science report, each person has his or her own mode of action, and 95% of people may be identified. The more data available for analysis, the less likely it is to remain "anonymous" to identify a person as long as 33 bytes of information, Alvinde Narayanan, a Princeton computer scientist, said on his blog.

75% of respondents said they did not want companies to store personal data and 90% opposed companies tracking their online records, according to a survey by the New York Advertiser, Ogilvy.

In modern society, a more pressing question is: are people really willing to accept a "digital-driven economy" world? In this world, data analysis predicts how your child will behave in school, what kind of work he will do in the future, who has the most chance of committing a crime or having cancer, and that TV and record companies can cater to audiences and audiences based on predictions ... But where is the idea, the inspiration and the surprise in a world where everything is calculated?

The Internet philosopher Yevgeny Morozov a sharp critique of the ideology behind many "big data" applications, warning of imminent "data tyranny". He suggested that "big data" applications should be subject to periodic review by independent auditors to prevent abuse of power.

(Responsible editor: Lu Guang)