In the big data age, people began to worry about "data tyranny."

On the understanding of astronomy, geography, strategist, winning, this is not the reincarnation of Zhuge Liang, but now the most fashionable "big data."

What is big data? At present, there is no standard concept, those you browse news online, send and receive mail, shopping, and other network "Footprints" are recorded in the form of "data" and stored. Analyzing these traceable, analytical, quantifiable data can affect the business sector, the healthcare industry, and government agencies ' working patterns.

According to Der Spiegel, the 2012 internet generated 2.8 10 "21 bytes (a 10" 21 bytes =1,000,000,000,000,000,000 kilobytes), experts predict that by 2020, the new data will be increased to 40 10 "21 bytes, by then, The new data every day requires 20.5 billion DVDs to store, and the data will multiply every two years.

The New York Times magazine Der Spiegel published a series of articles analysing the changes in big data to all walks of life and exploring concerns about "data tyranny", the privacy space and the ability to innovate in the data-driven era.

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[IT industry] data can also be turned into money

Facebook 1 billion user data information worth at least 100 billion dollars

Google and Facebook (social networking sites abroad) are sheer big numbers. Their business model is based on the collection, analysis and classification of user information, which advertisers can use to accurately advertise their results. For investors in the Facebook book, Facebook 1 billion users ' data is worth at least 100 billion dollars (about 613.1 billion yuan).

Currently, the industry divides business opportunities for large data into two categories: a class of IBM, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and other companies to provide "hardware + Software + data" as the representative of the overall solution, which is characterized by platform, providing basic services; the other is the face book, Amazon, Google and other companies as representatives, based on their own mass of user information, Provide precision marketing and personalized advertising promotion.

In 2012, global trade with large data amounted to € 4.6 billion (about 36.5 billion yuan), which is expected to reach € 16 billion (about 127.2 billion yuan) by 2016.

[Official] The policeman catches the thief at lunch

Big Data Use one year, Santa Cruz City theft case fell 11%, police detection rate increased by 56%

Big Data is a helper for many people, but it is a stumbling block for thieves.

Police in Santa Cruz, California, are eating near an underground parking lot, catching a car thief in a few minutes. Amazing, huh? In fact, the police will choose to lunch in the vicinity of the parking lot, because the big data tell them that the point may be stolen car behavior.

In the past two years, nearly 100 police stations in Santa Cruz City have used large data in their daily work, and by analyzing the relevant data provided by the police, large data predict the specific time, the specific location may be theft, robbery, car theft and other acts to help the police handling the case. But killing and other behaviors are not predictable.

"At first we were skeptical. "said Stephen Clark, deputy director of the Santa Cruz city police." "But these figures prove their accuracy and effectiveness. Stephen introduced, big Data use for a year, Santa Cruz city's theft case fell 11%, car theft case fell 8%, the police detection rate increased by 56%.

[Entertainment] website predicts "card House" will be red

Netflix has 33 million users all over the world, and it's clearer than anyone who likes to watch movies.

Netflix, the US online video site, also benefited from big data.

Netflix's first business was to rent DVDs, now offering 36 million of customers online to watch the movie business. Through numerous data analyses, Netflix has successfully predicted that the American play "card House" will be red.

Netflix, which has 27 million subscribers in the United States and 33 million in the world, knows more about movies and TVs than anyone else. Research has shown that daily peak-hour web downloads are from Netflix's streaming services, and last year people watched streaming video online more time than physical DVDs. Every day a user generates 30 million behaviors on Netflix, such as when you pause, replay, or fast-forward, and a subscriber of Netflix gives 4 million ratings a day, and 3 million search requests, asking about time and equipment for the episodes.

It knows the user likes David Finch ("Seven Sins" director), also knew that Spacey starred the film to perform well, also knew that the British play edition "The Card House" is very popular, the three intersection predicted "the card house" the success.

Life] "Magic Carpet" can automatically alarm

The number of steps the carpet stores, if the owner's step is less than the normal range, will issue an alert

The University of Manchester has used large data to invent a "magic rug" that can help the lone-person to alert when an anomaly occurs. On the surface, "magic carpets" are no different from ordinary carpets, but they are also laid on the floor, but "magic carpets" store the number of times a single person walks every day. If the single person walks less than normal in the day, the Magic carpet will alert you to the possibility of an accident as soon as possible.

Blueyonder, a company of 85 employees, is a company that analyzes large data. The company provides "accurate forecasts" for retailers such as Wal-Mart by combing the supermarket card information, weather information, school vacations and traffic reports.

These "predictions" are important to businesses because they avoid shipping errors and reduce storage costs.

For example, Blueyonder had suggested that a supermarket put milk, chocolate bars and apples together, and a few days later, sales of these three items increased significantly. The real reason is that Blueyonder learned about a new school near the supermarket, and the company analyzed the crowd characteristics and came to the conclusion.

View: Need to beware of "data tyranny"

Yes, big data is a powerful thing in areas like business. But for the average consumer, the pros and cons are the most important?

A survey by the Austrian-American company shows that 75% of people do not want companies to store their personal information, and 90% are against companies collecting records of web browsing.

"Today, our social networking society has a knack for creating panic," says Boyd, a senior researcher at Microsoft Research. In the big data age, the fear of privacy leaks is a source of intense tension and anxiety. It is generally accepted that the most worrying thing is that you do not know when your privacy is inadvertently leaked out. ”

One of the most worrying is the unrestricted use of such data. The American best-selling book, "Outbreak", pointed out that human behavior seems random disorder, but in fact there is some kind of law. The social network is so developed today, big data magnifies human behavior and makes it possible to predict people's personalities and journeys relatively accurately. So, don't rule out the possibility that after a day's work, you haven't decided where to go, and the data center has already predicted exactly where you're going.

This brings us to the alert: how to define the rights and interests of large data in the big Data age? How to control the risk of using large data? How to maintain the data democracy of our society?

In addition, how many people would really like to accept a "digital-driven economy" of the world? Do you really want to live in a world so clearly predicting the future that data can predict how your child behaves in school, what works for him or her, how likely he or she is to become a criminal, how likely he is to get sick?

Can a television or music record company better cater to the tastes of audiences or audiences through data analysis, but does it really outweigh the benefits of the creative industry? Where are the innovations, instincts, and surprises?

Internet expert Yevgeny Morozov proposed the concept of "data tyranny", noting that political and economic decisions based on large data are checked at intervals by independent auditors to prevent the misuse of digital power.

(Responsible editor: The good of the Legacy)