The "Big data" era needs to be wary of "data tyranny"

For most people, "big data" is still a strange term, but its power is everywhere: Credit card companies track customer information, quickly discover capital moves, and alert cardholders; energy companies use meteorological data analysis to easily select the ideal location to install wind turbines The Swedish capital Stockholm uses operational procedures to manage traffic, reducing congestion in the urban area by half ...

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 we 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." Their clients include Germany's leading mail-order industry, Otto Group and DM chain Pharmacy.

"The Blue Shore" software is not only able to analyze more content from a single piece of information, Weiss said, but it can also find links between information, which is extremely useful for retailing, to avoid shipping errors, and to minimize inventory costs.

Otto Group said that since the use of the "Blue Shore" software, sales forecast accuracy increased by 20% to 40%. It is ready to extend the software application to the company's sports brand retailer Sportscheck, and to acquire the "Blue Shore" 50% equity.

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

Medical: Open Personalized Treatment

The Haso Pratna Institute (HPI) 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 world's largest provider of enterprise management and systematic business solutions, "Si ai pu" (SAP) founder, but also HPI patron. HPI's Hanna database technology, which began in a "Sanssouci DB" project, founded by 8 college students and won the innovation prize, has become synonymous with "storage processing," he said.

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

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. This is not surprising because each person has about 3 billion DNA "blocks". But with the help of HPI "super Brain", it only takes a few seconds to decipher the genome.

In addition, HPI's computer can select all the information from the public gene pool to find the most suitable treatment for his symptoms for each patient. "For now, this search pairing process will take months," Mainer said.

Security: Helping catch thieves fight against terrorism

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 appear there, but was waiting for a recommendation based on 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 two-thirds of the real happened.

The software, compiled by computer experts George Moller and anthropologist Jeffrey Brantingham, a criminal study, refers to the program model for predicting earthquake aftershocks. Santa Cruz's deputy director of police, Clarke, accidentally learned about the idea in 2011, and three people jointly launched a test project. 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%.

In addition to police stations, 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, headquartered in an old San Francisco sausage factory. 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. The company analyzes and decodes data from a variety of machines, including cell phone towers, air conditioners, Web servers and airplanes. Guido Schroeder, senior vice president of Splunk products, says analyzing turbine-supplied data helps minimize fuel consumption and optimize maintenance intervals.

"The security field is one of the fastest growing areas for big data applications," Schroeder said. In addition to tackling crime and terrorism, Splunk's software also identifies 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. It seems to be good for both retailers and consumers, but advocates of protecting data privacy argue that the idea of "big data" is no different from "autocratic dictatorship".

To dispel concerns, many companies have stressed that their collection, storage, and analysis of data are "anonymous", 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.

In modern society, a more pressing question is: are people really willing to accept a "digital-driven economy" world? In this world, data analysis can predict how your child will behave in school, what kind of work he'll be fit for, who has the chance to commit a crime or get cancer, Television and record companies can cater to audiences or 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.

"Big data" industry giant Google's casual behavior, showing people on the "data tyranny" vigilance. Google chairman Eric Schmidt said the company had flashed a joke in 2010 about predicting stock prices through data analysis, but later gave up because executives thought it might not be legal.

But he did not say that it was impossible.

(Responsible editor: The good of the Legacy)