Every time you open your browser, every time you send a text message, even when you drive your car, big data is watching you and collecting information about your behaviour and habits.
Forget “eventually”, big data has most likely already got you.
With 90% of all data in the world today created in the past few years and 2.5 exabytes (that’s 2.5 billion gigabytes!) of data generated every day in 2012 according to computer giant IBM, this is undoubtedly the age of data. And yours is being used for everything from targeted marketing to road safety improvement.
Here’s how your data is being collected and why it is almost impossible to avoid it…
Browsing the net
Every move you make on the Internet is recorded. The moment you click to visit a site your data, along with millions of others, is transferred to a host of companies, from Microsoft and Google subsidiaries to traffic-logging sites and ad firms, to push tailored ads or just to add to your online file.
Using social media
Facebook posts, tweets, YouTube videos, blogs, all are being trawled through by the big data bots to know what interests they can plug for purchase intent, what is going on in your life that could affect spending decisions like pregnancy, and what feedback they can glean to improve customer satisfaction.
Using credit cards
What you are already buying and where you are buying it is like free money to marketers. Your credit cards, debit cards and loyalty cards record exactly that. What’s more, making transactions with large amounts of cash will likely flag you up as a criminal so the plastic takes precedence.
Sending mail
Even the old fashioned exercise of sending mail is under the gaze of big data. In the US, the Mail Isolation Control and Tracking program was launched in 2001 after the deaths of five people due to anthrax attacks. Under the program a photo of every single piece of mail that goes out is sent to law enforcement.
Driving your car
As the technology in cars has gotten smarter so has your data become more mineable. Tools like GPS not only tell you were you’re going, but it also tells the data collectors where you’re going. Outside of your whereabouts it can also pinpoint roads where speeding is a problem. Then there’s all the big data being transferred from your engine to your dashboard.
Warming your home
If you are seeing less and less of the meter man that is because smart meters are becoming more and more common. The devices work by collecting data on the amount of electricity, water and so forth being used in a home and then sending that big data back to the utility providers.
Guest article written by: Maytech provides a global cloud platform that specializes in big data transfer – we’re talking terabits of rich media content, databases, disk images, social data and even huge log files. To learn more visit [tp lang=”en” only=”y”]Maytech’s website[/tp][tp not_in=”en”]Maytech’s website[/tp] today!