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posted by martyb on Saturday August 29 2015, @01:49PM   Printer-friendly
from the I-wonder-if-they-track-sales-of-tin-foil? dept.

http://www.cio.com/article/2977027/intel-reveals-big-datas-dirty-little-secret.html

The article is entitled "Intel reveals big data's dirty little secret" but I read it a little bit differently.

From the article: "Companies are spending billions on tools and engineering to analyse big data, though many are hampered by one little problem: they still don't know what to do with all the data they collect."

This means that, of all the egregious breaches of personal privacy that companies regularly perform (the Target-knows-you're-pregnant-when-your-parents-don't story comes to mind), they have still only scratched the surface of making sense of your information, and using it effectively. Which means that, as Big Data gets people who actually know what they're doing, the more frightening the possibilities become, which is probably only a matter of time.

How would you feel about getting a bunch of targeted spam from divorce lawyers because your wife/husband's personal details were in the big Ashley Madison data leak, before you even heard about it? What if you were the guy who got drunk and put a profile up one time after a big fight but never followed up on it? This is why I don't have a Facebook account.


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  • (Score: 2) by etherscythe on Sunday August 30 2015, @01:02PM

    by etherscythe (937) on Sunday August 30 2015, @01:02PM (#229811) Journal

    I'd like to believe we will someday get to what you are describing. My negative tone is based on my observation that we are on the wrong path for that, specifically, the wrong people are collecting this information right now. We need services and organizations tailored to the needs of the individuals, not the needs of big business. Until that occurs, the problem is only going to get worse.

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