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WITHOUT “BIG DATA,” YOU
ARE BLIND AND DEAF AND IN
THE MIDDLE OF A HIGHWAY
BENEFITTING FROM “BIG DATA”
N
owadays there is a huge
amount of information
that is routinely collected,
stored, and analyzed by businesses
and government. This “big data”
includes sales data collected from
credit or debit cards swiped at
checkouts; web-browsing histories
of actual and potential customers;
information obtained from social
media; and usage patterns
collected from smartphones, digital
video recorders, games consoles,
and other personal devices that are
connected to the Internet. Due
to its size, “big data” can be
expensive to store and organize
on conventional databases.Using “big data”
“Big data” can be used for market-
research purposes to track and
target consumers and identify
profitable gaps in the market. One
company that has made use of “big
data” to increase revenue is
Progressive Corp. The US insurance
company has tried to increase its
market share by offering lower car
insurance premiums to drivers who
install a device into the car’s
diagnostic port. The device
measures how the car is driven—its
speed, and the number of times theIN CONTEXT
FOCUS
Analyzing dataKEY DATES
1995 US company Netscape
Communications Corporation
develops Internet cookies.1997 NASA scientists Michael
Cox and David Ellsworth
devise the term “big data” to
describe the challenge of
processing and visualizing the
vast amounts of information
generated by supercomputers.2000 Francis X. Diebold, an
economist at the University of
Pennsylvania, publishes his
paper Big data, dynamic factor
models for macroeconomic
measurement and forecasting.2012 Barack Obama’s team
uses “big data” to get him
reelected to the White House.2013 US whistle-blower
Edward Snowden reveals that
the National Security Agency
was authorized to use “big
data” to spy on US citizens.A huge amount of
information is gathered
whenever digital
interactions take place....it reveals the viewing
and shopping habits of
millions of people.When this “big data” is
organized and analyzed...Without “big data,”
you are blind and deaf
and in the middle
of a highway.