{"id":13717,"date":"2018-03-15T10:09:43","date_gmt":"2018-03-15T10:09:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hnews.hult.edu\/?p=13717"},"modified":"2026-05-06T10:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T09:52:10","slug":"swimming-through-the-ocean-of-big-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hult.edu\/blog\/swimming-through-the-ocean-of-big-data\/","title":{"rendered":"How to swim through the ocean of big data… and survive"},"content":{"rendered":"

The world population is 7.6 billion people. About 4 billion currently have access to the internet. What does this mean? The ocean of personal data online is already huge, and there\u2019s much more room to grow. This gives rise to two major challenges: 1. Containing your private data<\/strong> and 2. Regaining focus in a noisy data environment<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s tackle privacy first. Big Data is here to stay and Big Brother has found his new best friend. In China, the government is working on a citizen scoring system that will be in place by 2020. The trustworthiness of each citizen will be ranked by factors including political leanings, shopping habits, whether you pay bills on time, what you post on social media, and\u2014possibly\u2014who your friends are.<\/p>\n

While the Chinese government has publicly announced this initiative, large swaths of data collection worldwide is done indirectly. Think about the hotel review you submitted after a great holiday in the Caribbean. Or the \u201cLike\u201d button you pushed on a friend\u2019s post. Sure, we know those interactions get registered somewhere, but do we really comprehend the volume of data being collected<\/strong>?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe concept of mass marketing has disappeared with big data,\u201d says Ali Fenwick, Professor of Industrial-Organizational Behavior at Hult International Business School. \u201cWith big data, now we know who you are, where you are, what moves you, and what motivates you.\u201d As Fenwick explains in a recent report<\/a>, this kind of \u201csoft\u201d data is a treasure trove for businesses like Target or VISA in developing psychographic profiles of customers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith big data, now we know who you are, where you are, what moves you, and what motivates you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ali Fenwick, Hult Professor of Industrial-Organizational Behavior<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Your private data isn’t private<\/h3>\n

Just ask Mozilla\u2019s Chief Operating Officer, Denelle Dixon, who wanted to conduct a privacy experiment last summer in preparation for a TED talk. She offered herself up as a guinea pig, and Mozilla hired a private investigator to find out as much information about Dixon as possible by only providing her first and last name.<\/p>\n

The investigator did 24 hours of work and the result was eye-opening. \u201cI was really shocked because of how far it went,\u201d said Dixon. \u201cThey found information about where I lived for the past 25 years and my email addresses the past 25 years. They even had information about me from before I had a credit history.\u201d<\/p>\n

The list goes on. The investigators found court documents of Dixon\u2019s divorce and custody hearings. They identified the house Dixon was planning to buy and found out she just purchased a 1965 Mustang, even before the car records were processed. Since the investigators had permission to do surveillance, they took photos.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey had photos of me at 5:30 in the morning leaving the house, and I was looking straight at them,\u201d says Dixon. \u201cI live in a quiet area and you would think I would see them but I didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n