Beyond Privacy and Big Data

Apparently, all the advances we’ve had in the area of the so-called big data in recent years, are still unstoppable, and the possibilities that are visualized for the next years are unimaginable. From predicting an airline’s financial status with public and open flight data, to accurately predicting what results an election will have. Less than three lustrums ago, this seemed very distant, but who would say? We’re here and all this is very fast.

From all this I have a concern. It’s not because of the advances, that fascinates me and in a certain way we have all benefited from it. What worries me is the use of the data being made and the implications of hidden coercion towards us.

Keep in mind that in the last five years more information/data has been generated than during the whole history of humanity.

In the case of social networks, with mobiles and other applications, we share such a large amount of data, ranging from location, photos and even comments; comments which can predict our mood and, maybe even a future purchase with simple algorithms of machine learning.

I insist, with this I’m not against Google, Facebook or Twitter. In fact, I consider myself a digital native from my adolescence (since when we searched AltaVista or BBS were used) and everything that these companies have contributed to humanity has no historical precedent, today more than ever, we’re more connected and informed, but I do believe that we should start taking “precautions”.

For many years these innovative companies have been benefiting from every day we generate data that are to their advantage, however I see that we are losing control over the data we generate beyond privacy, and beyond having an innovative service and a free app.

For example, I agree to share my data, without any problem. Right now, I have over 40,000 unread emails in my Gmail account, I don’t have Facebook, among other things, because they often make the move to change your privacy settings every time they update, I do have an Instagram account, and a few accounts of twitter, but I prefer Reddit, or the meneame.net, especially Reddit, it helps you to preserve in a certain way the anonymity. YouTube, for example, with its recommendations, I especially love it when it suggests movies that have just been released… but where I’m headed is that if you’re going to make use of my data, I agree, but make me participate in what you’re going to do with it even the probable benefit that you’re gaining with it.

But wait, economically speaking, data are an input for the company and, at the moment, at zero cost, and we, the users, are their workers at cost ‘0’ or to a very low cost… besides the benefit that these companies obtain is not only punctual, it can persist in time and it’s not marginal, it can be exponential as the machine learning models are improved with our data, therefore, I think we should be part of it, of the benefit. And I’m not suggesting that it’s monetary in general, nor taxing by some state.

Nowadays there’s technology like blockchain, or the same opensource culture that are really proving to be effective to the point that the bitcoin virtual currency based on blockchain has caught the attention of the US Federal Reserve… its use on the internet as a means of payment; also the opensource culture that was practically made known by the Linux operating system and which diminished the in-market dominion of Microsoft, proving to be better product for a certain niche and has become standard in many sectors like big data; this type of example could help us to decipher or to understand how we could get more social benefit from the mere fact of sharing our data, yes, I said “our data”, which are inputs, which are used to create new products, services and more.

If they tell us that with our data we’ll have better user experiences, better machine learning algorithms and better applications (in the mobile phones cases), and free of charge, hey, I’ll help you improve, but tell me why do you want to use my data and make me participate.

Imagine that it’s about developing a new drug, and that we have a disease which that drug can help us heal and we’re offered the option to participate in a clinical trial with the drug, well, would you sign up? I know I would, it would be a win-win scenario for everyone.

Now, in the case of big data it’s slightly different. Things go faster and the quality of the data is crucial to developing the algorithms, that is, tell me what data you need, that will help your algorithm improve, but it’s not free, provide something that’s beyond a free application, I contribute with the data and also with quality in the data. In this competitive world, things change very fast, we innovate together, your profit increases and my satisfaction too.

Legally, the laws protect us, but if we look at the speed that the laws change and the speed that the algorithms of machine learning incorporate innovations, it gives much to think…

I’ll show you two examples:

Hypothetical case:

Imagine a financial institution that makes use of your credit card movements, versus your searches on social networks, location and comments… about, let´s say, Korean Restaurants and Spicy Food, we cross that with your medical records; they could predict that within your next movements a visit to the pharmacy to make a small purchase would be necessary, to not continue suffering in silence and to be able to sit calmly.

Real Case:

Nowadays there are companies that are dedicated to crime prediction and Los Angeles C.A. police makes use of these types of tools.

The point is that my data, and the information we generate, is worth to predict many things, and companies that use it can do what they want with that data (within legality), but the benefit of it, not only the quantitative benefit, I want to be a part of it. I insist, not only a quantitative and/or monetary benefit, I ask for a social benefit beyond the mere use of the application or the innovation that its development generates.

For a few months now, I’ve been seeing proposals ranging from putting a tax on companies that work with large amounts of data, to fund a basic universal income. To other proposals that say, according to the information that we share with the companies, they reward us through micropayments.

Both seem fine, but beware, the problem with taxes in some sectors is that they can simply slow down innovation in a way. And if we all claim micropayments for the use of our data we could drain the companies’ profits and we could also destroy wealth. But also remember, that one of the germs of which Sillicon Valley is nowadays a center of worldwide technological innovation, began with the Second World War, Stanford University, the Cold War and the so-called Space Race, finally the State.

In conclusion, big data is a treasure and we must encourage this kind of tools, but let’s continue to make it more social, more open and more of everything, let’s start by realizing that the data is an input, i.e. raw material, “Data is the new Oil”.