Data Mining: A Global Revolution

Netflix's 'The Great Hack' exposes the vulnerability of our data accumulated on social media for military, political and profit-making purposes. As coined in this eye-opening documentary, data has recently overtaken oil as the most valuable commodity and encompasses a trillion dollar industry. The more we learn about data and its manipulation to swing democratic processes and shape people's opinions, the more concerned we are becoming of the consequences amidst the 'Big Tech' revolution.

In the wake of the recent Cambridge Analytica Scandal, Facebook is set to pay a $5 billion dollar fine over privacy violations and its failure to inform the potential 87 million users impacted by a data leak that happened years ago. The fine is the largest the Federal Trade Commission has levied against a tech company, illustrating the enormity of this data breach and the scale of its impact. A recent report by McAfee shows that the global cost of data breaches and cybercrime is approaching $600 billion and is on the rise.

What is Data Mining?

As explained on Investopedia: "Data mining is a process used by companies to turn raw data into useful information. By using software to look for patterns in large batches of data, businesses can learn more about their customers to develop more effective marketing strategies, increase sales and decrease costs."

"Data mining involves exploring and analyzing large blocks of information to glean meaningful patterns and trends. It can be used in a variety of ways, such as database marketing, credit risk management, fraud detection, spam Email filtering, or even to discern the sentiment or opinion of users."

"The data mining process breaks down into five steps. First, organizations collect data and load it into their data warehouses. Next, they store and manage the data, either on in-house servers or the cloud. Business analysts, management teams and information technology professionals access the data and determine how they want to organize it. Then, application software sorts the data based on the user's results, and finally, the end user presents the data in an easy-to-share format, such as a graph or table."

The Impact of Data Breaches

To list some of the political processes that have clearly been affected and disrupted by data mining and ensuing propaganda on social media channels: Brexit, the Obama Campaign, the Trump Campaign and interference from Russia in the 2016 US election. The few percentage points that swung the Brexit referendum vote and the 2016 US election undoubtedly owed to the use of data mining in extracting data from and influencing so-called 'persuadables' through personalised ads and marketing campaigns. Cambridge Analytica claimed to have over 5,000 data points on every US voter in 2016 which were used in creating their targeted online political campaign on behalf of Donald Trump.

That such threats to democracy are now possible is due in part to the fact that our society lacks an information ethics adequate to its deepening dependence on data. Where politics is driven by data, we need a set of ethics to guide that data. But in our rush to deliver on the promises of Big Data, we have not sought one. The Bank of England's 'regulatory sandbox' is an example of a step in the right direction: a framework set up by a financial sector regulator to allow small scale, live testing of innovations. by private firms in a controlled environment. However, whether regulators can keep up with the speed of evolving technology remains to be seen.

What can we do to protect our data?

Encrypt and backup data: Choose a top data loss prevention software that offers data encryption with device, email, and application control.

Change your password: Use a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, use special characters, make your passwords long (12 characters minimum) and use random words strung together.

Download security software: Types of security software include anti-virus software, firewall software, network security software, Internet security software, malware/spamware removal and protection software, cryptographic software, and more (McAfee, Norton and BitDefender are examples of software).

Use cloud computing: Storing data on a cloud is much safer than storing it on a local hard drive or device. High levels of data protection are necessary for such applications, and you should check your contract or service level agreement carefully to find out what security measures your provider takes to protect your data. This is not to say that cloud services are entirely risk-free: the recent 'Celebgate' iCloud hack exposed photographs and other private information from more than 200 victims.

Although such steps can be taken to limit the exposure of our data to mining and manipulation, in this day and age it is near impossible to entirely protect our data. All we can do is hope that adequate regulation is imposed on 'Big Tech' and their monopoly over the data they collect, while raising awareness of the ongoing issue and campaigning for our own 'Data Rights'.