Page 4 - Exclusive Interview with Don Strickland | CSA Celebrity Speakers Poland

CSA CELEBRITY SPEAKERS POLAND
an average of 1,500 pieces of
information on more than 500
million consumers around the
world.
This off line database is created on driving style. They capture
from data that consumers put
into the public domain when
they use their credit cards,
purchase books on Amazon, use
a cell phone, fill out surveys or have developed algorithms that
subscribe to services such as
Netflix, to mention just a few
data generating activities. There premium. One such company,
is nothing new about this and
marketers have been exploiting
this type of data for years.
However, a new breed of data
broker is emerging in the form
of Internet companies such as
Facebook and Google which
collect vast amounts of personal
information automatically,
effectively creating an online
database that operates in real
time. When Facebook went
public in 2012 it reported that
it stored about 110 megabytes
of photos and videos, plus
“likes,” texts and IP addresses
for each of its over one billion
users. Since then Facebook
has partnered with traditional
data brokers Acxiom, Epsilon
and Datalogix to target ads on
Facebook to users based on
their recent in-store purchases.
This is Data Driven Innovation in from reduced energy costs
real time.
QWhat are some
examples of Data
Driven Innovation
outside of consumer product
marketing?
03 © CSA Celebrity Speakers Ltd
AOne example is the
business model for
vehicle insurance. It is
undergoing rapid innovation
by capturing real time data
data on location, date and time,
speed, braking events and
other factors that affect driver
safety. Insurance companies
give drivers a “safety score”
which impacts their insurance
Progressive Insurance, has
collected over 10 billion miles
of driving data from their
customers who opt to install
Progressive’s “Snapshot”
tracking device in their cars.
Another industry being
transformed by Data Driven
Innovation is farming. Modern
farms are becoming part of
the Internet of things, using
sensors in fields, on livestock
and on drones to determine
when to water, fertilize and
even when a cow is ready to
give birth. These “Smart Farms”
obtain higher yields and lower
costs than traditional farms.
Lastly, entire cities are
becoming “smart” and are able
to offer citizens innovative
services and efficiencies ranging
to direct routing to available
parking spaces. And the police
in major cities around the world
are being directed to locations
that have a high likelihood of a
crime being committed based
on advanced data analytics.
Data Driven Innovation is
transforming the world we live
in and, in my opinion, for the
better.
QIs there a danger
that companies and
governments misuse all
of this data?
AUnfortunately, it is
already happening. I
am going to focus my
comments on the unintentional
misuse of data, rather than
intentional misuses such as
identify theft. The dark side
of Big Data is that even with
the best of intentions, you can
fall into the “dead zone” of an
algorithm.
You can be subjected to “guilt
by association” and lose a job
offer because your “character
and capability” rating is low
based on the associations you
have on social media sites. You
may be assigned a lower credit
rating because of behavioral
scoring based on algorithms that
analyze the repayment record
of other customers of stores in
which you shop. You may be
rated a high health risk based
on a history of buying “plus size”
clothes and eating fast food. All
of these are rational correlations
but are not true for every
individual.
The scary thing is that you
don’t have access to the data
or analytical methods used to
analyze you. I get asked often
“what is the solution, more
regulation?” Regulation cannot
keep up with technology. It
loses that race every time. My