Five brownie points on how big data is striking our lives daily

                            

Leroy Hood once said,“If you just focus on the smallest details, you never get the big picture right.” 

Big Data Analytics is a new technological process that rose to popularity in the early 2000s when analyst Doug Laney defined the 3 Vs in business analysis. He said that the strength of the data is linearly proportional to the Volume, Velocity, and the Variety of data collected. Soon enough the heads of the corporate world recognized the potential of analyzing their data. The magnitude of data being stored and analyzed today is almost inconceivable. Almost any sort of prediction can be made from all the data collected. Forbes predicts that more data has been stored and structured just in the past two years than in the entire history of the previous human race. Big Data is probably the next big thing! Here are 5 ways Big Data Analytics is affecting the common man’s life knowingly or unknowingly.

 1. The way we buy things online

With the technology revolution making the internet a commodity than a luxury, most of the urban population prefers to shop online today. Analyzing shopping trends help companies target ads to a more specific audience, thereby increasing their chances of selling the product. It doesn’t matter if you buy a pen or a flight ticket, everything is being recorded. That is why the ads on your browser are similar to something you were looking to buy before. Another thing that companies do is offer you an exclusive price just for you by generating coupons based on your shopping history.

 2. The way authorities protect us

 Analyzing crime statistics of a region helps map out the spots where there is increased theft. It helps authorities predict if there has been an increase or decrease in the crime rate. It also helps them ascertain the amount of police patrol required in an area based on the data. Several other information can be obtained such as recognizing repeated offenders. In this way, the local authorities can make a city safer.

 3. The way we get loans or insurance

Banking corporations and insurance companies use detailed data to establish confidence that the money lent away will be returned before sanctioning the loan or insurance. Data from various spheres such as health records, income records, a record of properties owned, even weather records information are scrutinized to determine the same. Also, Using sites such as Facebook and Twitter, insurers can get a better understanding of their customers’ behavior and risk profile.

4. The way we take care of ourselves

  With the growth in wearable technology, there has been an increase in the number of people tracking their health data. This data can be used to generate trends in the health status of a community. It is of the utmost importance when it comes to foretelling the outbreak of diseases. It also helps approximate costs of treatment by place or method. google flu Trends already works to show any sequence in a flu diagnosis. Another company, Ginger.io, offers a mobile application in which patients with select conditions agree, in conjunction with their providers, to be tracked through their mobile phones and assisted with behavioral health therapies. The app records data about calls, texts, geographic location, and even physical movements. Patients also respond to surveys delivered over their smartphones. Although the health-care industry has lagged behind sectors like retail and banking in the use of big data—partly because of concerns about patient confidentiality—it could soon catch up. 

 5. The way we listen to music

 Cellular data has become dirt cheap and its cost continues to decline, this has led to the increase in music streaming rather than the old method of downloading songs. Recording parameters such as a number of plays, ratings, etc. help structure songs by popularity. Streaming applications such as Apple Music and Spotify also use data analysis for recommending new songs to their users. When you like or skip a song, that data is added to everyone else who has liked or skipped that song and that’s how these services suggest songs that you are more likely to listen to. More data will mean better recommendations, better predictions, more users, and thus more payouts to the rights holders. Big data truly helped transform the music industry and the way we listen to music.

           As we can figure, the amount of information that can be extracted by analyzing data is endless. Since it has the characteristic of being adopted by all industries, Big Data is definitely the next BIG thing. It has helped steer the Information Revolution into a whole new direction. As the information we collect keeps getting more organized and trusted, our understanding of how and why we do many things will change. Industries very soon will observe a massive paradigm shift from conventional data process technologies to BigData Analytics.

~AISavvy,2019