Big data is not a new concept, but the perception of how it\u2019s used by businesses around the world is constantly shifting. The concept first came about in the 1990s, as the internet became a reality for households across the globe. It was the first time that companies had direct access to customer information without having to ask for it.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
The term big data refers to the collecting, storing, and analyzing of large quantities of data, allowing marketers to make informed decisions around their digital marketing campaigns. This has been the way that marketers have always worked \u2013 getting as much information about the customer as possible to tailor the brand message to them specifically. The change is that the internet opened the doors to a much wider and more detailed range of information.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
The Economist was the first to put the idea of online privacy to the public in an article published on their website in 1998. The article discussed the idea of the website owners selling your information to a marketer \u2013 analytics from the website could show your location when you accessed the article, how long you spent reading, and how you reached the website. If you had a profile on the Economist\u2019s website, they could potentially sell that information too.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
This article created the debate over how much information about individuals is available online and what the privacy risks related to that really were. Although the debate has raged for decades, people have continued to share personal information on the world wide web at an ever-increasing rate. In 2021, we put private photos up on public platforms, check-in to places on social media, and wear devices that track our movements via GPS.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
In the last decade, countries and unions around the world have made a concerted effort to change how brands can access this information, as well as what they can do with it. In the European Union, you have the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), in the USA, California has its own Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) in place.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
These Acts all generally cover the same concern \u2013 businesses and other organizations have to tell the consumer what data they collect, what they store, why they store it and how you can get hold of the group to get your data corrected or deleted. While this is a major step forward, the general public still held the opinion that those who collect big data are not trustworthy.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
The issue with big data is that it has almost always been seen by the public as something to mistrust. It was collected quietly, in the background, and without us knowing. What brands did with it and how they got access to it, we didn\u2019t know.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Since the global pandemic hit, things have changed quite significantly in so many facets of our lives \u2013 including how we feel about the gathering and sharing of big data. Governments and medical organizations started publicly using big data to predict the movement of the coronavirus, the impact this would have on hospitals, and how people were coping with what was happening<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n