by Angela Guess
A new article reports that companies should take caution before trusting the insights they get from Big Data absolutely. It states, “Big data can provide companies with powerful insights about everything from customer behaviors and preferences to new product opportunities… But as the Technology Review article also mentions, big data can ‘have dangerous results.’”
“For instance,” it continues, “a new paper cited by Technology Review, entitled ‘Six Provocations for Big Data,’ presented at a recent Symposium on the Dynamics of the Internet and Society, lists some of the reasons that businesses and other organizations should take a cautious approach to using big data. While consumer privacy issues are among the most evident issues decision makers should concern themselves with, big data can also provide organizations with distorted or incomplete views of customer and market trends.”
It goes on, “Kate Crawford, an associate professor at the University of New South Wales, who co-authored the ‘Six Provocations’ paper with Microsoft senior researcher Danah Boyd, writes that big data doesn’t always offer accurate predictions about people’s behaviors. This is partly true when organizations over rely on information about people’s behaviors as expressed in social channels such as Facebook or Twitter.”
