[LINK] SBS: The Age of Big Data

[Frank O'Connor]

Good point, Stephen

And it doesn't even require an Android phone ...

Google tried to get my mobile number off me the other week... to 'add value' to my YouTube account (OK, I'll admit it ... I'm a YouTube bunny!) and allow me to reply to the various comments under the videos.

You can probably guess how that request went. (Particularly in view of the Snowden disclosures, and how the giants of the industry have been supplying data to the NSA and others.)

The point is that with relatively few cross-indexed markers you can do a hell of a lot in data analysis ... especially with mobile numbers. We live on those puppies nowadays. And the assumption that someone is linked with a mobile phone works pretty well in 95% of cases ... the problem for the phone companies is that the data they have on pre-paid clients (like myself) tends to be a lot more sketchy than for post paid subscribers ... but if I give this information away online, well ... then I'm in the same boat as normal subscribers.

Of course prepaid is not gonna stop the snoopers (not by a long shot ... I mean, all I have to do is prepay online and/or using my credit card and they've got me in spades, or contract with a phone company that gives away the data), but it will make it a tad more difficult if I add to the credit using cash purchased credit in supermarkets for example.

And it's not just Google (although they probably collect, buy and sell more user information than any other IT company) ... I mean, this data can be extracted from pretty well any online transaction and be used to cross index and associate other data with phones, PC's and other devices associated with particular people. 

It's a bit scary what we entrust to the network, especially if the 'randomly generated' keys that SSL and so many other transaction encryption standards have been compromised. In that case ... technically nothing is private anymore.

I'm pretty sure that the 'powers that be' will eventually realise that if nobody trusts the medium and its major players, then the likelihood of the medium becoming the next Golden Goose goes out the door ... together with all that lovely moolah that everyone has been anticipating from the eggs ... and that the intelligence agencies will be told to pull in their heads and become more targetted and discrete with the data they collect - because money talks. 

But until that happens ... well, we shouldn't blindly give data away like we've done in the past. That will come back to bite us in the arse.

Just my 2 cents worth ...
---
On 6 Jan 2014, at 11:57 pm, stephen at melbpc.org.au wrote:

> Bernard writes,
> 
>>> So if you visit ANY McDonalds carrying your Android phone, with free 
>>> WiFi turned on, then both McDonalds and Google will know. It's
>>> simplistic stats to know FOR SURE who visits, and when and what they
>>> buy. What idiot could not devise sure-fire business sales-plans from
>>> this absolutely hard data?
>> 
>> It's not necessarily hard data. There is an assumption that a person is 
>> linked with a particular phone.
> 
> Yes, accept your point Bernard. However, I said McDonalds AND Google. By
> this I mean one might expect Maccas to use a cloud. Odds on it's Googles?
> 
> And a Google Android phone is basically an open book to Google. Even the
> free Angry Birds Android app requires access to your contacts to install. 
> 
> With open access Google surely have a darn good idea who uses each phone.  
> 
> Quite a few of my texts to new contacts include my name for example. And
> Android does send and receive huge amounts of data in use. More than any
> other phone operating system. Mobile web pages are fairly much web pages. 
> So why does Google Android send/receive more data, if not data to Google?
> 
> http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/12/31/why-do-android-smartphones-guzzle-
> the-most-data/?_r=0
> 
> "In a recent study, Ericsson, the networking company, found that global 
> mobile Internet traffic varied greatly, depending on the software system 
> and the network that a phone uses.
> 
> But the highest average data consumption was seen on Android phones, which 
> consumed an average of 2.2 gigabytes of data a month on one network, the 
> study said. By contrast, iPhones used roughly 1.7 gigabytes a month and 
> Windows phones used approximately 1.4 gigabytes a month, Ericsson found.
> 
> Chetan Sharma, a telecom analyst who is a consultant for wireless carriers, 
> also has found that Android phones were the biggest data hogs. In the U.S. 
> high-end Android phones used about 4 gigabytes a month on average this 
> year, he said. That is well above the average of 1.2 gigabytes a month."
> 
> My point is, Maccas AND Google Cloud will very probably know who you are. 
> They might be wrong sometimes, but big picture, that's fairly irrelevant.
> 
> In future, Big Data working in cahoots? That's when privacy is in danger.
> 
> 
>>> The only issue is, how *granulated* personal bigdata is allowed to
>>> become.
>> 
>> Don't agree. That's one issue, the other is accuracy in relationship 
>> between the device being monitored and the person of interest.
>> 
>> Data do not always reflect reality. The only question is, by how much 
>> and is it relevant.
> 
> 
> With Maccas credit card info, and Googles open access, it's 99% certain
> who's in the store, surely? How creepy a text from Maccas after a visit
> offering a seriously personalized "would you like fries with that, when
> you come in Friday" text? And your car dealer offering a service before
> the road trip next week that your family just researched on Google? And
> a text from the government, complaining when you buy cigarettes/alcohol?
> Telstra offering another deal, after you investigate other mobile plans?
> Drug companies offering you generic alternatives for the pills you take?
> Safeway texting you a sale announcement for all the items you often buy? 
> Your bank warning that the holiday you've planned will be too expensive?
> 
> That's unregulated and granulated (with names, etc) big data. No thanks.
> 
> I don't care about spooks, I'm innocent. It's all the small, continuous, 
> and from everywhere stuff that will be creepy, without firm legislation.
> 
> Cheers,
> Stephen
> 
> 
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> 
> 
> 
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