Analytics and Decisions

This past week in class we have discussed about the difference between analytics and analysis and what each tell us or do. One of the main differences that I can remember about them is that analytics are ongoing and an analysis is more of a one time thing. Since analytics is the discovery and communication of meaningful patterns in data, I wonder if data can get hacked just as easily as self-driving cars. In class we also talked about the risk of self driving cars and drones being hacked, and data can be effected in the same way.

Within business, many companies rely on analytics to determine what products they market or customers to aim for or drop. Fast Company, the newspaper says that although analytics are important that they do not know if they can trust them, “Yet, according to a recent survey of over 2,000 data and analytics (D&A) decision makers in 10 countries by KPMG and Forrester Consulting, only 38% of respondents have a high level of confidence in their customer insights, and only one third trust the analytics they generate from their business operations”(Fast Company). As helpful as analytics can be, they can also be untrustworthy. When you are higher up in a company and look at the different data presented to you, you do not really know where the information may be coming from. So instead they choose to ignore the information presented to them because they are unsure if it is trustworthy or not. Many companies do however take a different path when it comes to data and do not really try to obsess over it. According to Towards Data Science, one of their major cases is that sometimes the average value does not represent your customer. This means that although maybe only half of the population like your product, that statistic does not matter to you unless the whole entire world is your target market. Data can sometimes not represent your target market which can make it invaluable to your company. One major thing to remember when talking about data as well, is to remember that data many times can just be a prediction. Although many people hate to admit it, including myself, but technology and data can be wrong or incorrect sometimes. Government Technology, wrote a article about how big data can be wrong and predict incorrect information for a company.

It is always important to think about the analytics that are being received and pushed out to the world for everyone to see. The predictions, statistics, and data can be wrong or altered by other people and you have to be able to be aware that some information can be wrong.

Resources:

https://www.fastcompany.com/3065294/why-executives-dont-trust-their-own-data-and-analytics-insights

https://towardsdatascience.com/why-focusing-on-data-points-can-hurt-your-business-and-what-you-should-do-instead-1583d008b7b9

https://www.govtech.com/data/When-Big-Data-Gets-It-Wrong.html

Who is listening to you?

Privacy is a huge issue now a days on the internet. Whether you are letting an app have your location to even searching on google, a hacker can try and receive your information. There are many privacy laws in place today for both adults and children, but these can often not be enough. Recently, YouTube got fined $170 million dollars for violating online child privacy laws. YouTube collected data from kids online and used it without their parents consent. Something so simple as searching for a video can be an invasion of your privacy.

With the creation of devices like the Amazon Alexa, or the Google Home, you never know who could be on the other side of that device. Since YouTube is owned by Google, are they taking everything you say and turning it into some sort of marketing scheme? You may never know where your information is going. Recently, it has been reported that Amazon has hired thousands of people to listen to your conversations through your Amazon Alexa. This is a major invasion of privacy. They say that they listen to the conversation so that the Alexa can advance and be better understanding of how humans speak, but who knows what they are really doing with that information. There are many online articles about how to change your Alexa in settings so that it is not listening to you at all times. One thing that I found interesting when doing research that relates to class, is that you cannot hook your Alexa up to a Intranet. The intranet is supposed to make sure that your connection is private and only you have access to it. Since this feature is not possible on Alexa’s, even though they have been on the market for many years it makes me wonder if someone used an Intranet would they no longer be able to listen in?

Situations like this really make you think about who could be listening to you through your Alexa, Google Home, laptop, or even your phone. As they say in the book, 1984, by George Orwell, “Big Brother is watching you”.

 

Sources:

https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/11/tech/amazon-alexa-listening/index.html

https://www.cnet.com/news/google-assistant-and-amazon-alexa-could-be-next-targets-for-child-privacy-laws/

https://www.pcmag.com/article/348496/google-home-vs-amazon-echo-which-one-should-rule-your-smar

Could Huawei 5G cause the US to fall behind?

The United States could face a major issue and fall behind Russia and China when moving  forward with internet technology. As we have seen from chapter one, it appears that the US has always been at the front of the internet and helping develop it into what it is today. Huawei, a prominent company in 5G networking is banned from Washington to get involved in the American 5G networks. Washington does not feel as if they can trust Huawei and believes the Chines Government could use this network to spy. The US also has warned other countries about dealing with Huawei in fear of a nation security threat.

The biggest issue that people have with Huawei is how they are so close to the Chinese government. The United States banned Huawei starting in 2012. Due to these restrictions, many people in the US do not know the presence that Huawei has around the world. Huawei is very high up in the telecom supplier market as well as the phone manufacturing market. One of these concerns with Huawei due to their closeness with the Chinese government reminds me of in class how we discussed the Chinese Government filtering the content its constituents can see. If China is not showing the whole truth to its own people, how can we know is Huawei is safe for sure. So, could Huawei just be a scheme to steal peoples information as a form of 5G internet and if you are connected can they scan through everything on your device or maybe can they control what you see when you  use the network?

While China may be the biggest threat to leadership in internet technology, there are other nations (including US allies) that could also surpass the US including Russia, Japan, and South Korea. It would be a shame if the nation that developed ARPANET, the first form of internet, started to fall behind in the internet technology field.

Sources:

https://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/huawei-president-pushes-back

https://www.cnet.com/news/huawei-ban-full-timeline-and-why-the-5g-mate-30-pro-might-not-use-android/

https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/07/business/huawei-russia-china-splinternet-intl/index.html