The Impact of Big Data on Promoting Digital Privacy

There is no doubt that our current state of living is based on our connection to the digital space. The 21st century has had a big shift in the majority of things online, companies are now relocating to the cloud, and we have the availability of online banking and marketing; see also, our social and personal life are all out there in the digital world.

This implies that no matter how open you are to people within your circle, there is some data or information that you keep private to yourself alone. The same is done digitally in terms of personal or business information processed using your computer or other devices online.

Majorly, there are a lot of ways through which an individual can keep their digital contents or information private. This includes browsing in a private mode by putting a limit to the amount of your personal information shared on the internet or simply put on social media platforms. 

Another means by which you can have your privacy digitally is by being careful of links that you click, as some of them are mediums through which hackers could use to breach your privacy. You have to be able to verify app permissions and also review privacy policies before taking any sign-up step.

Also, the use of navigation privacy tools and a  Virtual Private Network (VPN) helps to encrypt whatever data that you use in the digital space, which serves as a medium for securing your mobile devices or computer systems. It has also proven to be one of the best forms of cybersecurity that provides digital privacy and prevents Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to peek into your personal or company metadata. 

Other means by which you can keep your data private are online web services, antivirus software systems, and the use of biometrics.

All the above-listed tools have a collective function of providing privacy to an individual or company's digital presence, which in essence involves the protection of your payment data, health data, and identification data. 

Accordingly, you have to go the extra mile to protect what belongs to you digitally, even though you have been given assurance of security by the company or website or social media platform to avoid it being stolen or corrupted overnight.

Due to the advances in technology such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning, and the Internet of Things (IoT), the amount of data produced keeps on increasing by the day. This enables businesses to be able to secure any volume of data after the analysis process.

Nevertheless, technologies like Big data have proven to have an impact on protecting whichever data a user inputs, creates, or transfers during the navigation of the internet space through the use of a computer or mobile device. This does not involve only the data received from individuals alone but also the data obtained from streaming, machines, robotics, and IoT devices; that is, whichever and whatever digital format that exists needs to be granted privacy.

Generally, the increased use of different online technology and even the consumption of online materials or media has produced a high rate of data circulation which has caused a lot of data management problems in firms, companies, and organizations. Big data has analytics that is capable of dealing with such problems easily.

It is no doubt that data is limitless in terms of how much is created and processed at every point in time. Due to its differences in nature, the peculiarity of the data used by various organizations differs as they come in formats of structured, unstructured, documents, images, videos, numeric, stock data, statements, and financial agreements.

However, Big Data analyzes all various data and collates them together, stores and even manages them in formats applicable to such data. 

In addition, every organization has an important asset called Data. The need to successfully strategize such an asset and make proposals on how to collect the data, use it efficiently and secure it effectively should occur in the process of running the organization.

Due to the enormous data in each sector, engaging the use of other latest technology like Cloud Computing helps the analysis to be faster and more effective. As one can easily use   Big Data analytics to track, redefine and analyze data giving a chance to businesses and organizations in becoming reputable in their field.

Following application of Big Data is in the area of data security and privacy. This is an essential aspect of data management that has to be put into utmost consideration in the protection of their digital footprints, even if it means enabling privacy policies related to the organization’s data and ensuring the proper process without a data breach. 

Although a lot of applications and companies share their data, it is important to implement certain criteria and policies when using Big Data to promote digital privacy, ensuring that the data shared is used to aid businesses in different domains after being processed into tangible information.

3 Aspects to Look Into When Implementing Big Data While Ensuring Data Privacy

1. Data Breaches

This is mostly the area through which data privacy, digitally being known as sensitive data, is been accessed without authorization.

When a data breach occurs, it is usually the result of outdated software, targeted malware attacks by hackers, and weak passwords. Thus, its occurrences affect the organization’s reputation and are put at a great loss. Then, to avoid such problems from arising, keep software updated, change passwords frequently, make sure they are strong, and keep employees' activities checked for the latest security tips.    

2. Data Brokerage

There is a lot of research that has to be done before buying and selling data. 

Some organizations buy unprotected data that does not have the correct information, and this could lead to flawed algorithms and leave their database unsecured. 

In this case, to ensure that Big Data plays its role, organizations should get data sets from a reputable source.

3. Data Discrimination

During analytics, organizations may have used a prominent algorithm that could penalize employees or customers based on certain data – age or gender that are imputed, hence, leading to discrimination. 

Organizations should endeavour to exclude bias in Big Data analysis.

There are certain steps you must follow when it comes to securing digital privacy. With the assistance of Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, and also Machine Learning, data is been collected, processed, cleaned, analyzed, and mined.

Big Data gives you a composite analysis of your data to ensure it is private and secure. This involves using Big Data analytics to create predictive models to detect a cyber threat, real-time monitoring of vulnerable employee activities that could lead to exposure of information, and access to concrete information on activities performed in and around your network database.

In addition, there are specific tools that you must employ to ensure that all these processes are successful. That is, employing a cloud-based privacy tool that can meet up with privacy challenges and also using the right user-friendly tool that works well with your team and dataset. You should also be able to search for a tool that works well with Machine Learning in terms of automation, allowing you to fully optimize and use correct data quality.