6:48 AM
Gaurab
Spatial Information Systems. What a boon to mankind! All the greatest technological leaps in the past two decades have been possible only with the increasing capacity to capture and process spatial data. Almost all service providers rely on geographic data to increase and improve their market share. And one of the big developments happening in the geospatial information system front is data democratization.
Every change and development in any field brings along with
its enormous possibilities and challenges in the same proportion. It is
a role of an accountable business or businessperson to capitalize on the
opportunities and minimize or even eliminate the challenges/risk. Data
democratization enables all businesses to succeed by equipping them with
data-driven decision-making. Customization of products and services are made
easy to reach the right customer group or create a new one. Every individual in
the enterprise can run the analytics to tweak their work to meet the market
goal. Population using smartphones and
wearable devices with sensors are ever-increasing, thus is the enormous amount
of data that is being captured by these devices. With developing technology
like cloud computing and data warehousing, it has been very easy to capture,
process, analyze and store these ever-increasing data. Because of the data democratization process, a large amount of data is now accessible to non-specialists. Any person within
that organization/industry will have access to such data enabling them to get
real information and program their activities by making informed decisions. But
the same technology that is super beneficial to the business is proving to be a
vice to consumers on the other end. Especially with the increasing trend of
targeted advertisement, consumers are likely to fall prey to misinformation
and disinformation. Data that are
captured with good intention are falling into the hands of people with
malintent. There are not enough legal authorities to safeguard these data. The
development of legality around the issues has always been outpaced by the
development of technology. Without proper safeguard, there is a risk of leaking
confidential information making the general population vulnerable to attacks by
hackers and serious breach of confidentiality. Most of the population is not even
aware of how their data is being used and who is using their data. The companies
that are using consumer data should at least let their consumer know when and
how their information is being collected and processed and their plans to
safeguard those data.
That all being said. All the enterprises should equip
themselves to work with big data and how to make it accessible to all the units
and personnel within. They should be providing the technical expertise to make
better use of it while imparting knowledge and accountability to prevent disuse and misuse.
