It affects hundreds of millions of us each day while we are blissfully unaware.
Today’s high-tech world is drowning in data but is starved for knowledge. Data mining is the search for significant patterns and trends. It’s also been called the poor stepchild to statistcial analysis.
To give you an example you go to your local supermarket to buy food and you use your store card for discounts and fast checkout. It give the store a record of how often you shop, what foods you like and at what prices in this case it’s a win-win situation. This continues thoughout your day as you bank go to the mall, gas station, and so on.
However information is increasingly collected without your knowledge or consent. “Black Boxes” the size of cigarette packs have been installed in 40 million vehicles to monitor speed, seat belt use, and more. Only 5 states at the present time require that the buyer be made aware of this fact.
The trade-off is somone has a record of when and where you drive,what you eat, what over the counter medications you buy,whether you smoke or not,where you fly and with whom, what you like to read and watch and spend...