big data might know you more than your friends?

The answer is - Big Data. 

Your friends probably only know this much about you, whichever you're comfortable to show. However, Big Data is almost like a stalker to you, that keeps a large volume of data the moment you uses the Internet and leaving digital footprints! From the moment you open a browser, data is collected about you, from IP address, to your service internet provider and to your definite location. That's not all, with the advancing technology, even the steps you walked are now trackable!  

There's almost nothing you can hide. 

Even deleting your history, or clearing your rubbish bin doesn't guarantee you that it's fully destroyed! With this, we can see that Big Data is always increasing! However, it's not the amount of data that's important, but rather how businesses and marketers make full use of it to come out with better strategy and decisions. 

Though, it may seems disturbing to know that "someone else" might know you and your secrets, we should also take note of how do they collect information from us, right? It's not necessarily that it's a bad thing for consumers like us, as it's crucial for businesses to know more about their target audience and thus, only showing relevant content (do you remember the old advertisements, as compared to the present advertisements that you're seeing online? Now it's showing better and relevant ads!)

so, who exactly is Big Friendly Giant? 

Think - Facebook & Google, they probably collect more information that what you even know. But how do they apply Big Data to know more about you? 

1. Google

Did you went to...?

Do you recall the times that you've used Google Maps to bring you to your destination? This is the time whereby Google will gather all the information (steps, location etc!), and then sell it. While it may raise some privacy concern, it's beneficial for companies/advertisers to have a deeper understanding of the consumers based on trackable location, and create a better advertisements. 

Did you watched...? 

Google also stores your YouTube watch history, keep track what types of videos do you frequently watch, also taking note of the countries, languages, genres etc. Go take a look at your YouTube recommended channels and videos, highly likely it's something you'll click on right? 

Did you recently search about....?

This is a personalised ad topics that Google came up with - solely for you. How did this came out with? It's simply keeping track of all of your online activities.

Now, it's no doubt that Google is actually an expert in Big Data with the help of Big Data Analytics, and it's popular among the companies. As these figures from the analytics, will aid in generating insights for the businesses and to make better strategic decisions and moves. Furthermore, if they wish to target the right audience and the needs of their consumers, they will require the rich information via Google. 

2. Facebook

What's your interest? 

This is the list of Interests that Facebook had compiled for me based on my tracked activity, and usually relevant ads will come up when I scrolled through my feed. It's pretty accurate as it's true that I'm more interested in beauty/fashion related topics. 

What's your habit?

Beside general information like my birthday, Facebook accurately know the devices that I owned, and they even got it that I'm an engaged shoppers (though most of the time, I don't use Facebook to purchase my stuff....) 

What's your location? 

And of course, they know clearly what's your devices and the location when accessing Facebook! 

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now the question is - 

How is the data collected? 

It's actually through IoT (Internet of Things).

(Source)

And it refers to the system of connected physical objects via the Internet. 

Big Data and IoT are interrelated as the role of Big Data in IoT is to process a large amount of data and store them using different storage technologies. Like what I have mentioned above, with IoT and Big Data, more companies will be beneficial with the large amount of analysis and with that, they can identify the factors affecting the business. 

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After reading all these, are you convinced that Big Data might indeed know you more than your friends?

And what I have shown above, are just the tip of iceberg. In fact, that more and more applications are coming up to collect data to help the companies, e.g. Health apps, smart cars, smart watches etc. 

Hence, in conclusion, the convergence of Big Data and IoT can help to provide more opportunities and applications for all sectors. Businesses should fully utilise the benefits of these technology to develop better ideas and make the most ideal decisions. 

That's all for now, hopefully you can let me know your thoughts on Big Data or what do you think about Big Data knowing so much information about you! Or if you have any other ideas, feel free to comment down below thank you! :)