Be Aware...

We all want to be better understood as customers and data mining can be a valuable tool for helping businesses do just that. However, do the benefits of having your grocery store know your milk preference outweigh the risk of your personal information being accessible to virtually anyone who wants to find it? How many times have you given out your phone number, posted a status about a sporting event you’re at, or tweeted about the cool restaurant you’re having lunch at that day? How many companies have you given your email address and zip code to? Was that the same email address you use to log into Facebook, Twitter, or your email?

You are all aware of just how digitally connected our society is becoming. Over time we all spin a giant digital web of our personal information consisting of zip codes, email addresses, pictures, purchase history, etc. Of course, providing this type of information is all done in an innocent way. No one sees any risk in giving out such a seemingly harmless piece of information. I mean, you share your zip code with thousands of people so no one would be able to track you specifically, right?

If you put the right hound on the trail, more times than not, they can sniff out things you never intended for anyone to find. I’m talking about super sensitive things such as your location or your credit card information. Don’t believe me? There exists publicly accessible tracking software that allows you to enter very general information such as a person’s name and zip code and it pulls up all kinds of information on persons with that criteria. I tried this using my own name and zip code and it was able to find my class registration that I uploaded to a photography website 2 years ago. It included building and room numbers as well as the time I would be in those classes. This kind of information could allow for someone like me, who has no knowledge of hacking or programming at all, to access such sensitive information. What do you think a trained hacker would be able to find?

As if that isn't scary enough, let us introduce the increasingly accurate face recognition software. Sure it is nice not to have to tag everyone in your Facebook photos but is it really worth those extra 10 minutes you save? Not in my opinion. For Facebook to recognize you in a photo, they have to have the details of your face stored away in a database. Now, sure, that database is protected but there is still a copy of super sensitive information about the exact dimensions of your face out there somewhere. Google uses this same technology and allows you to Google a picture of someone and will search for that person (which is can recognize using one picture) across the internet. This is an example of the transition from the mining of data about you and the mining of data that is you.

The point of this message is to make you conscious of some of the threats out there and to ask you to guard your information. This is a reality that we all must be aware of in today’s society so I encourage you to think twice about what information you give out and to whom.