How Could Big Data Let Us Down?

I have often written here about the potential for Big Data to fundamentally change the way that many companies do business. It cuts across industries and is not just a single strategy, it can change the way that existing companies perform and create opportunities for new market entrants.

This cross-industry application of Big Data is where I think there is the most potential for it to become a game-changer. IT experts rarely got to delve so deep into their industry of choice in the past; they focused on the technology and systems that assisted a company.

Now, with Big Data analysis helping doctors to diagnose patients and helping bankers to fight fraud there is a much greater connection between the industrial application of technology and the technology itself. The technology teams need to really understand the business they are working in.

But this is where the peril also can be found. As companies depend more and more on huge data resources and the ability to intelligently analyse this data we are entering a world where data has an enormous value.

Just look at the Panama Papers data leak. A huge amount of secret customer data from the law firm Mossack Fonseca was leaked by a secret source to journalists and it appears to show many wealthy and powerful people using companies in Panama to hide their wealth – and therefore avoid taxes.

Of course, it could be argued that it’s a good thing that this data was leaked. All those powerful people should pay their tax correctly rather than hiding their money, but imagine Facebook was hacked and every online conversation was leaked, or Google and every private gmail message were posted online? Imagine if another law firm were hacked and details of every divorce settlement they have handled were posted openly online?

It’s almost impossible for most customers to now avoid giving out their personal information when dealing with companies and the data is being collected into enormous databases profiling purchases, preferences, and behaviour. Companies in all industries are now wedded to the possibilities presented by the use of this data, but so few are acknowledging that if they ever lost control of the data it could be an existential threat for their business.

Big Data certainly has benefits, but it’s time for companies to acknowledge that with these big data sets come big responsibilities. The companies that fail to protect their customers will not survive.