Tag Archives: big data

Quantum Computing and Its Impact on Cybersecurity

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Quantum computers promise to revolutionize computing by solving problems previously considered unsolvable. As The New York Times reports, “quantum computing can significantly accelerate the processing of big data and complex algorithms.” This opens new opportunities in science and technology.

However, according to Financial Times, “quantum computers pose a threat to modern encryption methods.” With their development, there is an urgent need to create new cryptographic methods to safeguard information.

Resources:

  1. The New York Times – Quantum Computing and Big Data
  2. Financial Times – Quantum Computers and Encryption Threats
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No More Privacy. Thank you.

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Healthcare, like so many other sectors of the economy, is being transformed by technology. 

TechCrunch

 

All eyes on the transformation of healthcare to one of the most personalized products we are able to purchase. No questions asked, eHealth, along other similar term creations are among the top buzzwords this year and in the near future. Finally, Startups and VC firms seem to realize the huge potentially big data, mobile and other technologies can have on our health. Consumers realize that, there are vast possibilities to track your own health and life a healthier lifestyle. While customers, producers and investors seem to feel the changes in technology based healthcare solutions knocking on our door, it is often an outdated and inflexible legal system that prevents the revolution in healthcare to finally gain momentum. In many cases, governments do not seem to be ready for this change to happen. Furthermore, often the basic data infrastructure required for these technologies are not developed enough.

Data privacy is a big issue in healthcare, as data about our health is probably one of the most private and sensitive pieces of data each and every one of us has to offer. Nevertheless, applications like SkinAnalytics, which helps in early Melanoma detection, points out how valuable large amount of data can be in order to early detect and prevent diseases from spreading. Clinical research would be one of the first to benefit from a lift in healthcare data protection and thus everyone could be benefiting from better-adjusted healthcare solutions.

From a business point of view, companies that are early able to position themselves on the market, despite the strict regulatory framework, will have a good competitive advantage toward the new entrants, that join the industry as a result of lifts in the law. Cracking the legal code is key to success here, as the technology is already available and well used in all kinds of different sectors.

An eCommerce example of an organization struggling with a tight regulatory framework and constant pressure from organizations that rather hold on to what exist now, instead of aiming for a better development, is 1001Pharmacies.com. The French startup set out to revolutionize the French Online-pharmacy landscape had his fair share of battling with the legal environment and parties that would rather keep everything as it is, instead of working towards better and more efficient solutions.

What is the point of all of this? A call to the liberation of data privacy and legal aspects of pharmaceutical and medical laws. The creation of an environment that triggers creative solutions in this sector. Solutions that we all would be benefiting of one day.

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Privacy in the Age of Big Data

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In this post you will find an outline of the advantages and disadvantages of Big Data concerning the individual’s privacy. The article stresses the contrast between the merits and risks of Big Data in a short compilation, thus allowing the reader to get a clear picture of the current issues.

 Does the consumer need his privacy? Shall we, as consumers, adjust to the loss of at least some part of our privacy and settle for more comfort and better commercialized offers instead?

Privacy issues have always been raised in discussions over human rights and freedoms, but with the appearance of the Internet these concepts have slightly changed their meaning, and with the emergence of the Big Data they need to be revised once again by society.

First of all, the question arises what should be classified as personal information and where is the boundary line between privacy and publicity. Every day we buy coffee at Starbucks, paying with a credit card, post new photos to Instagram and fleeting thoughts to Twitter, leaving behind a huge amount of information imprints. Their processing with the help of advanced analytical tools allows us to make new discoveries and explore previously unknown nature of things, however, just as the Internet had once united people, thus threatening their privacy, we should ask ourselves, whether the Big Data will exacerbate this problem, or will become a springboard to a better future.

 

Before answering the question about the possible repudiation of the privacy for the sake of comfort, I would like to consider positive aspects of using the Big Data and our personal information in everyday life. In my opinion, they are as follows:

 

  1. Increase of stability. Analysis of large amounts of information allows companies to rely on more accurate forecasts when doing business, affecting all aspects of it, from finance and marketing to recruitment. Ultimately, handling more precise information leads to increased stability of national economies. Perhaps global financial crisis could have been avoided if financial institutions had checked their customers’ backgrounds more carefully when issuing loans. For example, analyzing social networks of customers in Facebook, banks would be able to make a conclusion about their surroundings, and analysis of their phone bills would allow making judegments regarding the efficiency of borrowers.
  2. Disease and crime prevention. Access to medical records of patients would allow detecting disease outbreaks in advance by analyzing patients’ symptoms. Thus, Google Flu Trends works successfully in this direction by analyzing users’ requests about flu symptoms. As for the crimes, banks, using data of their customers’ transactions more carefully, can identify those suspected of money laundering and other financial frauds.
  3. Moving from general to specific. Processing large amounts of personal information allows obtaining concrete results on a number of parameters, avoiding prejudice to the rights of people who accidentally get into statistical sample. For instance, getting more information about the lifestyle of a client, an insurance company will be able to offer him/her a better deal, although before this customer would have to pay a standard price.

 

Apart from the benefits that the Big Data and privacy refusal can give us, their use is associated with enormous risks and the caused damage might be irreparable. These risks, in my mind, might be as follows:

 

  1. Obsession with data. I believe that the widespread reliance on the Big Data and private information poses a latent threat, because with the increasing accuracy of the data processing tools their popularity will grow as well that eventually may lead to their use in inappropriate situations.
  2. The world is replete with examples of how monopolization of the entire economic sectors ends, one of such is the story of Standard Oil Company, which monopolized the whole refinery. Since the data in the information society is the same as the fuel in the industrial one, governments need to be vigilant and facilitate the creation of competitive environment in the field of data processing, avoiding the appearance of monopolies.
  3. National Security. Recent revelations of Edward Snowden about US government spying on its citizens caused a storm of criticism around the world. Undoubtedly, this issue deserves discussion, but the potential leakage of personal data of citizens can do much more damage to national security than the national governments shadowing their subjects.
  4. Maintaining privacy. Such methods of preserving confidentiality as consent to the processing of data, refusal of users to participate in the data collection or removal of already processed information gradually lose their effectiveness and jeopardize privacy of many users. Prolonged lack of adequate mechanisms of confidentiality control only exacerbates the problem by allowing uncontrolled use of received information, avoiding consequences.

 

Having considered the pros and cons of the partial refusal of privacy, I can conclude that each of us, sooner or later, should give up a part of the personal information for the common good and comfort. The Big Data offers great opportunities to humanity provided their rational use; otherwise they become a tool of repression and coercion, causing irreparable damage to people, and therefore, like any other tool, created by man, require careful handling and control.

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