2019 — Big Data is now Personal

My dear readers, visitors, well-wishers and all the others

Happy New Year 2019

Big Data is now Personal, so now we have to think about how to deal with Big Data associated with our online presence. That kind of software, I call Personal Big Data Consolidation.

It is important to understand this is the natural outcome of the data harvesting strategy of the “Big Three”. They plan, we behave. There is no one else left but the three riders:

  • Google
  • Amazon
  • Microsoft

Let’s see how did we all came here, where we are now. And where they want us to go.

Am I having a “Technology Sensing” moment? Well, I think I can sense a new breed of software indeed. The one that will aim to “save” a lot of us, by manipulating us into believing it is helping us manage data avalanche covering us every day. Let us call that new software breed Personal Data Consolidation Tools.

I postulate the actual reason of existence of this, is to improve, even more, the ability of the “Big Three”, to harvest the data. How?

Personal data is Big Data

I am meeting more and more people, professionally and otherwise who are simply “shutting down the blinds” to the deluge of data flowing towards them. And then each and every one of them realizes sooner or letter some little door has to be opened. Mostly due to social pressure from peers.

I am sure many of you have experienced something like the following conversation while having what has started as a  casual friendly chat.

A friend:  “… How do you mean you do not have a ‘Face’ account!? All the wedding/christening/holiday/funeral/public transport/airplanes/trains/animals/food/etc pictures and videos are over there! And. Everyone has seen them, just not you!  I have uploaded them all! Ok, ok … why don’t I just set you up with a FaceBook account, just for this one occasion? I know how to make it almost invisible. No one will ever know. What can go wrong? …”

And then suddenly and of course, every information harvesting system all of a sudden knows all about you. Or should we just say, makes it more obvious to the others? After all, you are already recorded in other peoples data.

Soon, you are looking for help, and here it is: Personal Data Consolidation software already starts to appear. Entrepreneurs are “simply” applying Big Data analytic’s and solutions to personal data. And I am sure every one of us thinks there is no bigger data but one’s own “Big Data” to worry about.

Google “Inbox” was an interesting milestone in 2014

As if by magic in 2014 we had a very significant example: Google InBox … exactly for the reasons we are describing here. To pretend to “help” people fight the everyday personal data avalanche. Help was there in double quotes as in “help”, because the likely primary utility was the one for Google to harvest even more data about everything. Google “In Box” was a manipulation.

As we know now, in 2018, “Google Inbox” has misfired but who cares. Google does not care, that’s for sure. There are now much more sophisticated combine data harvesters. Working on the big data fields.

Who owns the combine harvesters?

Of course, The Big 3is sitting on all of the data already and they have been “getting in the game” since circa 2005.

Them “Big Three” will in 2019 offer to “help” us with “personal solutions” to analyze, clear, disseminate, archive, etc, all of our personal “big” data. A lot of much trumpeted”AI” is supposed to be the key enabling technology in this quest for the common good.

Starting from 2019, (very likely) there will be a lot of startups and a such who will compete for your attention in this virgin market. AI for Personal Data, or this new semi-humorous acronym: #PEOPLEDATA. (circa 2014)

All of our accounts, devices, emails, documents, pictures, videos, etc will be “magically” taken care of. Little useful AI enabled assistants will take care of all of it for you.

Much sooner than you would like to think.

Too much data. (c) by dbj.org
Too much data?
Personal Big Data Combine Harvester 2019
Personal Big Data Combine Harvester 2019

1The Big 3 are: Google, Amazon and Microsoft