It’s 5:15 PM and I hear that dreaded unmistakable klaxon signaling my doom. I look at the caller ID and my fear is confirmed. “Hi honey” I start to say hoping to defuse the situation but I have to speak more and tell her that I won’t home for dinner. She informs me of her disappointment, that this has happened too much this week but she says her good-byes. I try to focus on my computer, trying to recall where I was. My manager comes by, “She’s really upset with you lately, maybe you should go home and I’ll let Brenda work on this.” I smile at her and thank her for understanding. As I’m walking to my car, wondering if I should pick up flowers, I wonder – “How did my manager know she was upset with me?”
Big data is crossing into every corner of business. Recent developments have the computer search transcripts of sales conversations, diagramming the sentences to determine a persons tone and if they were being aggressive. The implications, however, go further than sales calls. Many firms are establishing departments to monitor insider threats. These monitor employees emails, social media and telephone communications for information leakage but also a person’s demeanor. If one is found to be too aggressive or too forthcoming they can be re-trained or terminated.
[The group monitors] for ethical and compliance violations by its employees… monitors the incoming and outgoing email traffic of particular groups or individuals. The purpose is “to understand if we have a high-risk area that we need to look into”.
These systems are also looking for patterns in other ways. For example by monitoring if certain systems are queried more often than others. This might indicate a hacker has targeted this information. The fact a query has been made is more significant than the actual query itself.
Does big data mean we should stay off of our phones? Does it mean we should avoid social media? These are questions that are difficult to answer but the most logical approach to use common sense and always follow your companies guidelines for handling information. Is this too Orwellian for you? Let me know in the comments.
Source: Big Data, Smaller Risk