Your data: You should own it

"Throughout history, there has always been a trade-off between liberty and equality in the pursuit of prosperity. The world has constantly been going through the circle of wealth accumulation to wealth redistribution. As the tension between the haves and have-nots is breaking so many countries, it is in everyone's interest, including the large data companies, to prevent this new form of inequality. "

https://www.ted.com/talks/jennifer_zhu_scott_why_you_should_get_paid_for_your_data/transcript

FTC: Privacy Report

The FTC just issued a report on Privacy with recommendations for companies on how to proceed.





For the full report, check this link
http://ftc.gov/opa/2012/03/privacyframework.shtm

LinkedIn Data analysis

The LinkedIn Blog posted today:

One hypothesis is that many of the employees left the financial industry.  According to the LinkedIn data set, that just isn’t true. There are a handful of people that did transition to other industries and start new careers, but most stayed in the financial space. To be specific, other than two acquiring companies (Bank of America acquired Merrill Lynch and Nomura acquired Lehman Brothers’ franchise in the Asia Pacific region), Barclays was by far the biggest beneficiary, scooping up 10% of the laid off talent, followed by Credit Suisse at 1.5% and Citigroup at 1.1 %.

I commented on the posting as follows:

Interesting analysis! Having left Fidelity then going back inside to spend some time on a contract, I know that there are LinkedIn profiles for folks still showing they are at Fidelity and that is not true. Is that an exception? or are there other profiles incorrectly reflecting a change in status? How much would that throw off this analysis?

Bottom-line, it is a data point. Be careful how you use the data.

The assumption is that folks have accurately reflected their status in their LinkedIn profile. Some number I have recognized have not. What is that percent? How can we arrived at a good number? Not sure, in the meantime, I would be careful with the numbers.

job search notes: update the database!

From Beach walks with Rox, a casual stroll along the beach in Hawaii and a discussion about updating the database.




NewBCamp, HealthCamp, LinkedIn, networking, all kinds of good things happening around. Need to stop for a moment or two to let it all sink in, update the database as Rox says, and then move on with that new knowledge in place.

Good insight!

Is it time for you to update your database?

Cell Phone Study

WASHINGTON - Researchers secretly tracked the locations of 100,000 people outside the United States through their cell phone use and concluded that most people rarely stray more than a few miles from home.

The first-of-its-kind study by Northeastern University raises privacy and ethical questions for its monitoring methods, which would be illegal in the United States.

It also yielded somewhat surprising results that reveal how little people move around in their daily lives. Nearly three-quarters of those studied mainly stayed within a 20-mile-wide circle for half a year.

The scientists would not disclose where the study was done, only describing the location as an industrialized nation.

Read the full story here

This story caught my eye for a couple of reasons. One my daughter attends Northeastern. Two the privacy concerns are suspected and that is what concerns me.

There seems to be an implied distrust of these researchers. Can't some folks just naturally do what is right?Dealing with the data in an aggregate format should be fine.

Room for improvement on both sides. One; on the researchers to be more explicit about the steps they took to cut off the conspiracy theorists. Two; on the writers part to just present the data without creating hysteria.

Good experience: EZ Pass (Fast Lane) caution

Yes, the Big Brother watches and uses data when it is available. If you pay cash on the one of the toll roads, you could be less watched than someone saving time by zooming along in the FastLane with one of those little white boxes on their windshield.

This article in the Sunday Globe recounts some tales where travel records were used in court cases.

Morale: save time but be legal in ALL you do.

Good Experience: Hans Rosling -> Myths about the Developing World

Greg wrote:

The presentation and visualization methods you will see in this video casts a new light on the value and use of statistics. You can read more about the non-profit, Gapminder that Hans Roslings founded. First watch this video, I think you will be amazed. I know I was.

The video is from TED in 2006, twenty minutes long and well worth seeing every second of it. The first five minutes is priceless on it own in depicting how expectations and perceptions are based upon "old" data.

Eleven minutes into the video, Hans clearly demonstrates the danger of using an"average". There are extremes within an average.

About thirteen minutes in, Hans demonstrates that health is more important than wealth.




or View the video.

Plenty of food for thought! Thanks for the pointer, Greg!