We are more susceptible than we may think to the “dictatorship of data”—that is, to letting the data govern us in ways that may do as much harm as good. The threat is that we will let ourselves be mindlessly bound by the output of our analyses even when we have reasonable grounds for suspecting that something is amiss.

futuristgerd:

Let’s take one of the largest retailers—Walmart. Start by visualizing one five-drawer filing cabinet. Now, think of a room filled with 60 million five-drawer file cabinets. That’s how much data comes from all of the Walmart stores every hour. And as retailers install more sensors to add advanced predictive analytics to real-time sales and customer behavior, that figure of 60 million filing cabinets worth of data every hour is going to increase. For example, retailers are beginning to use mannequins with cameras in their eyes so they can see who’s looking at them and whether they’re male or female, pregnant or not, thin or heavy, etc. And that’s just one little data point.

The world’s largest chip maker wants to see a new kind of economy bloom around personal data.

futuristgerd:

In the future, you won’t understand that products are collecting data about you — it will be invisible.” He cites Zipcar as a company to watch — it has recently improved mobile capabilities for users. He envisions a scenario where a future Zipcar app will only recommend nearby cars that match your preferences, rather than simply a list of vehicles in your zip code.

Gadgets with an open mic listening to absolutely everything you say Sounds like a James Bond plot but it’s an emerging tech trend right now.

How comfortable would you be with the idea that a Google, Samsung, or Apple device was actually listening to what you say all the time, everywhere you go, no matter who you’re talking with or the exact subject of your discussion? It’s a good question. Here’s a better one: How much would you trust these firms to maintain your privacy, to keep your data safe and not to share it with ad companies or the authorities?

Brands want deeper and more profitable relationships with consumers in exchange for the trust they hope to inspire. Marketers are stretching their notions of what brands stand for and smudging the distinction between advertising and entertainment. The lines between marketing and other disciplines within a firm are fading. Brands want to be antidotes to cynicism. But this will not divert marketers from their main task, pungently summed up by an ad exec: “to figure out and fuel consumer desires like they’ve never been fuelled before.” June 04, 2013 at 06:38AM

A job invented in Silicon Valley is going mainstream as more industries try to gain an edge from big data.

The job description “data scientist” didn’t exist five years ago. No one advertised for an expert in data science, and you couldn’t go to school to specialize in the field. Today, companies are fighting to recruit these specialists, courses on how to become one are popping up at many universities, and the Harvard Business Review even proclaimed that data scientist is the “sexiest” job of the 21st century.