Data Mining vs. Privacy Issues

Data Mining is a powerful emerging tool in the field of technology and knowledge retrieval. Data Mining allows humans to acquire much more knowledge than previously available from the data they have. As the Data Mining field continues to grow and expands to more broadly influence the consumer world, the issue of privacy rears its head in response.


The joust between privacy and knowledge acquisition intensifies with the increased ability of technology. Miners and their employers argue that more knowledge leads to better life quality, more opportunities, improved business and more. The public adamantly declares that use of their information in any way other than originally intended is illegal and immoral.


As a result of my curiosity on the issue, I read several online articles. (See the links below for a few of them.) I was surprised by the comments that many privacy-oriented people made. Several articles did not even make an argument for the benefits of data mining. In contrast, I also recently read a report put together by a professor at Brigham Young University where he compiled a 65-page list of data mining successes. It reports on data mining in almost every possible field. Many of the successes involved bureaucratic business questions such as "how can we increase sales?" or "how can we cut costs?" but equally prevalent were successes that actually did increase the quality of life for many people. One example involved a doctor who used data mining techniques to figure out better treatments for his patients (children with brain tumors) and as a result increased their average life expectancy from 5 months to 39 months. I certainly agree that privacy issues need to be addressed, but before people completely condemn the use of data for mining, the benefits of this inspired technology should be given fair consideration.


http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/154986_privacychallenge02.html

http://www.thearling.com/text/dsstar/privacy.htm

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/surveillance/2006-06-18-data-mining-privacy_x.htm