Will our data footprint start paying dividends?

Added by Chris Gabriel, 9 months ago.

View Comments (6) | Leave Comment

There is much ado now about the amount of data everybody holds on us; from the government to the supermarkets. We are all now franticly wondering who is going to give our next chunk of private information to an unsuspecting postal worker, or lose a hard drive in Chicago (By the way, I thought the Data Protection Act stopped people off shoring data out of Europe without our permission?).

Although you do realise those CDs will be delivered in 2070, like that post card from a holiday in 1973 that's just turned up and everybody will wonder what the hell these round silvery things are and chuckle about how the old days where.

Anyway, personally I assumed years ago that so many people have so much data about me that worrying about whose seen it is futile. However, given I know all this data is out there what I find annoying is that I don't seem to get any better service because of it, and I think that's what will cause the information crunch of 2008.

If government or businesses keep collecting my personal information, then please for goodness sake use it to give me a better service. Government can have as much information on me as they want as long as when I phone them up they can give me a faster answer to my issue or offer me a service I did not know I could get. I do not mind giving out my postcode to the friendly man on the till in my local electrical retailer (why do they need to know where I will use that portable DVD player?) if I actually got something in return. They have taken it about 20 times now but never write (I feel so alone sometimes) so why oh why do they want it? I know why, their marketing folks want to crunch my demographic into some fabulous marketing mix model, but I'm sorry, if you want to know where I live and think your just going to use it for your own ends then from now on, your not having it.

So, my new years resolution is not to stop giving my data away because people might then lose it, but unless they can tell me what value I am going to get from providing it to them then they can go crunch somebody else's shopping habits.

Comments

There are currently 6 comments about this blog.

chris gabriel, 9 months ago

Jane, in my humble opinion I think the 'information crunch' will be similar in nature to the credit crunch. Organisations and individuals will be much more wary about sharing their credit (information) with others, especially where the risk is seen as high. This new risk based approach is a good thing, but, it will challenge our approach to data collection and use.

Jane Lipton, 9 months ago

Hello Chris, out of interest when you talk about an information crunch in 2008, what do you mean? Is this something you expect to happen or were you just using it to represent a broader trend? Thanks

Chris Gabriel, 9 months ago

My 7 month old daughters teething got me listening at 2:00am last night to Radio 4 and an interview with a Cambridge Professor of Information Security. He stated that most experts in his field believe the days of massive government databases are now over. The only way they can be kept secure is lots of small databases accessed as and when needed, with the data being viewed as a single entity but the sources kept separate.

Simon Levy, 9 months ago

I agree Chris, as far as I'm aware personal information cannot be transferred outside of the European economic area unless the individual has consented. It makes one wonder how much care the government really takes over our personal data if it does not understand the basics!

James Walker, 9 months ago

Remember each Government department is like a separate company using the information for what it requires. There is a movement as part of the Governments Transformational Agenda to focus on single information source or sources with the aim of improving service and increase efficiencies. This is part of a global trend towards information source consolidation across Government. The issue that will need to be broken down is the investment required to achieve single CRM systems and the silo mentality that often exists. Other ways of information security will need to be considered with perhaps the onous of information ownership moving from Government to the individual with their choice on how and when it is used.

Mandy Shaw, 9 months ago

Absolutely agree. We know they can do it - the ability to renew a tax disc online must have involved them collecting up, or at least integrating with, insurance and MOT data, but I for one don't mind a bit, because the new system is very quick, requires minimal input from the car owner, and outperforms the old queue-in-the-post-office system on every count.