chaP tEr 1 Big Data Is Everywhere Do you have a special card you show each time you shop at a certain store A loyalty card or shopping card If you do then you are part of the Big Data revolution You may think that by swiping your loyalty or shopping card you’re just getting discounts But behind the scenes a whole bunch of information about you is being stored This collection of information is so big that it wouldn’t fit on most regular computers When there is that much information involved we call it Big Data You may have heard about Big Data in the news but what is it Well you already know what big means Data is another word for information in the form of numbers or words 4 21st century skills library
Your family might have a whole pile of different cards for different stores Each one tracks information about you Let’s say a woman named Jane swipes her loyalty store card at the grocery store When the card is swiped it tells the computer running the cash register to unlock special sale prices for some items Hooray for Jane However the card can also collect a lot of other stuff that helps the business From that one swipe the computer system knows Jane’s name address and other personal information It can then keep track of everything she buys Wait How does the system know so much about this shopper It’s simple Back when Jane first got her card she was asked to fill out a form with her name address and other personal 5 55 Data Geek
Giving up some personal information is a requirement for many deals and promotions at stores and other businesses 6
information Everything she wrote down was entered into the system Each piece of information is one more data point in the computer system Over time this data adds up Big Data isn’t a place or a company or an organization It’s the idea that it’s now possible with the help of technology to gather up tiny bits of information almost at the speed of light often without people realizing it’s happening Big Data doesn’t just appear It is assembled over time As you learned earlier a single swipe of a grocery store shopping card has the power to send data in a lot of different directions Anytime there is a digital device that can capture movements keystrokes mouse clicks or even Rule of Thumb When you are offered something for free by a company ask yourself What am I giving in order to receive this bonus Am I okay with that You might be willing to give up the informa tion in exchange for a good deal but you also might not 7 777 Data Geek
