A Data Driven World-Advantages and Disadvantages

We live in a data driven world and it will become more complex over time as large companies move from one market to the other one. As they connect with their customers, and more people move online, there will be lots of opportunities to collect this information. There are advantages and disadvantages to living in a data driven world.

Advantages: As our worlds become connected across countries and continents we become more familiar with each other. Typically, differences will not seem so different and people will begin to understand and sympathize with others.

Information passing from one place to the next leads to greater innovation. The world is inventing and using new products at a pace not ever seen in history.

Companies can better target their customers by understanding them and their needs. They are more connected and can send and receive information accordingly.

Prices drop as companies must compete against each other. When searching online on sites like Amazon or Alibaba you will find that regional differences often disappear.

Over the past few decades people moved from one location to the next often disconnecting from their family members. The Internet through the use of social programs such as Facebook, and Twitter, allow us to stay better connected to family, people who think like us, and the world in general.

The speed of commerce increases as electronic payments allow us to buy and purchase products quickly. While governments are slow to move online they are increasingly picking up on ecommerce ideas for simple things like car registration.

Disadvantages: As data moves across the globe and is hosted on multiple servers we will have a harder time keeping our information private. Some governments have enacted the "right to be forgotten" which allows them to have their information removed. This will likely be increasingly difficult as different countries begin to host their own information and decentralization occurs.

With a little research governments can do all types of intelligence gathering by collecting information out on the net and then putting it together to create profiles of key officials and people. This creates a risk as most governments don't understand how isolated and low level information becomes more revealing when combined.

We may also say that we will have some risk to our private information and finances as hackers and spyware steal information. There have been numerous data breaches that most companies are not able or competent of to thwart theft by motivated hackers from around the world.