As Mustachians, we understand, perhaps better than most, the impacts of targeted marketing. We are constantly battling our consumer-driven desires to purchase the latest shiny thingamajig, all due to our unwavering opinion that the concept of working ourselves to death to earn money to consume is not in our best interest as human beings. I value this community and I believe the concept discussed in this article is quite important for us all to understand, so although it is written from a fairly biased political point of view, I do hope we all take into consideration the far reaching consequences Big Data has had, and will continue to have in our lives.
Trump Knows You Better Than You Know YourselfThe article discusses the fact that marketing has become so precise, that firms have the ability to market to subsets of the population based on their personality traits. Based on a person’s personality, they know exactly who to target and precisely what message is best to persuade them, all based on the information we share online via social media, cross referenced with data they obtain regarding our personal purchases and preferences. They have perfected this technique to the extent that they are, within a great deal of likelihood, able to predict (and manipulate) our behavior.
The fact that this marketing technique played a prominent role in the most recent U.S. election and the Brexit vote is troubling to me. However, I had very disturbing after-thoughts regarding how else this information could be deployed. Do we believe firms have merely attempted to manipulate recent political opinions? Why would they stop there? Why not manipulate our opinions of each other? A unified population is far more difficult to control, so why not go to whatever extent necessary to ensure people are divided? It doesn’t necessarily matter what divides them, it merely matters that they fight amongst themselves about whatever they feel most strongly about. In my conspiracy-theory ridden brain, that is the next logical step, and based on the divisiveness of recent current events, I have no reason to believe this isn’t already happening to some degree. I understand this isn't a new concept at all, but this is the first time I’ve really thought through the implications of data collection on such a massive scale being used for something far more unethical than product placement.
For a more practical thought on how else this information may be used… Last year our auto insurance increased, and being the Mustachian I am, I called to complain and demand a reason as to why our rates increased when we had been long time customers with no accidents on our records. They explained to me that it was merely the fact that the area in which we lived in has become more risky for car accidents. I disliked that answer, because it seemed quite outside of my control, but I thought it seemed somewhat logical. Now I’m wondering if personality based information isn’t leaking its way into other consumer spheres. Did my insurance agency just profile us? Do we have personality traits that make us more at risk to get into a car accident? Even if not, isn’t it quite possible that they might use that strategy someday, given the amount of data available to corporations and the lack of regulation in this area? The implications of how this data might be abused could reach every significant and/or trivial aspect of our lives, all based on who elects to purchase the information.
Not wanting to be all doom and gloom, this information could definitely be used for good in the world. I had read an article back in November about a similar concept (
Dementia Game “Shows Lifelong Navigational Decline”), but hadn’t quite connected the dots on how this is similar to Big Data concepts. In this article, they discussed an online game that was created to harness data from 2.4 million people to help test for early symptoms of Alzheimers and Dementia. This dataset would have taken 9,400 years to recreate in a lab setting. This seems like a very productive and life-enhancing data collection method. Stories like that give me hope that Big Data can and will be used to do good things in the world.
I understand this all sounds very conspiracy-theory-esque and perhaps it is. Perhaps some of you are thinking "no shit Sherlock, this is not a new concept!" I merely wanted to mention it to this community, because I think it’s a worthy exercise for us all to ask ourselves, “Do my views of [insert concept here] stem from personal experience or information I have sought independently, or am I relying on information that is being fed to me via television, radio, internet, and/or what people that are most like me are saying?” It seems like a concept that could be very important for us to understand and consider, especially as we strive to live more frugal, fulfilling lives.