Data Analytics: Capturing data on social media

Data Analytics is a phrase which is getting everybody’s attention these days. It seems the whole world is after your data from Google to Flipkart to Amazon.This data is used by the companies, with or without users consent for personal gains. The social media companies are using machine learning to predict user behaviour.

Machine Learning is a type of Artificial Intelligence. It crunches data of each person  created on social media like FB or Instagram. The data is used by these companies to study user behaviour and make a prediction. Based on this information advertisers are able to target their ads. So if an Instagram user is posting pictures in different dresses, he becomes an ideal candidate for stores like H&M or Zara. On other hand if a user checks about about a particular destination on make my trip, he becomes a targeted consumer for a hotel or an Airline ad.

You download an app and the first thing you have to share is your data. Govt needs your data for Aadhar while banks and telecom companies need KYC data to open an account.

Data Analytics in the past was simple 

Life was much simpler 30 years back and similarly the data required then. Young boys (including me) needed simple data like – the telephone no of the next-door girl. What time she leaves for college and what time she gets back? What time her mother is not at home and what time she goes to the local market? Young girls were interested in data like whether the guy has a motorcycle or not (cars were for super premium). How many sisters he has, whether his mother is still alive or not. Is he serious about marriage etc.

The tools of data analytics in the past were simple. Parents used their kids report card as the KYC (know your child) document. Mothers needed data like price of milk and vegetables, ingredients required for making exotic dishes, how much surf for washing family clothes for the entire month. Fathers required data of how much will it cost to make a house, how much he will have to save for his daughter’s marriage and how much DA hike has the govt announced. But all these data were unique as nobody else had an interest in them. Alas! that’s not the case today. Your life suddenly has become like an open book which anybody can access in the public library.