Digital-first has evolved into "data-first" for many information companies. But does your organization really understand the data opportunity that it has, as well as the tools to effectively leverage that data?

At yesterday’s FTC hearing on the business of big data I outlined some of the important uses of big data and analytics. SIIA companies are industry leaders using analytics and big data to improve business methods and processes.  Among their innovative uses of data are the use of these techniques to:  

One of the biggest cold cases of the 21st Century is the case of who betrayed Anne Frank and her family to the Nazis during World War II.  Anne Frank’s family and another family famously hid in a secret annex for two years before they were given away by an unknown person to the Gestapo.  The Nazis found them and they were sent to concentration camps.  Anne died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and famously wrote a diary documenting her experience hiding from the Nazis.  Her father Otto was the lone survivor of the group of eight hiders.  Otto was able to piece together much of what happened and had Anne’s diary published.  Yet, the Frank family, and many other families who suffered in the holocaust, thought they would never know who betrayed them.  Artificial Intelligence (AI) may be a tool that can help solve this mystery. This case, along with a few others, is strange for a number of reasons.  First, the Nazis were known f ...

The Atlantic Council and Thomson Reuters released a timely report on “Big Data: A Twenty-First Century Arms Race” on June 27, 2017, at a well-attended event at the Atlantic Council’s Washington, D.C. headquarters.  Policymakers all over the world should be aware of the powerful tools at their disposal such as World-Check to address political and economic threats.  This is something of a theme for SIIA.  Recently, for example, we wrote about how artificial intelligence (AI) can help in the anti-money laundering (AML) fight.   We have also written about how FICO’s AML tool works.  The Atlantic Council report contains many realistic policy recommendations, which policymakers from different regulatory “silos” should review.  This is another theme for SIIA.  Regulators and policymakers should engage in regular dialogue with each other.  For example, financial supervisors and privacy regulators should talk to ea ...

Recent technological developments have led to the rise of “big data” analytics which include machine learning and artificial intelligence.  These new technologies will without question provide ample opportunity for growth for consumers, businesses, and the global economy as a whole.  As this technological evolution continues to take place, it does not come without some risk.   Over the last few years, algorithmic fairness, has become an issue of serious debate.  Most recently, Cathy O’Neil released a book titled, “Weapons of Math Destruction,” and Frank Pasquale published “The Black Box Society,” in which they look at issues of discrimination and the role that algorithms play in exacerbating discrimination.  SIIA responded to these works in a blog by saying that tech leaders must quickly act to ensure algorithmic fairness. To go even further, on Friday, November 04, 2016, SIIA released an issue brief on the topic ...

SIIA’s Executive Spotlight Series provides a look into some of the most successful executives in our industry. Hear how many of them got to where they are today, what is shaping their businesses and the industry today, and special advice they would give to others trying to grow a successful company.

It's what Prescott Shibles warned us about last year at the 2015 Connectiv Executive Summit when he said, "Targeting data will soon be worth more than advertising inventory." But for Hanley Wood, accepting and adapting to this change in buyer behavior became an opportunity to reverse engineer the formula to provide unique data points to advertisers, charge a premium for it and even boost performance on its own properties. 

The SIIA is delighted to introduce one of the newest members to join SIIA’s Software & Services Division, Qubole. I had a chance to sit down with Ashish Thusoo, Co-Founder & CEO of Qubole to learn a little more their data services. Please find my interview below. more

Late last week, SIIA hosted a lunch event “Re-Thinking Privacy in the Connected World” that focused on reevaluating popular understandings of the privacy cost/benefit analysis of data-driven innovation and the Internet of Things (IoT). So often discussion of these technologies and analytic methods demonize data collection as a risk to personal privacy and security. But our speakers gave us a more balanced understanding of the complex relationship between technology, data and privacy.  They underscored that while there may be fundamental right to privacy, privacy is not monolithic, but based on a diverse and evolving set of expectations.  And they rebutted the notions that enhancing privacy can be accomplished merely by limiting data collection, or that more data equals less privacy, which calls for more regulation. more

A recent article in the New York Times raises the question: do algorithms discriminate?  The question is legitimate, but the emphasis is wrong.  Instead of thinking of data analytics as a problem, we need to welcome the new opportunities for improved decisionmaking that they enable.  And we need to cooperate to identify and address any disparate impacts data-driven decisionmaking might have.