There are quite a number of discussions about the ambiguous status of data in the new Collaborative Age. On one side it is celebrated as the new oil (refer to our post How Data Really is the New Oil, and Better); on the other side some argue that it is rather a toxic waste as in this interesting column ‘Data – the new oil, or potential for a toxic oil spill?‘
The point of the article is linked to data security and the harm that can be done through data theft and possible advanced recombination with other data sources that would also have been stolen. With zillions of data generated everyday, the argument is that one day or the other, sensitive data will leak and produce toxic effects on the wider data landscape and digital environment.
Specifically, the article mentions “Re-identification of anonymized data-sets [which] is a hot research topic for computer science today” and the fact that the breaches are additive in nature, progressively weakening privacy and sensitive data.
Of course, unclean data (refer to our post on data hygiene) is also another issue of toxic waste that may influence the wider data ecosystem if it is used as a basis for AI algorithm teaching or other reference applications.
The large amounts of data available today are a great source of value and at the same time are fraught with risks – as any new technology. Which will win first? My optimistic self is rather confident that the benefits will outweigh the risks, but that does not detract from the need to reinforce security and privacy.
Let’s make sure data is the source of value and not a toxic waste.
