Elections are like writing an exam! There are only two kinds of people who succeed in the exams – the people who work hard and the people who work smart. Elections are no different.
To win the elections, you either have to work hard or be smart. In the past few years, the big data analytics have helped various political parties across the globe make smart decisions during their electoral campaigns.
Do you remember 2010’s US Presidential Election where Barack Obama won it over Mitt Romney? Well, it was the first time people started talking about the potential of big data analytics in helping politicians in their electoral campaigns. And guess what, now every other party all across the globe is trying their luck with big data analytics.
Big data analytics in the field of politics
For years, marketers have used big data analysis to create smarter strategies to engage customers and generate new leads in the market, and have succeeded. Even in politics, some strategies influenced by the big data analysis (like US presidential election campaign or the Brexit referendum) seem to work.
For political parties, it was not possible to go from door to door and reach every voter before planning their campaign strategies. With the help of big data analysis, they could easily read the behaviors, mindsets and the preferences of the citizens at large. This is what most of the political consultant companies are doing to help their clients in setting up a successful election campaign.
However, it was recently revealed that the British political consulting company, Cambridge Analytica, gained access to the data of 50 million+ Facebook users. This data was later “misused” for political advertisements during the presidential electoral campaign in the US and the Brexit referendum campaign, as reported in the Economic Times.
When the security of private data is violated on such a large scale, it is meant to stir controversy, which it did. However, one cannot deny the fact that well-made political ads, which address contemporary issues, can have a significant impact on the voters if they are properly circulated on Facebook. So, yes, there is a possibility that big data analytics can be helpful for the political parties to some extent.
Then what is this risk people are talking about?
Experts have expressed their doubts about the efficacy of the big data analytics that uses social media data. It is not clear what kind of strategic decisions can be made using big data analytics? Popular social media websites like Facebook, Twitter can be used very well to gather data, but the collected data can be quite complicated to handle.
Social media data is often influenced, which can lead to flawed results in the analytics. Besides, finding the necessary information on such vast network can be as difficult as finding a needle in the haystack. However, the problems do not end here.
While analyzing the data, a lot of “nonsense correlations” among different variables can be identified. And as the number of variables rises, the rate of likewise correlations also surges. As a result, it often becomes too hard to recognize the various forms of causes and effects. So one can clearly see how unreliable the resulting data can be.
Nick Heudecker, who is an analyst at Gartner (an American research and advisory company), told Tech Republic that the failure rate of big data projects is close to 85 percent. Even though he was talking about the field of business, it clearly suggests where the big data analytics stand in today’s world. The experts are now using several models and algorithms from various fields of study (like statistics, mathematics and engineering) which, however, haven’t done anything new as of now. In fact, it displays more “nonsense correlations” than its previous approach.
Conclusion
The instances of the failure of big data analytics are way too many. The biggest one, however, remains to be the Google Flu Trend experiment (2008) that tried to predict the prevalence of flu just by analyzing the search histories before the government authorities did. In elections, where the stakes are incredibly high, relying on big data analytics can cause a major blunder.
Reportedly, big data itself is not very useful to people. It can only be effective if the analytics are applied properly to the data. It won’t be wrong to suffice that relying on big data analytics to frame the strategy is nothing less than a gamble, where the chances of succeeding are very low.
However, most political parties are putting their trust on various political consulting firms these days which use big data analytics to help them strategize the campaign. And since the political parties don’t have a better choice at this moment, they may just stick with the big data analytics for longer period, even if it is full of uncertainty.
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Not very long ago, people saw a meteoric rise in the value of a virtual currency called Bitcoin. By investing in it, they became millionaires overnight. Suddenly, everyone wanted to own some and others were skeptical about its permanence as they thought that the bubble can burst like that of Dotcom and Tulips.
Just like these two historical events, ever since it made it big, several leading bank executives have termed Bitcoin as a “Bubble” because of its sharp rise by a fundamental margin. Its value reached its highest point in December 2017 at $19,498.63. Moreover, major exchanges such as the CME Group and Cboe Global Markets, are about to launch bitcoin futures exchanges.
Nevertheless, it is not just the steep growth that makes the news; the value of the fastest-growing cryptocurrency was halved from November 2014 to January 2015, and it crashed in December 2017.
Image Source: https://99Bitcoins.com/price-chart-history/
In an expert roundup on Business Insider, Tom Lees, who’s a managing partner at Fundstrat Global Advisors, revised his mid-2018 Bitcoin forecast. He increased it to $11,500 from $6000.
Does this mean that the Bitcoin bubble is on its way to the big burst? We guess not, because it just makes Bitcoin akin to any other volatile purchase vehicles and hence, it is a territory that needs to be treaded carefully. Having said that, let’s take a look at the risk factors that everyone intending to invest in the cryptocurrency should be aware of:
Risk #1: Limited Supply of the Cryptocurrency
Unlike any other centralized banking system, Bitcoin is decentralized in nature. It is more like gold whose underlying store of value cannot be affected by currency production. And even if central banks create derivatives based on Bitcoin, people can always buy it directly. However, the cryptocurrency’s value depends on trading and remains highly volatile as there will be only 21 million Bitcoins that can ever be produced. This is where you need to tread carefully.
Risk #2: The Alarming Rate of Transfer Fee
Currently, the transfer fee for purchasing Bitcoin is not expensive enough to change the market price of the currency. However, looking at the mushrooming growth rate, the time is not far when the transfer fee is going to be bigger proportionately. This can be a factor for worry, if not risk as you’ll also have to think about shelling out a huge transfer fee along with the increased value of the coin.
Risk #3: You Could Be Dealing with Criminals Unknowingly
All sorts of credit charges and other relevant details are supposed to pass through a third party and this this creates a traceable trail. Bitcoin transactions do away with such trail and instead all your transaction information creates a block in the blockchain. This block of data is public and can be read, seen by all those in the chain. Hence, all the transactions that take part in a blockchain will remain public for sure. What remains anonymous here are the identities of the buyer and the seller. It stays shared by them only instead of all the middlemen.
As long as these exchanges happen over-the-table and for legal transactions, it is not going to be problematic. The catch lies in unknowingly entering a digital transaction or an agreement with a criminal party.
Moreover, there are several illegitimate reasons to purchase Bitcoin, which is leveraged by tax evaders and people who want to avoid the rules and regulations that dictate fiat currencies. You cannot rule this risk out, bubble or no bubble!
Risk #4: Only a Small Number of People Exercise Control
The next risk associated with cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin is that the market control remains in the hands of a small group. For instance, about 1000 people hold almost 40% of all the Bitcoins. And let’s not forget the fact that only a certain number of Bitcoins can be mined. These “whales” are big dampeners to your plans because they can choose to sell their stock of Bitcoins to make the most of the high market prices. Sometimes, the whales can go ahead and coordinate between themselves in order to make the market fluctuate. The uncertainties are real and the laws concerning cryptocurrency are not accurate.
Risk #5: Cryptocurrencies are Getting Banned by Institutions and Countries
A number of major international banks are banning Cryptocurrency purchase using credit cards. You can still purchase the coins by using your debit cards though. As more banks join the bandwagon, several countries are also making the virtual coins illegal.
For instance, if you trade in Bitcoin or other alt coins in Bangladesh, you can be punished and receive a sentence of up to 12 years in prison. The central bank of Bolivia went on to release a statement that said, “It is illegal to use any currency that is not issued and controlled by a government or an authorized entity.” China, which has become of the largest Bitcoin trading market in the world, there’s a ban but that remains strictly on banking institutions and employees. There’s also a ban on engaging in Bitcoin businesses via banking or dabbling in any business or service associated with the Bitcoin industry. However, trading or mining Bitcoins is not considered as illegal for the citizens.
The key takeaway here is that transaction using Bitcoin remains largely anonymous. This makes it a potential tool for criminals who dabble in illegal acts such as tax evasion, drug trafficking and money laundering to name a few.
Risk #6: Insecure ICOs or Initial Coin Offerings
Cryptocurrency startups are all rage nowadays, with founders, CMOs and Chief are coming up with a wide range of startups that draw the users’ attention. It all started in 2017, investing in projects associated with a blockchain or cryptocurrencies became very popular among cryptocurrency holders. This type of fundraising is called an ICO — Initial Coin Offering. With a simple internet connection, you can be a part of cryptocurrency-based firms or startups. The problem is that this market is on its own with no regulation. The risk assessment mechanism, productivity and guarantee are some of the things you need to see before jumping into one without a second thought!
Risk #7: Possible Attacks on Exchanges
Bitcoin exchanges are not safe anymore. With major attacks on the exchanges, the value of the cryptocurrency may falter. Take the instance of Mt.Gox, the heist of which made them lost 850,000 coins. The value of these coins after four years runs into billions. It never recovered from the attack of this scale and went bankrupt. The exchanges are also threatened by DDoS attacks.
To Conclude
At present, we cannot tell for sure that whether the complete bubble is going to burst or whether blockchain will continue to rule the industry. What we do know is that even though the price tag of the cryptocurrency is enough to knock your socks off, awareness is the only thing that will save you from its potential risks. And like other investments, this is a risk that you can and should take to see where it takes you!
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We all know how marketing can enhance sales. However, enhancing marketing requires real skills and creativity. Or does it? Can machines do a better job at promoting, advertising, and ultimately selling products than a creative human being? A complete switch to AI seems futuristic, but some major brands have already implemented the tactic of using chatbots, voice assistants, and other smart systems for marketing enhancement purposes. In fact, a vast majority of globally known brands has already benefited from using AI. Let’s see why and how.
The AI may be more efficient at certain tasks, but it’s still a long way from being able to replace people. For instance, only 7% of customers are open to buying a product through a chatbot. However, companies like Nordstrom have found the right job position for AI-powered devices. Namely, their digital tool called ‘Style Boards’ allows salespersons to create and send personalized recommendations to existing and potential customers. Combine that with one of the many Nordstrom promo offers, and you’ll get an outstanding value purchase.
Another good example comes from one of the most recognizable brands worldwide. Nike uses an Artificial Intelligence system called ‘Nike On Demand’ to encourage people to lead a healthier life and exercise more by sending motivational messages. Still, if AI fails to motivate you, Nike deals and promo codes certainly won’t. Whether AI is taking over our jobs or not is debatable, but it’s a well-known fact that more and more brands are exploiting it for marketing purposes. Take a look at the infographic below, and you’ll learn that the future is a lot closer than you think.
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Docker containers provide a way to package applications with everything needed to run them, including base operating system images, databases, libraries, and binaries. By running a Docker engine on a host machine, Docker containers interact solely with the kernel of the host OS, meaning all containerized apps function the same regardless of the underlying infrastructure. Furthermore, you can run multiple apps on a single host machine, which leads to impressive cost savings by letting enterprises run more apps on existing hardware.
The statistics for Docker are telling with regards to its popularity and potential:
The rest of this article will overview some use cases where Docker ties into and helps to handle Big Data sets which are fast-moving, voluminous, and contain a huge variety of information from disparate sources and in different formats. For more info on containers, check out this Docker wiki page.
Docker & Big Data Use Cases
Isolate Big Data Tools
Coupled with the hardware used to set up and manage Big Data clusters are a set of tools that developers and data scientists will use to complete processing jobs or other tasks on Big Data. The problem that often arises is that each developer wants to use their own specific tools to do what they need to do with the data, necessitating the distribution of a whole gamut of tools and their dependencies to each machine within a Big Data cluster.
With a large number of developers, dependency issues will quickly arise, and one tool’s specific requirements can cause another tool to malfunction.
Docker offers a way to overcome these dependency issues by allowing you to build a Big Data ecosystem in which each tool is self-contained, along with all of its dependencies. Developers can use their own tools for different jobs without worrying about conflict with other tools because each tool is isolated within a container.
Run Scheduled Analytics Jobs
A scheduled analytics job is a type of automated data manipulation task that you can run either on a recurring schedule or at a particular time. These types of jobs are very useful for Big Data which inundates organizations at high-velocity, necessitating some form of automation to keep up to speed with tasks. Docker containers can add to the convenience of scheduled jobs by allowing you to run scheduled jobs without manually setting them up on each node in a Big Data cluster.
For example, Chronos is a fault-tolerant job scheduler running on top of Apache Mesos that enables the launching of Docker instances into a Mesos cluster, creating scheduled analytics jobs for those instances. Within Mesos, you can run distributed Big Data applications, such as Hadoop or Spark.
With Chronos and Mesos, your developers or sysadmins can schedule Docker containers to run ETL, batch, and analytics applications on a recurring or time-specific basis, all without the need for any manual setup on cluster nodes.
Aside from the convenience of using Docker for scheduled analytics, the Chronos job scheduler also shows you a job dependency graph to help track dependencies for different jobs.
Provision Big Data Development Environments
The ability to provision a Big Data environment on a local computer is useful for developers who want to learn more about the various technologies and tools needed to become proficient with Big Data ecosystems. After all, within a development context, learning by doing is the best way to gain knowledge. Docker can assist with this by enabling the creation of a multiple-node cluster on a single host machine, replicating the typical Big Data setup.
For example, Ferry is a tool that lets you run multiple container nodes on a single host machine using Docker. This means developers can define, run, and deploy big data stacks using either the human-friendly YAML data serialization standard or JSON. For example, the following code creates a Big Data stack containing a 5-node cluster and a single Linux client to interact with Hadoop:
backend:
– storage:
personality: “hadoop”
instances: 5
layers:
– “hive”
connectors:
– personality: “hadoop-client”
After defining this Big Data stack, you can easily run it in Docker. Start up the Ferry server by running the sudo ferry server command in your Docker terminal, followed by ferry start hadoop.
The ability to provision a Big Data stack locally like this is useful for developers who need a local environment for development purposes, but it’s also good for data scientists who want to experiment with Big Data technologies and further their knowledge.
Build A Big Data Microservices Architecture
Docker facilitates the transition to building a microservices architecture for Big Data applications. Microservices are independant, modular services, and Docker containers provide a natural platform with which to implement such a setup for Big Data apps.
The main benefits of microservices for Big Data include easier application scalability and better quality data. Ingesting Big Data results in many possible points of failure that can lead to lower data quality. With microservices, development teams have an easier job in testing and maintaining services, reducing the chances of poor data quality.
Build A Multi-Cloud Distributed Big Data processing System
The typical drawbacks for companies looking to extract meaningful information from their large data volumes are the need to provision a powerful data processing system and the requirement to install and use complex big data analytics tools.
As described in this paper, a possible use case for Docker is building a Docker container-based big data processing system in multiple clouds for everyone, with the help of the Docker Swarm, which is used to orchestrate containers.
Wrap Up
Docker’s impressive security, performance, and the speed at which you can create multi-node Hadoop clusters make it an ideal fit for use with Big Data workflows. Docker has particular advantages of Big Data ecosystems that use virtual machines because Docker containers are much more lightweight, and they require much less time and effort to set up Hadoop clusters or other Big Data environments.
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People often choose to keep same id and passwords for all the websites, this is because they don’t want to afford the forgetting problem, but do you know? If you are using same id and password for multiple websites and sharing many posts on social media, then you could be the next target of the cybercriminals.
How can you keep your online data safe?
Worried? Just take a deep breath and relax! We are going to share few tips that can help you in preventing yourself from these fraud, hackers. All you have to do is just go through these dos and don’ts and follow them carefully to maintain your online safety.
1. Never go for an unexpected link
While surfing the social media you could find something that is unexpected, it may be a call for the offer, unwanted advertisement, email or a permission to access your profile. Remember, these types of unwanted stuff are nothing but a trap! By clicking on that link, you allow the cyber criminals to access your online data, in this way they can easily hack and use your personal profile.
2. Use multiple passwords
It’s better to note down your passwords in a diary, instead of creating the same password for different websites. Keep your password smart, don’t act childish by using the name of your beloved belonging as your password. In case anyone of your accounts gets hacked, at least you can secure others from getting in their hand, moreover, retrieval is easier if the password is different and strong.
3. Anti-virus software must be used
It has been witnessed that, those who use a reliable antivirus software reduces the chance of getting their data stolen. By using an antivirus software, they create a barrier for the hackers to access their accounts and personal data.
4. Never hesitate to block
If you feel like that someone has sent you a personal message or request on social media and he is getting too much into your profile, then don’t wait for any mishap, before that in the basis of suspicion, block that person. Remember he is not your boss, to whom you are answerable.
5. Think before sharing any information
Kindly make sure whatever you are sharing n social media could not be misused against you in future, it may be any information, picture comment etc. These dirty players keep a smart eye on your activities and can use that in future to enter your social world with the intentions of fraud or misusing your stuff.
6. Act wisely while online shopping
When you choose to shop something online, remember that you are sharing your card details over there. Kindly keep it in mind that while making an online transaction the most important thing is to check the credibility of the site you are using for your online purchase. It may be a trap for you by these hackers, they could get your card details through those sites and drain your money without your permission.
7. Don’t click on “allow pop-Up”
Whenever we open a new site or download something, we often face a dialogs box in which we are asked to allow the pop-up, not always but, often these pop up have malicious software that can be used against you in verifying your identity of personal data including private information. So, it is better to ignore such pop-up, so that you won’t regret in future.
8. Say no to public WIFI
Who doesn’t like to have a free WIFI, especially when getting bored at a public place? Well, often things are not what they seem to be. These public or free WIFI offerings often contain the virus in them, which once when accessed in your device can share all your data from that device with the cybercriminals. So beware of it and try not to use such WIFI at any cost.
9. Don’t choose the option of remember me
Often when we enter passwords on websites or while making an online transaction when we insert the card details, a dialogs box appears asking you to be remembered in future. It is not necessary that the site is fraudulent, if you choose to be remembered over there, your data could be later used by the hackers if they get access to your device by any means.
10. Go for two-step verifications
Often social media sites provide you the option of two-step verification. In this, they ask you to enter a password and also enter the verification code shared with you by SMS, this can help you in preventing your accounts from getting hacked, because even if the hacker gets the access to your password, he won’t be able to enter the code, moreover you will be notified that someone is trying to access your account.
11. Keep your devices locked
We can understand that unlocking the device every time via pattern, pin or password could be irritating, but this is your need, set the security level of your look screen on high intensity, that means if someone tries to unlock your screen without your permission and enters the wrong data 5-10 times, your device could get refreshed and restore the factory data by wiping out all the data from your device.
12. Log out option is made for your safety
Whenever you are done with the social media sites, log out your account from the device, irrespective of the owner of the device. This could help you in keeping your chats, pictures and other data safe from those who could access that device in future.
13. Don’t trust auction sites always
Particularly those sites which are used for auctions must not be trusted, they ask you for the feedback, or they ask you to share your details so that they can make you the member of their site. But, You must remember that sharing your information could be a great risk, so it is better not to share anything on such sites.
Conclusion
You would wonder to know that, these cybercriminals through their computer scams are costing Britain £27bn per year, other than that unethical use of the data could be a severe danger. After reading these tips we assure you that you can prevent your data from getting hacked, but remember these hackers are smarter than us, so keep yourself active to fight against them as much as possible.
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We live in an age, where we fear isolation. The one string which connects us with the rest of the world is social media. With people being constantly on the move, social networking websites provide the most accessible and affordable medium for news and entertainment. The widespread popularity of social media, and the vague regulations in place, have allowed several media giants to rise. Companies such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are big wigs who dominate and monopolize the social networking industry.
What’s more, these organisations have access to unbelievably large amounts of data. And with every passing day large amounts of data are uploaded and shared on social media channels. They monetize this information by selling it to advertising and marketing companies to create targeted campaigns. Which is not new information.
However, these social media giants have not only dominated the industry, but they have also set the norms for setting the frameworks for social media websites. For example, the server(s) which host the website fall under one authority, i.e. the creator (and owning) organisation. Moreover, the source code for the website is closed and inaccessible to anyone but the relevant personnel of the company. They control every single aspect of the website. And the most troubling aspect of this model, in the amount of control these organizations have over the content which shared on their feed. The companies have complete authority to censor information as well as promote certain content.
But after a series of data leak scares over the recent years, people are questioning the methods in which these monolith organisations operate. And are looking for alternatives which better facilitate the users’ basic internet rights.
One of those alternatives is a decentralised /distributed social network (DSN) or a federated social network.
The idea of DSNs cropped as a response to the blatant (and sometimes unethical) data mining which many social media networks undertake. The concept gained further noticeability when cryptocurrencies gained popularity. Today, millions of people are active users of at least one DSN. And while that may not compare to the billions of mainstream social media users, it still is a considerably big user base. Some of the more popular DSNs today are Mastodon, Diaspora*, Sphere, Obsidian and Steemit.
A DSN works on a very different ideology to mainstream social networking websites. Most of them follow three basic principles – data security, privacy and transparency. Unlike Facebook and Twitter, DSNs are hosted on multiple servers owned by different people. And since these websites are usually open sourced, anyone can download the code and tweak it to create their own network. Or improve the existing one. So, instead of operating on a mediated private server, DSNs work based on peer-to-peer interaction.
Moreover, most DSNs offer encrypted messaging services and the option of anonymity to its users. In fact, some DSNs do not ask for proof of identification like a phone number while signing up. Strong advocates of this alternative form of social networking emphasize that this allows the user to be completely in control of their own profile. And the content shared on it. They can control what they see, what to show and who to show the content to. Websites like Mastodon also refuse to host paid advertising in its platform. Hence users would get to see genuine content instead of sponsored campaigns. On the other hand, some websites like Steemit and Sphere allow users to monetize their content, by utilizing the concept of cryptocurrency, or ‘tokens’.
However, while the idea of DSNs is a good one, it is not a fool-proof method to combat mainstream social media. There are still several challenges and disadvantages to using a DSN account.
The most obvious challenge is attracting permanent user base. Despite the already existing user count being more than a million, DSN is still relatively unheard of. People prefer to use main-stream social media like Facebook and Twitter because they are super easy to use. DSNs on the other hand, can be difficult for newbie users to navigate through.
Moreover, not everyone is interested to host a web server on their computer. And this further drives the average internet user away from signing up on a DSN.
Another pretty serious challenge which creators of DSNs face is security. Whether they agree or not. The fact of the matter is that most DSNs do not ask for real world identity proofs. In turn they rely on public key cryptography to enforce security for their user accounts. However, this extremely difficult to manage. Not to mention, the basic issues that plague social media – like fake accounts, incorrect information sources, fake news, echo chambers and filter bubbles, persist.
In conclusion, the concept of DSNs is very promising. The intentions of its creators to change the internet back into an open free web is noble. And it is good to know that there are, alternatives to Facebook and Twitter. However, there remains a lot to be done before a DSN can be considered as fool proof replacement to mainstream social media sites.
So, which one will you choose? Mainstream social media, or a decentralised one?
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