Big data and its use is something that has a lot of potential but also has many issues that come along with it. The author gives multiple examples where using data can be useful, especially for humanitarian efforts. However, he recognizes that there are still issues and ways that data can be exploited and that this is nowhere near a perfect idea. Some of the major issues that he goes over are that patterns derived from data are not always reliable and that it is sometimes hard for data gathered to be accurate, the fact that algorithms themselves may not always be unbiased and have a tendency to benefit people who have more benefits such as literacy or more advanced technology and that sometimes data is not regulated, especially in countries that aren’t as technologically advanced as the United States or the United Kingdom. He wraps up his paper with multiple ways in that data science can be improved to address some of the overlying issues that have been observed in the use of data and to make it more accessible to everyone.
Although many people involved in big data have good intentions, there are possibly just as many people involved in big data that can use it to exploit others. For example, many countries in which there is an authoritarian or very strict government can use big data in a way that is not beneficial to human development and instead detrimental to it by affecting people’s lives negatively. Normal people can also trick the system as shown in the article when a non-profit organization’s plan to target people with primarily thatched roofs and give them financial aid backfired due to people pretending a certain building with a thatched roof was their actual house to get the aid. Transparency is also an important issue due to the fact that some people may not know what they are getting into. The article states that many first-time borrowers didn’t understand that they would eventually have to pay interest on a loan they take out. Because of a lack of understanding involving data in general, especially in countries where human development is low and certain technological advancements are hard to come by, people who don’t have access to what others would consider normal in life may be limited in how big data can affect them. In an age where social media and smartphones have taken over how people live their normal life and algorithms in machine learning help make many things online even more accessible, those who are unable to participate are massively set back.