About this item
Every time we Google something, Facebook someone, Uber somewhere, or even just turn on a light, we create data that businesses collect and use to make decisions about us. In many ways this has improved our lives, yet, we as individuals do not benefit from this wealth of data as much as we could. Moreover, whether it is a bank evaluating our credit worthiness, an insurance company determining our risk level, or a potential employer deciding whether we get a job, it is likely that this data will be used against us rather than for us.In Data for the People, Andreas Weigend draws on his years as a consultant for commerce, education, healthcare, travel and finance companies to outline how Big Data can work better for all of us. As of today, how much we benefit from Big Data depends on how closely the interests of big companies align with our own. Too often, outdated standards of control and privacy force us into unfair contracts with data companies, but it doesn't have to be this way. Weigend makes a powerful argument that we need to take control of how our data is used to actually make it work for us. Only then can we the people get back more from Big Data than we give it.Big Data is here to stay. Now is the time to find out how we can be empowered by it.
About the Author
Andreas Weigend is an expert on social-local-mobile technologies, big data, and consumer behavior, the combination of which he calls the social data revolution. He was the chief scientist at Amazon, where he helped create that company's culture of data, experimentation, and innovation.
He is the founder and director of the Social Data Lab, a mentor at Stanford's StartX, and a lecturer at UC Berkeley. His clients include Alibaba, BMW, Deutsche Telekom, GE, Hyatt, Lufthansa, MasterCard, Tencent, and the World Economic Forum.
He received his PhD in physics from Stanford and now lives in San Francisco, Shanghai, and on weigend.com.
