Discrimination and Big Data

The White House has actually been exploring this side of big data through the Obama Administration’s Big Data Working Group in hopes of creating dialogue around some of these issues. The group has released a series of reports on big data; the most recent report, released last month, looks at the assumption that big data techniques are unbiased.

“The algorithmic systems that turn data into information are not infallible—they rely on the imperfect inputs, logic, probability, and people who design them. Predictors of success can become barriers to entry; careful marketing can be rooted in stereotype. Without deliberate care, these innovations can easily hardwire discrimination, reinforce bias, and mask opportunity,” according to a blog post.

Some examples of these biases could leave underserved and low-income families out of credit and employment opportunities. The Federal Trade Commission said that to maximize the benefits and limit the harms of big data, companies should consider how representative their data set is, if their data model accounts for biases, the accuracy of their predictions based on big data, and whether their reliance on big data raises concerns around fairness.

“Ideally, data systems will contribute to removing inappropriate human bias where it has previously existed. We must pay ongoing and careful attention to ensure that the use of big data does not contribute to systematically disadvantaging certain groups,” the report said. “To avoid exacerbating biases by encoding them into technological systems, we need to develop a principle of ‘equal opportunity by design’—designing data systems that promote fairness and safeguard against discrimination from the first step of the engineering process and continuing throughout their lifespan.”

The White House report goes through several case studies and recommends that “public and private sectors continue to have collaborative conversations about how to achieve the most out of big data technologies while deliberately applying these tools to avoid—and when appropriate, address—discrimination.” The report offers 5 recommendations:

1. Support research into mitigating algorithmic discrimination, building systems that support fairness and accountability, and developing strong data ethics frameworks.
2. Encourage market participants to design the best algorithmic systems, including transparency and accountability mechanisms such as the ability for subjects to correct inaccurate data and appeal algorithmic-based decisions.
3. Promote academic research and industry development of algorithmic auditing and external testing of big data systems to ensure that people are being treated fairly.
4. Broaden participation in computer science and data science, including opportunities to improve basic fluencies and capabilities of all Americans.
5. Consider the roles of the government and private sector in setting the rules of the road for how data is used.

Big Data Algorithms Can Learn Discrimination

Algorithms learn from the external process of bias or discriminatory behavior, according to a blog post by The Ford Foundation.

“The origin of the prejudice is not necessarily embedded in the algorithm itself: Rather, it is in the models used to process massive amounts of available data and the adaptive nature of the algorithm. As an adaptive algorithm is used, it can learn societal biases it observes.”

In order to address this, policymakers must learn more about big data, and algorithms that underpin “critical systems like public education and criminal justice” must be transparent. There also needs to be updated regulation around the use of personal data, according to the report.

Data as a Liability

A report by our sister site Windows IT Pro looks at the amount of responsibility companies take on when they store big data, referencing a report by Quartz which states data companies will not own data, “they will just manage the flows of data between those that have data and those that need it.”

The conversation around discrimination and big data challenges the idea that big data will replace human decision-making. Big data algorithms can assess, sort, and analyze all sorts of data, but without a human ensuring that the data is being used properly, there could be major consequences.

In order to break it down for you, Penton Technology’s Channel brands The VAR Guy, MSPmentor, Talkin’ Cloud and The WHIR have focused this month on big data and the data deluge.

On Talkin’ Cloud, we share the 7 big data jobs that you must know about. Demand for these jobs is going to continue to grow, so gaining skills in big data is a great way to future-proof your tech career.

On The VAR Guy, Editor in Chief Kris Blackmon shares her thoughts on the coolest data tools of 2016 so far. Definitely worth scoping out if you’re in the market for some new ways to wrangle all of that data.

We’re breaking it down even further with a gallery on 7 open source big data analytics and storage tools by Christopher Tozzi, our resident open source expert.

Also on The VAR Guy, we test your knowledge of big data with an interactive quiz. (We’re sure that by the time you’ve read our entire editorial package on big data, you’ll be on your way to expert status.)

On the WHIR, Clarity Channel Advisors Chief Advisor and HostingCon Evangelist Jim Lippie describes how business analytics, business intelligence and big data intersect to bring you real business insights – regardless of the size of your business.

By 2020, the total amount of data around the world will reach 44 zettabytes. That’s a lot of data to go around. Our hope is that with this editorial package, you will walk away with the knowledge to use big data to bring success to your organization.

Source: TheWHIR

That’s why one of the sessions in the Marketing Track of HostingCon Global is “How Service Providers Can Take Advantage of the Booming E-Commerce Market.” Wilfried Beeck, CEO of ePages, will lead an exploration of the role of web hosts, ISPs, and service providers in ecommerce, particularly for SMBs. Competition among ecommerce companies grows constantly, but few of them deal directly, let alone effectively with SMBs.

Beeck founded ePages in 1983, after studying Mathematics and Computer Sciences. He also co-founded Intershop Communications GmbH, and managed its IPO in 1998. He is currently involved with a number of other high-tech companies as an investor and board member.

His expertise will be highly valuable to many hosts, and just may be the start of a big break for your web hosting company at HostingCon Global 2016. Register by June 10 to save $100 with the Early Bird rate.

Source: TheWHIR

A study from Catalyst.org, a known authority on women in business, cites four qualities of being an inclusive leader: empowerment, accountability, courage, and humility. Being an inclusive leader means you create a workplace culture where employees feel connected and supported. Inclusive leaders foster innovation and creativity, and an opportunity for everyone to advance and thrive within the organization. Are you an Inclusive Leader? Here are the attributes:

Are you an Inclusive Leader? Here are the attributes:

Empowerment – Inclusive leaders encourage team members to solve problems, not just do a job. They want their team to have new ideas and develop skills that will empower them to be a better resource for the whole organization.

Accountability – Inclusive leaders are confident in their team. They don’t micro-manage but, instead, hold them responsible for their performance. They let them own the responsibilities and have control over the outcomes.

Humility – Inclusive leaders are open to input and feedback. They can admit mistakes and learn from them. They will know their own limitations and seek assistance from others to overcome and be successful.

Courage – Inclusive leaders will put aside their personal interests to achieve what needs to be done. They are not afraid to do what is right, and will often take some risks to ensure the correct outcome.

An inclusive leader will foster a workplace where diversity is valued, and where women can find a balanced organization. However, a single inclusive leader can’t change an entire organization. There needs to be top-down sponsorship at the senior level in organizations to really drive and sustain a culture of inclusion and a balanced workforce.

Organizations need to build a culture in teams that celebrates the collective brilliance of the organization. Successes and failures should be celebrated. Cultures that embrace innovation, experiment with pilots and new ideas and improve along the way will create an atmosphere for success.

There are several things specific things any organization can do to build a culture of inclusion.

Attract Female Candidates – One of the simplest things you can do is targeted recruitment programs to have more women candidates for open roles in the organization. Being deliberate in the organization about hiring positions that can have inclusion benefits is important.

Identify Internal Talent – Be on the lookout for women to mentor into roles with additional responsibility and cross functional training. Identifying talent early and developing them inside the organization will greatly benefit your efforts of inclusion.

Enable Women into the Executive and Board level – Building women into management roles, hiring at least 2 executives into your C-suite, and ensuring your corporate or advisory board has at least 2 women are all techniques to enable an inclusive and ultimately more successful organization.

Here are a few resources to enable the success of tech men and women together in the workplace:

Global cause for social good at http://heforshe.org/en

The authoritative agency on women: http://www.catalyst.org

The 20 by 2020 initiative – 20% women in America on public company corporate boards https://www.2020wob.com

Training for women executives, women in business, mentoring forums: www.ccle.org

Growing program to teach middle school girls to like and value technology (when they learn and love it at this age, they are more likely to enter the field later) : www.techgirlz.org

Inclusion is a trait to be valued throughout an entire organization. Being an inclusive leader and taking proactive steps to be inclusive as an organization are great ways to help promote women in tech. Done well, any organization can find its way to increased success and higher profitability by employing these techniques.

Source: TheWHIR

There are five security advantages these new micro-segmentation offerings provide to the cloud that haven’t previously been obtainable:

1. New micro-segmentation offerings enable companies to use a consistent set of tools for both their local data centers and the cloud. In the past, security administrators and operators have had to use different security tools for their local data centers and each cloud service provider. This meant the security roles and policies within their companies had to be mapped and maintained across multiple data centers (private and public) and different toolsets – a very complex and costly undertaking. Contemporary micro-segmentation tools work within a company’s local data center and across leading cloud service providers’ data centers, greatly simplifying operations and reducing costs.
2. New micro-segmentation technologies provide encryption within the cloud from virtual machine to virtual machine. Traditionally, it was believed that data was secure enough once within the security protection provided by the perimeter of the public data center. New micro-segmentation technologies now encrypt data between the virtual computing instances within the cloud for each company and user community. This encrypted added layer of security is a major step forward for protecting the most sensitive data in the cloud.
3. New micro-segmentation technologies use concealment as a basis for security strategy. Traditional security offerings have used a fortress strategy in which they build a wall around the data they are trying to protect, but still leave the processing environment visible to cybercriminals. New micro-segmentation offerings conceal the applications and data on the cloud to the point where it doesn’t appear like anything is active. Cybercriminals aren’t seeing information such as active IP addresses, operating system types or other information that would provide insight as to how to attack a company’s data. The cybercriminals are not aware of the applications and data in the cloud, and therefore it is not a target.
4. Micro-segmentation prevents lateral movement of security infiltrations to the data center. A key concern of the cloud is that a company’s data may be compromised because “the other guy” on the cloud didn’t take the appropriate precautions. Micro-segmentation protects cloud users from “the other guy.” Each company’s cloud processing environment is isolated and secure. Malware and cybercriminals are bounded by any given segment, and this makes all users of the cloud more secure.
5. Micro-segmentation can prevent security breaches in the cloud. A security breach occurs only when a company’s data leaves the cloud, not when the actual security infiltration occurs. New micro-segmentation capabilities contain threat intelligence that recognizes abnormalities and invoke policies to prevent data from leaving the cloud where these inconsistencies occur until the appropriate security analysis can be applied.

The cloud has never been more secure and micro-segmentation takes cloud security to amazing to new levels, so that enterprises can fully realize the benefits of the cloud even for their most critical and sensitive data.

About the Author

Rod Sapp, Global Vice President, Security and Cloud Product Management, Unisys

Rod Sapp manages the Unisys products portfolios including Enterprise Servers, storage, security products and cloud products.

Rod and his team are responsible for business planning, server portfolio definition, partner selection & management, and product launch and lifecycle management.

Rod’s organization collaborates extensively with Unisys sales channels and clients as well as Unisys engineering and services organizations to develop market-leading whole product solutions. Rod’s organization works closely with Unisys strategic technology partners including Dell, IBM, EMC, Oracle, VCE, Intel and Microsoft.

Rod’s background includes ten years of sales experience and twenty years of product and portfolio management that has included the Unisys ClearPath mainframe servers and more recently comprises the Unisys X86 business, storage offerings and software products.

Source: TheWHIR

It is little surprise that internet advertising is growing, or that mobile advertising growth outpaces desktop, but the extent of these trends is striking. There was a 20 percent increase in overall spending to $60 billion in the US in 2015, and mobile ad spend roughly doubled in that time. Still, the report shows that based on time spent, mobile still represents a major opportunity for advertisers, with 25 percent of time but only 12 percent of advertising spent on mobile. Non-mobile internet use takes 22 percent of consumer’s time, and 23 percent of advertising spending.

Ad blockers and muted videos represent major growing barriers to the effectiveness of that advertising, however, with 93 percent of internet users considering using ad blocking software, and 81 percent muting video ads. Privacy is also a looming issue, with 50 percent saying they are very concerned about data privacy and how companies use customer data.

READ MORE: China Said to Push for More State Control Over Video Websites

US data privacy regulation policy is in currently in development by the FCC, with advertisers expressing fear earlier this week that their effectiveness could be curtailed by proposed rules.

The report also highlights the declining use of text as a form of internet communication, suggesting it is being replaced in many areas by voice and image. The number of Baidu queries by speech, for instance, had reached one in ten in September 2014, when the company’s chief scientist Andrew Ng predicted that half of all searches will be done by voice or image in 2020.

As big data is adopted by businesses, opportunities for business apps will continue to emerge, according to the report, which is potentially a boon for both web hosts and cloud service providers.

A general point made throughout the report is that the pace of market transformation related to the internet is out of proportion with historical changes in media or technology. The rapid pace has made many internet companies highly profitable very quickly, but it puts pressure on companies to be nimble and forward-thinking.

Source: TheWHIR

SEE ALSO: Special Report: The Internet of Things and You

Mobile traffic growth will be driven by streaming video, as consumers now in their teens lead a shift away from traditional televisions. Smartphone TV and video viewing by teens has increased by 85 percent in the last 4 years. The shift will see streaming video, including embedded video in social media and on web pages, grow by 55 percent to well over 30 exabytes globally each month, or close to 70 percent of all mobile data traffic, over the next five years. Web browsing by contrast will grow at a compound annual rate of 15 percent.

LTE subscriptions increased by 150 million to 1.2 billion in Q1 2016. Smarphone subscriptions also rose, and Ericsson expects them to exceed basic phone subscriptions in the third quarter of this year.

The report also calls for “global spectrum harmonization to secure early 5G deployments.”

Cisco also predicts that video will make up more than half of all mobile data traffic by 2020, and Gartner identified mobile video as a huge opportunity for communication service providers (CSPs) last year. Data center interconnection is another market likely to benefit from mobile video growth.

Ericsson partnered with AWS in February to encourage telecoms and CSPs to build links to the cloud to improve the efficiency of mobile app delivery, in anticipation of increased data demands. The company also joined with Orange Telecom in November to test different networking approaches and hardware for IoT devices.

Source: TheWHIR