Big Data by the Numbers | Explorer
I'm Richard Bacon. Let's talk about surveillance. But let's do it quietly because they're probably listening. That thing in your pocket that you call a smartphone, it's a tracking device that just happens to make calls. Digital tracking has become a part of our everyday lives. It is how we answer our biggest questions.
When are those cute shoes going on sale? What happened to that cute girl I knew in high school? Where's that cute commander of ISIS? [laughter] That's right. The same technology that targets terrorists is also being used to sell you Halloween costumes for your dog. You're probably aware that companies are collecting your data. But you don't know the half of it.
Let's run the numbers. [applause] 1,500, that is how many pieces of information data company Acxiom has on every single consumer in the United States, 1,500. If you asked me for 10 interesting pieces of information about myself, I'd struggle. Acxiom bundles your information into profiles with catchy names like "Men in Trouble," and then sells them to advertisers.
"Men in Trouble" is the file made up of married men who've recently searched for flowers and chocolates. [laughter] In trouble. 91-- researches at the University of Pennsylvania found that when you look up-- this is amazing. When you look at medical symptoms online, 91% of those websites are sharing your searches with third parties, even shipping the information directly to the same brokers who monitor your credit scores.
In other words, everybody knows about your weird rash. 300-- according to a recent study, it takes just 300 Facebook likes for big data to know you better than your spouse. The algorithms used by Facebook are so good, they can predict your sexual preference with up to 88% accuracy, which means Mark Zuckerberg knows you're gay before you do.
0-- that is the amount of messages that you have deleted in your life. There may be a Delete button, but there's no such thing as delete. Apps track every key that you push. You can find anything you want online except for privacy. And those were the numbers. [music playing] [applause]