Internet of everything, Identity Access Management, & Big Data
Michael Irene is a data and information governance practitioner based in London, United Kingdom. He is also a Fellow of Higher Education Academy, UK, and can be reached via moshoke@yahoo.com; twitter: @moshoke
Most manufacturers have added connectivity features to more products for various purposes as cellular and wireless communication connections have become omnipresent and economically viable. Devices can and must be tracked with each other as well as third parties for safety and loss prevention purposes. The Internet of Everything commerces and communication is vast. Aside from concerns regarding notice, consent, and accountability, regulators and consumer protection authorities are particularly concerned about data security risks associated with big data, and, more generally, with a large database.
Nigerians are wary that not all companies can keep data secure. However, Nigerians will appreciate if companies can ensure that the supplied data is technically and securely managed. One of the best ways to achieve this would be identity access management. And as the web is increasingly used as a platform for various transactions, companies are faced with a new requirement for authentification, authorisation and identity management. As such, their IT architectural frameworks must have control access not only to single, isolated systems but to whole business-spanning applications and services. The Identity and Access Management(IAM) concepts are configured to increase security and authentication methodologies in the management of information. This is one of the most important concepts in information governance and companies must pay attention to it. (I would expand on this concept in future articles)
As technology advances, most tech companies rely heavily on big data. Information technology companies use the term “big data” to describe technologies, services, and applications that can process large amounts of often unstructured data to develop, for example, facial recognition systems for authentication and security purposes, for new forms of predictive analysis, urban planning, traffic forecasts and optimisation, and medical research.
Another source of big data analysis is the online research. Most companies use scraping technologies to automatically collect data from internet websites for myriad business purposes, including indexing websites to support search engine technologies, but also to gather data for big data analysis. Such data collection methods can violate Nigerian privacy laws. As such, I’d recommend that companies that use these tools must be particularly wary of the type of information they collect, save, for what particular reason and must make clear their retention and deletion plans. However, if a data subject post biographical information about herself on a personal home page without any restrictions, then others would be allowed to access this information via search engines and other technologies for their own purposes. The difficulty in practice for companies engaging in scraping, however, is to determine which pages display personal data with permissive terms of use and which do not. If companies deploy scraping technologies that ignore access restrictions, such as CAPTCHAs or registration requirements, then they run additional risks fo violating privacy laws.
Big data is traded by data brokers, that is, companies that buy and resell the information, including personal information. There are a lot of them in Nigeria. However, companies must be sure they understand the implication of dealing with such companies and carry out their due diligence before employing their services.
Adding everything together, the internet of things, identity and access management, and big data go hand-in-hand. As companies grow profits by exploring, using, studying and keeping data, it’s important that they put into consideration the various privacy implications embedded in their procedures and ensure there are steps in place to protect the freedoms and rights of data subjects.
Michael Irene is a data and information governance practitioner based in London, United Kingdom. He is also a Fellow of Higher Education Academy, UK, and can be reached via moshoke@yahoo.com; twitter: @moshoke