The transformative nature of our move to a data-driven economy and society means that any data strategy will have long-lasting effects. That’s why the Canadian government needs to ask the right questions to the right people in its ongoing national consultations.
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The Canadian government is right to hold public consultations on digital and data transformation given how profoundly it affects society at large. But the scope is far too narrow.
The 2018 World Cup inspires new gamblers.
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Online gambling collects a huge amount of data. But instead of personalising offers to keep you hooked, real-time data can be used to prevent problematic gambling behaviour.
Hate crimes increased in many major cities in 2016 and 2017.
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In 38 US cities, hate crimes rose 12 percent in 2017. There were 1,038 hate crimes in the nation’s 10 largest cities – the most in more than a decade.
Power over business, democracy and education will likely continue to lie with data and data-dependent tools, such as machine learning and artificial intelligence.
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Biases are difficult to shed, which makes workplace diversity a powerful and necessary tool for catching unsuspected bias before it has a chance to cause damage.
A survey shows that most Puerto Ricans didn’t highly rate the official information coming out of the island. With the Institute of Statistics in trouble, the situation is likely not to improve.
The daily fluctuations in the stock market can have a serious emotional impact on people watching their stock portfolios, when the less stressful strategy would be to pay attention to long-term trends.
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Today it’s estimated that we take in about five times as much information as we did 25 years ago, and that we process as much data in a day as our 15th century ancestors would have in their lifetime.
Hurricane Maria’s destruction likely have led to thousands more deaths than originally estimated.
Ramon Espinosa/AP
Official reports state that just 64 people died in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. The latest estimates put the real number at 4,645. How did the count go so wrong?
In 2017, the US dropped to 1.76 children per woman.
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Michael Wade, International Institute for Management Development (IMD)
Organisations are on the losing side, especially those that rely on leveraging personal data to compete. But there will be a net benefit to consumers – and that’s a good thing.
An artist’s illustration of a black hole “eating” a star.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Eileen Meyer, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Astronomers are gathering an exponentially greater amount of data every day – so much that it will take years to uncover all the hidden signals buried in the archives.
Morning smog in New Delhi, India.
AP Photo/Manish Swarup
Australian businesses will not be forced to comply with or fall foul of the new data regulation merely because they maintain websites accessible in the EU.
A protester wears a mask with the face of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, in between men wearing angry face emoji masks, during a protest against Facebook in London in April 2018.
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When you send off a cheek swab to one of the private genome companies, you may sacrifice not just your own privacy but that of your family and your ancestors.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before a hearing on Facebook: Transparency and Use of Consumer Data on Capitol Hill in April 2018.
Shawn Thew/AAP
Facebook grapples with balancing the privacy needs of users with needs of the research community.
A cell phone user thumbs through the privacy settings on a Facebook account in Ottawa in March 2018. Canadians need to start making companies accountable for mining and using their personal data without their consent.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
Canadians — and consumers around the world — have the power to hold industries accountable for misuse or unauthorized use of our data. It’s time to use it.
Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne
Former postdoctoral researcher on machine learning applied to chemical engineering and currently science communicator for the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (Miraikan), University of Tokyo