Turn Privacy Debate on Its Head, Says Researcher
Could a lack of privacy regulations in the U.S. and abusive practices lead to a backlash that negatively affects scientific research for the greater social good? That worries Tom Mitchell, a Carnegie Mellon professor and machine learning researcher, whose profile appears this week in the pages of Computerworld.
As smart phones diligently record people's locations, movements and other activities, machine learning and real time data mining can be used for the greater good. For example, real time positioning and movement data from you smart phone is already being used to track traffic congestion. Soon it could be used to change traffic light patterns in order to optimize traffic flows.
Machine learning algorithms feed on such data to make predictions for good -- or ill. Patient data could be analyzed to inform you that yesterday you came in contact with someone who has a contagious disease. But if you have the disease, do you want that information made public? What about entities that might use machine learning tools to identify you in random groups of photos that you or others have posted on the Web? How about identifying your mother or your child?
