Data-Mining and Analytics: Rising Concerns over Privacy and People’s Security

An individual’s privacy being sold to the corporates for customized advertisements and commercial micro-targeting is essentially a disturbing idea as one’s personal information is being commodified and marketed. It becomes dangerous and poses a threat when analytics pushes the limit further and engages in predicting the real-life activities of the people such as electoral behaviour and employs tools of political micro-targeting to manipulate the electorate. Hence, the recent developments in data science such as data-mining and analytics have become the catchwords for those concerned with the question of privacy infringements and state surveillance. The paper attempts to evaluate the potential threats to individual privacy and security when data-mining and analytics are clubbed with artificial-intelligence-powered election campaigns, surveillance mechanisms, warfare strategies etc.