Like that car? The tricks of the data body industry 2. Like that car? The tricks of the data body industry In the New Economy, data have become a primary resource. Businesses unable to respond to the pressure of informatisation are quickly left behind. "Information is everything" has become the war-cry of the New Economy. More than ever, business companies now collect data related to their customers, their competitors, economic indicators, etc., and compile them in However, there are also many companies that specialise in data body economics as the main line of business. They collect huge amount of data process and enhance them (thereby increasing the value of the data) and offer them on to other companies. For example, somebody who has been attracted by a car on display in an airport terminal and completes a card with name and address to participate in a draw reveals a lot of economically valuable information about him / herself. Apart from name and address, and other data that is completed on the card, this person also can be assumed to be a potential car buyer (evidently he / she wants a car) and to be relatively affluent (the poor do not normally travel by plane). The time when you complete the card also provides information: in July and August, you are more likely to be a holiday maker than in November. Possibly in small print somewhere on the ticket you complete you agree to receive more information about this and other products, and you agree also that your data are "electronically processed". The data acquired this way can normally be expected to be much more valuable than the car the is offered in the draw. Most people who completed the cards will not win in the draw, but instead end up on directs marketing data warehouses and one day receive offers of products and services which they never knew they wanted. |
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Copyright Management and Control Systems: Pre-Infringement Pre-infringement Contracts Contracts are a pre-infringement control method, which very often is underestimated. Properly formed contracts enable copyright holders to restrict the use of their works in excess of the rights granted under copyright laws. Copy Protection This approach was standard in the 1980s, but rejected by consumers and relatively easy to break. Still copy protection, whereby the vendor limits the number of times a file can be copied, is used in certain situations. Limited Functionality This method allows copyright owners to provide a copy of the work, which is functionally limited. Software creators, for example, can distribute software that cannot print or save. A fully functional version has to be bought from the vendor. Date Bombs Here the intellectual property holder distributes a fully functional copy but locks off access at a pre-specified date or after a certain number of uses. |
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Data warehouse A data warehouse is a central repository for all or significant parts of the data that an enterprise's various business systems collect. Data warehousing emphasises the capture of data from various sources, and combines them into economically valuable entities. A data warehouse is the end product of a process of data processing that may include |
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Data mining In data mining, data are analysed for relationships among them that have not yet been detected. This is a process used in scientific research as well as in marketing and administration. Through data mining, new surplus data can be generated out of a given quantity of data. A good general introduction to data mining and further links can be found at the |
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