As biomedical researchers, we read with interest the story on privacy by Simson L. Garfinkel ("How to Stop the Snoopers," March/April 2011). The article implied that data mining is a phenomenon promulgated by predatory corporations and designed primarily to encroach on people's personal lives and privacy. Among other things, data mining provides substantial benefits in genomic research by helping to sift through millions of data points to find actionable correlations between genes and diseases. Data mining is overall a socially valuable endeavor. The difficult part is finding a way to employ large-scale aggregate uses of data mining while protecting the privacy of the individual.
Dov Greenbaum and Mark Gerstein
New Haven, Connecticut
Above is a published letter, with the following citation:
D Greenbaum & M Gerstein (2011). "The Benefits of Snooping", Tech Review (Jul.-Aug.)
http://www.technologyreview.com/article/37783
In response to:
How to Stop the Snoopers
Getting advertisers to quit tracking you may be harder than you think.
MARCH/APRIL 2011
BY SIMSON GARFINKEL
http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/32408
Original Submitted Text:
We read with great interest the recent cover story on privacy &
advertising: "How to Stop the Snoopers" by Simson Garfinkle. The tone
of the article was somewhat negative with the implication being that
data mining is a phenomenon promulgated by predatory corporations
designed primarily to encroach on people’s personal lives and privacy.
The article failed, however to acknowledge many of the benefits of
data mining: as a scientific endeavor, for instance, it provides
substantial benefits in fields such as medicine and genomic research
helping to sift through millions of data points to find actionable
correlations between genes and diseases. Further, it underlies many of
the necessary search algorithms that companies like Google use to help
us navigate the internet much more efficiently and to provide us with
'free' services like search and email. Data mining is overall a
socially valuable endeavor. The difficult part is finding a way to
employ large-scale aggregate uses of data mining while at the same
time protecting the privacy of the individual.
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