MIAMI–Meaningful data are extremely valuable for small businesses, but it's CU leaders’ responsibility to find and use information ethically, according to one person.
In a profile on Inc.com, Angela Benton, the founder and CEO of Streamlytics, which collects first-party consumer “data transparently and aims to disrupt the current model of third-party mining of data from cookies and other methods that raise privacy and ethics concerns,” said she founded the company with minorities in mind, particularly the Black and Latinx communities, because of the disproportionate way they've been affected by data and privacy.
For example, she cited the recent controversy over facial recognition data being sold to police, which has a much higher error rate when comparing data of Black and Asian male faces, which could potentially lead to wrongful arrests.
"That becomes extremely important when you think of what artificial intelligence is used for in our day-to-day world," Benton told Inc.com, noting that A.I. is used for everyday interactions like loan applications, car applications, mortgages, and credit cards.
Using her company's methods, Benton says, clients can secure ethically sourced data, so that algorithms won't negatively affect communities that have historically suffered from discriminatory practices.
Benton offered these suggestions for finding data ethically without relying on third-party cookies.
Do Your Own Combinations of Data Sets
"How [Streamlytics] gets data is very old school," Benton told Inc.com.
Instead of relying on tech to combine data points, she said, a company can manually compare data it already owns and make assumptions using its best judgment.
“You may have data from a Shopify website, for example, about the demographic of your customers, and then you can go to a specific advertiser, like Hulu, for instance, to then target people that fit that profile,” stated Benton.
Use Your Data to Discover New Products
Benton recommended organizations look to their own data to find common searches or overlapping interests to get ideas for new products. Often, she said, she receives data requests from small-business owners to discover ideas that aren't currently on the market, for example, a vegan searching for a vitamin.
According to Inc.com, this combination method surprised Benton when she presented clients with data. "I thought it was going to be more focused on just like, 'How can I make more money?' " she says. "But we are hearing from folks that they want access to data to use it in more creative ways."
Don’t Take Social Media Data at Face Value
Benton and her company purposely do not source social-media data because she thinks the data leave too much out of the full picture, according to Inc.com.
For instance, a company may get a customer's age and "likes" from a social-media page, but that doesn't reveal what they're searching for or what their habits are.
"That's not, to me, meaningful data. That's not where the real value lies," Benton said. "We're not focused on what people are doing on social media, we're focused on all of the activities outside of that." She provided Inc.com with a scenario where a consumer is watching Amazon Prime while also scrolling on Uber Eats to find dinner. Data signals are happening at the same time, but they're not unified. It's up to businesses to connect the dots. To Benton, that's more meaningful than what you're posting and what you're liking on social media.