Data Mining for Development Gold

With mobile phones spreading like wildfire in developing countries, they are becoming vital tools in the fight to improve health, educational and economic outcomes for aspiring families around the world (as we have pointed out in a variety of contexts). A recent World Economic Forum report, “Big Data, Big Impact: New Possibilities for International Development,” highlights some of the amazing potential and remaining challenges in the field.

One of the most telling examples of the use of mobile data to aid development/humanitarian objectives happened in the wake of the devastating Haiti earthquake in 2010. As the report discusses, in the aftermath of the quake researchers “demonstrated that mobile data patterns could be used to understand the movement of refugees and the consequent health risks posed by these movements.” In addition, in response to a cholera outbreak that occurred later that year, the same team “used mobile data to track the movement of people form affected zones.”

Although there is great potential for technology to improve the lives of low-income individuals in developing and developed countries, we must be vigilant to the privacy concerns of those whose information we are accessing. While we likely agree that a national catastrophe such as an earthquake gives governments/NGOs broad leeway in using personal data for “the general good,” we must be clear about when exactly we are justified to violate individual trust, confidentiality and/or freedom of expression in this process. Hopefully, as technology and its uses advance, we will be able to arrive upon shared principles and understandings of the proper use of ‘public’ data that enable us to continue to use these new tools to fight poverty, disease and malnutrition around the world. We certainly can use every tool we can get.