Data Colonization and It’s Effects

Today I will be discussing on a topic which is relate to all living organisms, how data, information and data insights are affecting our life, as well as creating a threat as well as opportunities to innovate and growth. However, it also teaches us to think for our future.

As we are aware, all living organisms tends to live in a group, where they stay, share similar characteristics, structure, eating habits as well as building their relationships. In other words, we can say they create a distributed habitat around themselves. This new distributed habitat technically called as Colonies. We humans are not an exception to this statement. History has proven that we have a tendency of living together starting from the days of civilization and till today.

We co-live as well as get involved in many activities in our day today life. Today, we are under the influence of technology usage starting from brushing teeth, till we go to sleep. Technology is helping us to complete our work easily and effectively. We do lot of things knowingly or unknowingly, and it generates a lot of data. When these data kept in a particular pattern, it produces and provide an insight of information about the person, machine, as well as other who are directly or indirectly involved in the activity.

Let me introduce a new term for you as “Data Colonization”.

Data colonization is a process, through which government, non-government, private, public, corporates, non-corporate organizations collect data from their users, citizens and claim as the ownership for it.

This can be understood easily when we think about recent pandemic of Covid-19. It was a threat for Human existence. The easy and faster solution to save humans was to track and trace Covid-19 positive patients, quarantine them, and to STOP spreading the Virus. Technology helped in tracking and tracing patients enabled with Mobile Numbers, Unique IDs, GPS Location as well as test samples collection and reports through Barcodes. Multiple organizations put forward their help to come out of pandemic. It had created a situation, where the individual personal data is required to be shared with a bigger forum to achieve the goal of saving mankind as well as stopping the spreading of virus. These data when studied by creating a pattern it also helped in creating the quarantine zones. Health activities stated immediate action for medication. Each patient records were studied as well as comparative study were made to find the Virus spreading behaviour, as well as creating an Anti Gen for the Virus to kill. Thanks to all for making it happen and save our mankind. 

This example is a true event to know more on data colonization. In this case data colonization has provided a positive output of saving humans, as well as a negative thought where individuals do not know about their data been used how and where?

Every action has an equal and opposite action. Every activity has a positive and negative affect. Similarly, Data colonization can be both a threat or an opportunity, depending on how it is managed and who holds the power in the global data economy.

Threats of Data Colonization: These data can be used in manner such as misusing, our picture, employment or labour and connections (friends/ relatives), and re-bundling our information to control our views, feedbacks, track our movements (GPS/ mobile), record our discussions, conversations, and discriminate against us.

• Culture: The dominance of certain data can dominate local cultures and knowledge, leading to a form of digital colonialism, where local customs, languages, and values are sidelined
• Loss of power: Countries and communities might lose control over their data, leading to a dependency on external entities for technology, infrastructure, and even decision-making.
• Privacy: The centralization of data in the hands of a few corporations can lead to massive privacy violations, with individuals and communities losing control over their personal information
• Financial: Data, can be misused for profit by entities that do not reinvest in the communities from which the data originates

Opportunities of Data Colonization: These data can be used to trace missing, track anti money laundry activities and fraud of fund movements, helping societies to safeguard from criminals saving our life during pandemics for us

• Connectivity: The integration of data can lead to improved connectivity, collaboration, and innovation across borders, helping to solve global challenges
• Growth: Developing a region, partnerships with global firms can lead to economic opportunities, investments, and infrastructure development
• Technology: Access to data can grow technological innovation, providing opportunities for advancements in fields like banking, hospitality, healthcare, education, agriculture, and many more
• Services: Data collected can be used to improve services such as Public Health Care, Judiciary/ Legal, Transportation, Education, Retail, Hospitality, Financial as well in Environmental Management

The challenge is in creating a balance, where the benefits of data can be shared, without leading to any exploitation of certain groups. This requires strong regulatory frameworks, ethical considerations, and a commitment to data privacy.