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Chapter 25: The Use of Big Data in the
Public Sector
Analysis of big data benefits almost every sphere of life. We have already
tackled numerous industries’ methods of using big data, such as in the
travel sector, finance sector, and even law enforcement. We can now expand
that discussion to include how other public sector agencies may be able to
benefit from big data.
One public sector that we could consider is the health sector. Hospitals and
Emergency Rooms all over tend to have unpredictability as one of their
major concerns. In order to deal with unpredictability, they have large
amounts of staff and resources on hand to be able to cope with any situation
that arises. Certain things may be predictable; given enough time and data,
a pattern may arise. One pattern that has been seen is the patient inflow into
an emergency room. Hospitals in the United States have been able to apply
modern methods of data analysis to the patient intake data that they have,
and they have been able to predict, with a 93% accuracy rate, the amount of
daily emergency admissions. Everyone is able to benefit from this type of
data analysis, as bed allocation is improved, with hospitals better being able
to predict the amount of beds needed for emergency cases, making it less
likely for non-emergency cases to be deprived of beds. In addition to this,
the prediction allows hospitals to save money, lessens the need for overtime
hours, and shifts the environment from a reactive to a proactive one. This
improves staff morale, as people can have reasonable expectations and
ready themselves rather than being on edge all day, not knowing what to
expect.
The health sector is not the only public sector that has used big data to
improve the efficiency of their work and improve their results. One example
of this would be in Australia, with the Australian Taxation Office using
modern methods of data analysis to sift through large amounts of tax data
and find probable tax fraud cases, such as certain online retailers who do
not meet their obligations. There are numerous methods of analyzing a
country’s tax data in order to discover various varieties of fraud, and to
even discover certain trends among consumers.
Education is another public sector that greatly benefits from the proper
utilization of big data. In our modern society, many schools have begun to
collect big data, and have been starting to analyze it in order to make
predictions for the future. This data includes various aspects on student life,
such as scores, anxiety levels, or even a student’s interest or lack thereof for
certain subjects. This can be used in improving the school systems all over.
When this data gets collected at a national level, and if subjected to a
rigorous analysis, this may allow the Department of Education to find
solutions to many problems in our schools, allowing for the improvement of
our education system as well as reducing costs. There have been concerns,
however, from both parents and children regarding possible violations of
privacy if this data is used in an extensive analysis.
United States Government Applications of Big Data
Big data is not entirely new, especially when it comes to its role in the
United States of America’s government. The U.S government utilizes six of
the ten most powerful supercomputers in existence for data analysis. Even
President Barack Obama used big data when running his re-election
campaign in 2012, and he announced the Big Data Research and
Development Initiative soon after his re-election. This initiative’s goal is to
be able to discover various applications of big data research when it comes
to finding solutions to the nation’s current problems. Even the National
Security Agency is building what may just be the world’s largest data
center. This data center is being built in Utah, and will be able to store
multiple exabytes of data, and one of its major functions is to analyze what
may possibly be some of the most delicate information in the world today.
Data Security Issues
The sheer amount of data collected by public agencies, as well as the
security and possible risks of gathering such data as previously discussed,
has understandably turned this into a major issue, and has instigated many
discussions regarding it. Once the public found out that government
agencies such as the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence
Agency have been collecting immense amounts of data on almost everyone,
there was a general uproar. This furor was mainly due to the general lack of
understanding as to why the government was collecting this information, as
well as fear that this data would be misused. While it is entirely possible
that big data may be misused, the concept of a “Big Brother” scenario tends
to rise from lack of knowledge rather than from reality. However, such data
being misused tends to be illegal in origin, such as through surveillance and
other similar methods. Edward Snowden exposed certain methods that the
National Security Agency used in order to gather massive amounts of
personal data. Representatives of these public agencies as well as noted
experts have in fact mentioned that far from the government having the
most personal data, it is the private sector that tracks most people’s every
move, as private companies have more data analysis capabilities and tend to
collect more information than the public sector. On the flip side, however,
much of the private sector’s data collection comes legally, from people
voluntarily entering it through agreements, terms of use, and various online
sign up methods.
The Data Problems of the Public Sector
There are many issues with the government’s capability in carrying out big
data analysis, however, as there are substantial amounts of data gathered,
with the government tending to have less resources and capabilities devoted
to big data analysis. As many public sector employees are less
technologically savvy than their private sector counterparts, governments
have to outsource their work. However, governments can rarely match the
competitive rates that private companies offer, so they are less likely to be
able to get industry leaders to work for them. This means that governments
lack the human capital to properly utilize the data available to them. Even
when it comes to sharing their data and the analysis, governments tend to
lag behind the private sector, which has found numerous ways of sharing
big data and analysis.
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