Introduction

The term “datafication” is frequently used in the Big Data sector. It converts an organization into a data-driven corporation using various tools, technologies, and techniques. This phenomenon refers to an institutional trend in which a company relies on data and its supporting infrastructure to make its operations smooth and profitable.

Datafication goes beyond merely creating information, which humans have been doing since the invention of symbols and written language. It is a modern concept that describes the quantification of human life through digital information, frequently processed for business purposes only. This procedure has significant social repercussions.

Today, datafication is being used in different sectors to gain financial success. Human resource management in the banking sector assists with better customer relationships. Opinions are divided over its large-scale use, as some consider playing with data for profit unethical. In this article, we will discuss the uses of datafication, and you can datafy your business. The controversies over its massive use will also be addressed.

Consequences of Datafication

How to Datafy Your Business?

Employ the Proper Technology

The datafication of a business can be done by using relevant technology for a specific outcome. By incorporating your company into the Internet of Things, you may begin datafying for the required outcome for specific inputs. Actions for putting the appropriate technologies in place, including mobile phones, wearables, and voice assistants, can assist you in growing in a competitive market.

Use the Proper Platform

Once the infrastructure is in place, pick the platform that best enables you to extract data. That platform should produce the data you require for your research. Additionally, it should be able to transform enormous amounts of web data into structured and machine-readable information. It would be best if you understood that the traffic on Instagram is very different from that of Twitter. Following that, you’ll have the best tools to track and analyze trends to improve your decision-making processes.

Uses of Datafication in Industries

Human Resource Administration

Businesses can collect information from mobile devices, social media, and applications to find new employees and assess their personality traits and risk-taking tendencies. Datafication can assess analytical thinking to determine whether candidates match the company culture and roles they are applying for instead of requiring them to complete personality tests. Datafication may result in the creation of new personality tests for hiring managers.

Management of Customer Relationships

Businesses that leverage customer data gain advantages by adopting datafication techniques and technologies to comprehend their customers. They can create suitable triggers for their target audiences’ personalities and purchasing habits. Datafication enables businesses to collect information based on the voice and words that potential clients use in conversations, emails, and social media.

Smart Cities

Smart cities require much data to process relevant information such as transportation, waste management, logistics, and the energy industry. Real-time datafication may give the administration a more in-depth understanding of environmental legislation, pollution levels, and water quality. Datafication has become an integral part of modern-day intelligent cities.

Smart City and Wireless Communication Network

Banking and Finance Sector

The financial and banking industries are challenging to manage because of numerous rules, potential risks in handling finances, and a vast consumer base. Due to these problems, it is challenging for banks and finance organizations to offer excellent services.

Therefore, banking and finance services contain a significant amount of data. The effectiveness of a business, though, resides in how it uses that data to enhance operations. Every client encounter, sale, and other procedure generates electronic data for recording, storing, and retrieving. Innovative businesses use cutting-edge datafication technologies and make the most of their data.

Real Estate

Datafication might be helpful for people in the real estate sector, particularly in commercial real estate. Real estate organizations can use datafication technologies and techniques to get comprehensive insights into numerous areas of concern. As a result, they can determine whether the property they are considering is suitable for a customer looking to establish a successful business.

Controversies over Datafication

Political Economy and Ethics

According to management expert Shoshana Zuboff, an American author, businesses’ widespread collecting of personal information is an abnormal manifestation of capitalism. She believes that datafication, as a social activity, is connected to profit creation through selling data as a commodity or its inclusion as a factor of production.

Some other social scientists go beyond the concept of labor. They argue that data collecting platforms are more than just a brand name for software interfaces that can influence the option of ‘choice.’

Legal Studies and Basic Human Rights

Another criticism of datafication is provided by legal theory, which claims that datafication endangers one’s fundamental rights. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) views that “The protection of natural beings in connection to the processing of personal data is a basic right” already makes this suggestion. Since at least 20 years ago, it has been anticipated that acquiring personal data for individual autonomy poses problems. Notably, Julie Cohen, a legal theorist, has argued that maintaining the idea of privacy in some way is crucial to fending off the depressing impacts of ongoing data gathering and processing. However, given the diversity of datafication methods, some have questioned the relevance of the word “privacy” in and of itself.

Decolonial Theory

It’s believed that datafication under capitalism is a process of abstracting and extracting life across many areas to make a profit; the question is, where does the money created by this extraction go, and why? The gap between rich and poor is increasing daily, creating social unrest. An analogy to historical colonialism may be helpful when examining the geography and politics of datafication.

Datafication can be seen as a form of colonialism in and of itself. It’s evident not just in the metaphorical sense of phrases like “data is the new oil” but also quite literally as a new form of data colonialism that continuously appropriates human life to extract data from it for financial interests. Data colonialism appropriates social resources in place of lands, natural resources, and forced labor. While data colonialism differs from historic colonialism in terms of forms, intensities, sizes, and settings, its purpose of dispossessing remains the same.

Privacy Issues

The Verdict

The technology of datafication is emerging by the day and adopting new trends. Major corporations are using it extensively. It has analytical relevance since it can be used to describe the frameworks and processes through which the appropriation of data about our lives is resulting in a new form of extractivism in the modern world. The main participants and winners in this process are corporations; however, many governments also have significant interests.

One crucial concern is stopping the social quantification industry from spreading throughout social space, assuming that the issue is not with data but how it’s processed for business profits.

Check out the top 5 crypto IRA platforms for future investments.