You know who you are ... but does Big Data?

“Big Data” is defined by Wikipedia as “the term for a collection of data sets so large and complex that it becomes difficult to process using on-hand database management tools or traditional data processing applications.”

One of the “Big Data” files floating around out there in cyberspace is all about you. We imagine you’ve heard the saying, You shouldn’t believe everything you read just because you saw it on the Internet. The same can be said about your Big Data file (Source)

That’s right … who you are and who Big Data says you are could be two entirely different things in many cases. If we’ve piqued your curiosity, you can go to a brand-new website called AboutTheData.com. Once you’ve put in your information, you’ll discover a broad-brush picture of your personal data that is bought and sold to marketers and retailers.

You’ll be able to see data from Acxiom, one of the country’s biggest data brokers – and the owner of the new website. Acxiom says they have a database so large that it has information on nearly 200 million consumers. This data ranges from income levels, education levels, political stances, ethnicity and more.

In an informal survey conducted by CNN Money, all 10 people who participated reported at least one major error or inaccuracy in their personal profiles. The most inaccurate category was household income, followed by education level. Third on the list was the actual person being listed as his/her parent.

Acxiom freely admits that as much as 30% of the information they’ve compiled could be incorrect, because their data is based on a number of sources that include surveys and public records that could be outdated.

There is some good news: The website lets you “suppress” anything you don’t want used for marketing purposes, and it even allows you to “opt out” altogether – but this is not a quick process.