International Data Collection Brings Big Challenges With It
Metagate July 29, 2015 Uncategorized
In today’s world, data and information are amongst the most valuable currencies you could own. This is why the focus is extremely well set on collecting as much data as possible during the latest decade. You might think that with all the current technological development, data collection wouldn’t be a big issue regardless of the geographical area. Sadly, this is not as simple as we might have expected it to be.
For example, regions like US and Western Europe are well equipped and have the technological capabilities to handle large amount of data anywhere, anytime. However, the situation changes radically once you step in other geographical regions of the world. The technological development is slower in other regions due to conflicts or simply because the budget is not as well adjusted as in US and Western Europe.
This leads to huge data gaps that can put a company working with international data in difficulty. If, for example, the partner you help with offering reliable information about customers and their habits asks for data about people in Singapore who perform a certain activity, your task may be quite difficult.
The main challenges international data collection brings
There is an entire list of problems data collecting companies get confronted with, but we’re going to discuss only the most important ones:
- Make sure the data you find are reliable and respect the current legislation in the respective countries (some regions change the law at a fast pace).
- Applying the collected data on local traditions and culture is very important as this is the only way you can make sure you get the right information. This requires gathering reliable data about local habits and beliefs.
- Consider local data providers’ speed. Some countries practice strict privacy controls and this means the data will take quite some time before reaching the interested partner.
- Each region has its specific method of gathering and storing data and you must adapt this format to big data standards so your partner can actually use it for reports and other activities.
- Take into account local rules and make sure you don’t break any of the unwritten rules of privacy that could bring a brand to the ground, if enforced.
These are the basic problems a company that lives off collecting international data might encounter in its activity. As you can see, things differ from one country to another and any good data analyst will understand the issue here.
Still, don’t think that countries where there’s an abundance of data are less prone to difficulties. Here the main difficulty is choosing the relevant data from the big hay stack. The fact that there are so many data sources to collect from makes the job of an analyst difficult. He or she must learn how to interpret and understand the data the partner actually needs.
International and local data collection is an exciting area of activity that raises many challenges and requires high attention to details and lots of creativity. Thinking outside the box and developing relationships with international data sources is the best way to overcome all these obstacles and get the data you need.
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