Big data and big brother

New York City has unveiled its cutting-edge crime monitoring system DAS, which cost the city some 40 million U.S. dollars. The Domain Awareness System monitors crime in the city in real time and instantly analyzes situations by linking a whopping 3,000 surveillance cameras in Manhattan to police databases. DAS employs an anti-crime technology that derives meaningful data from large unstructured databases through analysis. “We’re not your mom-and-pop’s police department anymore,” said New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg Friday, adding, “We can grasp the pattern of crime instantly because we can track where a car associated with a murder suspect is located and where it’s been and provide criminal records and maps.”

More than half of the world’s population lives in cities. More than 80 percent of global GDP is also produced in cities. Some say a neo-feudal era has arrived where cities compete one another over capital and talent. Urbanization is inevitably accompanied by an increase in crime and traffic problems. Big data is a recently emerging technology as a solution to these side effects of urbanization. Against this backdrop, New York City plans to recover its vast investment in DAS by selling the system to other cities and countries.

Las Vegas and Santa Cruz County of the U.S. have introduced a crime forecasting and analyzing system utilizing big data technologies. Rio de Janeiro has adopted a 24-hour surveillance system for natural disasters, traffic and power supply by integrating the data and processes of some 30 institutions in the Brazilian city. In Korea, Songdo International City near Incheon has set up an intelligent video surveillance system that recognizes suspicious objects or unusual behavior, analyzes them, and informs related authorities of the results in real time.

Big data technologies can create additional value from 2.1 trillion to 4.2 trillion won (1.86 billion to 3.72 billion U.S. dollars) in the public sector by increasing tax revenue while reducing traffic congestion costs, according to Hyundai Economic Research Institute. Technology is a double-edged sword, however. DAS has fueled controversy over whether it will ultimately turn into Big Brother. Yet technology itself cannot be criminalized. The moment when social systems and culture cannot catch up with technological advancement is when big data will turn into Big Brother. Humans and not technology will make or break the era of big data.

Editorial Writer Park Yong (parky@donga.com)