By Edmund Vea

Overview
What is Data Mining?
Examples of Data Mining Important Terminology Opportunities Presented by Data Mining Advantages Applications Privacy

WHAT IS DATA MINING?

Data Mining is defined as the practice of automatically searching large stores of data for patterns.

To do this, data mining uses computational techniques from statistics and pattern recognition.
Data Mining has been defined as The nontrivial extraction of implicit, previously unknown, and potentially useful information from data and The science of extracting useful infomration from large data sets or databases.

Examples of Data Mining

Credit Card Company wants to discover information about

clients from databases. What to find:

Clients who respond to promotions in Junk Mail Clients that are likely to change to another competitor Clients that are likely to not pay Services that clients use to try to promote services affiliated

with the Credit Card Company Anything else that may help the Company provide/promote services to help their clients and ultimately make more money.

Examples of Data Mining

Important Terminology
Data Mining
is the process of

Data Warehouses
A data warehouse is one way to

extracting patterns from large data sets by combining methods from statistics and artificial intelligence with database management. In other words, gaining knowledge from databases

transform data from the way that they are stored in your [system] to a format that is designed to support the kinds of analyses that your organization desires. (Hicks, 2003) Collect Data store in single repository. Allows for easier query development as a single repository can be queried.

Opportunities Data Mining Presents

Data-collection capabilities at every point in the user

experience creates opportunities for understanding the value of services online providers provide that was never possible previously. The primary challenge is figuring out how to turn that data collected into useful information. Once that is determined, you can use that information to ensure their experience supports the mission of your site and to improve the products you are delivering.

Advantages of Data Mining

Provides new knowledge from existing data

Public databases Governments sources Company Database Old data Can be used to develop new knowledge New Knowledge can be used to improve services or products Improvements lead to: Bigger Profits More efficient service

Uses of Data Mining

Data Mining in Law Enforcement

Law Enforcement uses data mining too. Deployment Risk Assessment Behavioral Analysis DNA Analysis Homeland Security Internet/Infrastructure Protection

Privacy Concerns
Effective Data Mining requires large sources of data
To achieve a wide spectrum of data, link multiple data sources Linking sources leads can be problematic for privacy as

follows: If the following histories of customer were linked:

Shopping History Credit History Employment History

The users life story can be painted from the collected data

Various Tools & Techniques That Help Protect Privacy

References
Hicks, S. (2003). Building a Data Warehouse to Measure Value of Services. Behavioral Health Management, 23(2), 42. Retrieved from EBSCOhost on 5/27/11. Mitchell, T.M. (1999). Machine Learning and Data Mining. Communications of the ACM, 42(11), 30-36. Retrieved from EBSCOhost on 5/27/11. Cranor, L. (1999). Internet Privacy. (Cover Story). Communications of the ACM, 42(2), 28-31. Retrieved from EBSCOhost on 5/27/11. Williams, E. (2002). The Man Who Knows Too Much. Forbes, 170(10), 68-70. Retrieved from EBSCOhost on 5/27/11. McCue, C., Stone, E.S., Gooch, T.P. (2003). Data Mining and Value-Added Analysis. FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, 72(11), 1-6. Retrieved from EBSCOhost on 5/27/11.

References
Roberts-Witts, S.L. (2002). What Lies Beneath?. PC Magazine, 21(20), 1. Retrieved from EBSCOhost on 5/27/11. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (2011). Data mining. Retrieved May 27, 2011 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_mining Final Database Project handout (IT203 Database Development, Vannoy, R.) Received May 13, 2011