chapter 11 and 12 vocab

Data Trail

An electronic record of the transactions or activities of a person or organization, especially regarding financial transactions, cell phone, and internet usage.

Function Creep

The gradual widening of the use of a technology or system beyond its original purpose, potentially invading privacy.

Fusion Center

State-owned and operated centers in the U.S. for the receipt, analysis, and sharing of threat-related information among state, local, federal, and private sector partners.

Government Intervention

Regulatory actions taken by the government to change decisions made by individuals, groups, and organizations regarding technology, social, and economic matters.

National Security Agency (NSA)

A federal intelligence agency within the U.S. Department of Defense, involved in protecting national communications integrity and gathering information on foreign adversaries’ secret communications in support of national security and foreign policy.

Slippery Slope

An action that leads to another action or result with unintended consequences.

Social Credit Score

China’s social credit system is a set of databases and initiatives that monitor and assess the trustworthiness of individuals. A good rating could offer priority health care or deposit-free renting of public housing, while a negative rating could see individuals banned from flights and trains.

Surveillance

is the monitoring of behavior, activities, or data for the purpose of information gathering. This can include observation from a distance by means of electronic equipment, such as closed-circuit television, or interception of electronically transmitted information like Internet traffic or phone calls.

Business Analytics (BA)

The process of transforming data into insights to improve business decisions.

Business Intelligence (BI)

Analyzing historical and current data to uncover actionable insights for decision-making.

Data Warehouse

is a type of data management system that is designed to enable and support business intelligence (BI) activities, especially analytics. A data warehouse centralizes and consolidates large amounts of data from multiple sources

Dashboard

 is an information management tool used to track, analyze, and display key performance indicators, metrics, and data points. Use a dashboard to monitor the overall health of your business, department, or a specific process.

Democratization of information

 is the process of making digital information accessible to the average non-technical user of information systems, without having to require the involvement of IT. 

Descriptive Data

Data that tells what happened, providing hindsight.

Predictive Data

Data that describes what will happen, providing insight.

Prescriptive Data

Data that describes how to make something happen, providing foresight.