Keynote at 10th Galilee Quality Conference at Ort Braude College, Israel (May 24, 2018)

1. Behavioral Big Data:
Why Quality Engineers Should Care
Galit Shmueli

2. PhD in Statistics, Technion IE&M
CMU Statistics Dept
U of Maryland Business School
Indian School of Business
National Tsing (“Ching”) Hua U, Service Science

3. HUMAN
PRODUCT

4. ‫שסביבנו‬ ‫העולם‬ ‫את‬ ‫לשנות‬ ‫איך‬ ‫ידענו‬ ‫היום‬ ‫עד‬,
‫שבתוכנו‬ ‫העולם‬ ‫את‬ ‫לא‬ ‫אבל‬.
‫הקרובים‬ ‫בעשורים‬ ‫אבל‬,‫והביוטכנולוגיה‬ ‫המלאכותית‬ ‫הבינה‬
‫לשנות‬ ‫להתחיל‬ ‫בהיסטוריה‬ ‫הראשונה‬ ‫בפעם‬ ‫לנו‬ ‫יאפשרו‬
‫שבתוכנו‬ ‫העולם‬ ‫את‬ ‫משמעותי‬ ‫באופן‬.‫איך‬ ‫נלמד‬ ‫אנחנו‬
‫שלנו‬ ‫והמוח‬ ‫הגוף‬ ‫את‬ ‫מחדש‬ ‫להנדס‬,‫הקוד‬ ‫את‬ ‫לשכתב‬ ‫איך‬
‫שלנו‬ ‫הגנטי‬,‫למחשבים‬ ‫מוחות‬ ‫ישירות‬ ‫לחבר‬ ‫ואיך‬.‫כתוצאה‬
‫מכך‬,‫ה־‬ ‫במאה‬ ‫הכלכלה‬ ‫של‬ ‫העיקריים‬ ‫המוצרים‬21‫יהיו‬
‫רכב‬ ‫כלי‬ ‫רק‬ ‫ולא‬ ‫ומוחות‬ ‫גופים‬ ‫הנראה‬ ‫ככל‬,‫ומזון‬ ‫בגדים‬.
HUMAN
PRODUCT
Are bodies & brains just another product?

5. What we’ve learned… is that
we need to take a more
proactive role in a broader
view of our responsibility. It’s
not enough to just build tools,
we need to make sure that
they’re used for good

6. What is Behavioral Big Data (BBD)
Special type of Big Data
Behavioral: people’s actions, reactions, interactions,
self-reported opinions, thoughts, feelings
Human and social connectivity: Intention,
deception, emotion, reciprocation, herding,…
Awareness of data collection -> modify behavior
(legal risks, embarrassment, unwanted solicitation)

7. BBD vs.
Medical
Big Data
• Individual bodies
• Physical measurements
• Medical systems set
data collection timing
• Clinical trials:
awareness & vested
interest
• Collection of connected people
• Measurable behaviors: actions,
interactions, self-reported
feelings, opinions, thoughts
• User chooses data generation
timing
• Experiments: users unaware; not
always in user’s best interest

8. Getting
Closer

9. More and more human and
social activities are measured
Most companies that have BBD were not
created for the purpose of generating BBD
3 important points
Data regulation & ethical
standards lagging behind

10. Who has BBD?
On whom?
For what purpose?

11. The “Old Guard”
Governments
law enforcement, security, traffic, taxation
Financial Institutions
fraud, loans
Telecoms
fraud, infrastructure, marketing
Retail Chains
marketing, operations, merchandising
Insurance
set premiums
Technologies
Cameras
Sensors
IT systems (POS, calls,…)
New Technologies
GPS
Internet
Mobile
Social
Things

12. BBD on Customers
(you!)
Retail & insurance adopt
military technologies

13. http://fortune.com/2015/11/09/wal-mart-facial-recognition/

15. BBD on Employees
(you!)
Workplaces track BBD
(beyond security reasons)

16. “Surveillance at work is
nothing new... But AI makes
ubiquitous surveillance
worthwhile, because every bit
of data is potentially valuable.
Few laws govern how data
are collected at work, and
many employees unguardedly
consent to surveillance when
they sign their employment
contract. Where does all this
lead?”

19. New players in the BBD field
On-ground SMEs
Academic researchersOnline/mobile platforms
Data brokers
Individuals
IoT companies
Hackers

20. Online/mobile Platforms
gaming & movies,
search, social media,
retail, messaging,
shared economy,
dating, news, MOOCs,
collaboration software
Use BBD to
personalize
improve product/service
detect fraud
advertising
marketing
logistics & operations

21. IoT
companies
Use BBD to
personalize,
improve
product/service,
advertising,
marketing,
logistics &
operations

24. Small & Medium (On-Ground) Organizations
schools, cafes,
restaurants,
parking lots,
cinemas, gyms,
hospitals,
museums,
libraries Use BBD to
personalize
improve product/service
detect fraud
advertising
marketing
logistics & operations

25. Researchers
Researchers with social science + technical backgrounds
Information
Systems
Marketing
Computational
Social Science
Use BBD to
answer old and
new scientific
questions

26. Emotional Contagion in Social Networks
Kramer et al.
Proc of the National Academies of Sciences, 2014
• Can emotional states be transferred to
others via emotional contagion?
• Age-old question, now testable
• Large-scale experiment run by FB,
manipulating users’ exposure level to
emotional expressions in their Facebook
News Feed

27. Anonymous Browsing in Dating Websites
Bapna, Ramaprasad, Shmueli, Umyarov
Management Science, 2016
• How does anonymous browsing affect
outcomes on dating sites?
• Questions about human behavior due to
new technologies
• Large-scale experiment on US dating
website
Profile Visit
Recent visitor:
NONE

29. Forecasting Elections with Non-Representative Polls
Wang et al., 2014, Intl. Journal on Forecasting
• Can elections be forecast using a non-representative
sample?
• Survey BBD from Xbox with built-in daily poll

30. Individuals

31. Despite intentionally turning off my phone
Bluetooth right after synching the band's data every day
(which means the device should not be able to connect to
my phone, or the cloud), the device and my phone
did continue having secret "conversations". I
discovered this when my band vibrated on incoming phone
calls when Bluetooth was turned off. This happened on
multiple occasions. I am not sure what part of the
technology chain to blame - my Samsung
phone? the Android operating system? the Mi
Band?

32. Data
Brokers
The FTC’s Jon Leibowitz described data brokers
as the “unseen cyberazzi who collect
information on all of us”
Use of BBD:
sell to others

33. Hackers Hackers

34. More and more human and
social activities are measured
Most companies that have BBD were not
created for the purpose of generating BBD
3 important points
Data regulation & ethical
standards lagging behind

35. Recent data privacy regulations might
reshape the collection & use of BBD

36. Why regulation?
Attorney-
Client
Privilege

37. "‫את‬ ‫שינחה‬ ‫אתי‬ ‫בקוד‬ ‫צורך‬ ‫יש‬
‫המלאכותית‬ ‫הבינה‬ ‫פיתוח‬.
‫שאינו‬ ‫בתחום‬ ‫פיתוח‬ ‫כמעט‬ ‫אין‬
‫מוסריות‬ ‫שאלות‬ ‫איזשהן‬ ‫מעלה‬".
“There’s a need for an ethical
code to guides AI
development”

38. the most crucial choices about the future of ordinary voters and
their children are probably made not by Brussels bureaucrats or
Washington lobbyists but by engineers, entrepreneurs, and
scientists who are hardly aware of the implications of their
decisions, and who certainly don’t represent anyone.

39. Why should quality engineers care about BBD?
Advances in Technology generate/use BBD
Fully automated
(AI) solutions
Micro-level recording of
human and social behavior
Because you are (and should be) involved in all of these!
Data Privacy
Regulation
Standards

40. Users voluntarily
provide BBD (UGC)
personal details,
photos,
comments,
messages,
search terms,
bids in auctions,
likes,
payment info,
connections
with “friends”

41. Install AppConnect smart device
Users agree to provide their BBD
Send crash data

42. But don’t anticipate
some of its uses

43. Users provide BBD
unknowingly

44. Microsoft Xbox 360 comes with a
microphone, a camera and technology
that recognizes a user's voice and face
• sign in and sign off
• games you played
• game-score statistics
• Xbox console hardware & operating performance data
• manufacturing codes from game discs
• network performance data
• data that indicates the quality of the Xbox service
to prevent cheating
• IP address
• operating system
• Xbox Live software version
to improve your experience
• Bing search terms
• samples of voice commands to perform search
• what you watched on Xbox One’s TV service
• music & videos you watched or listened to using Xbox
Live

45. HUMAN
PRODUCT

46. HUMAN
PRODUCT

47. Galit Shmueli 徐茉莉
Institute of Service Science