Season 2

Although the Data Diva is mainly known for her views on privacy, there is a lot she has to say about AI and other technologies too. This episode explores ChatGPT and generative AI systems, data literacy, and more. Without getting into tangents, we look at how everything fits together and how you can learn more about all this stuff, to gain a better perspective of data technologies and the mindset that makes all this possible. Enjoy!

Private data is ubiquitous, doubly so in the business world. That’s not the business people’s fault or even the fault of the employees of these companies. It’s just that the datasets involved tend to have lots of PII in them, along with other data that is best kept private. This is very important for the people behind that data and a company’s brand and reputation. If you are directly or indirectly involved in the business world, this episode is meant for you.

In episode 9 of the previous season, I talked a bit about the privacy aspects of social media platforms in general. I also mentioned specific examples of privacy-respecting social networks, such as Minds. In this episode, I’ll be talking with the founder and CEO of Minds, Bill Ottman. Having used this platform myself, I’ve learned a lot of things about it, but this is minuscule compared to how much more there is to know and appreciate. Fortunately, Bill can fill this gap and help you answer questions like “what’s Minds’ niche?”, “what role does analytics play in the platform?”, “what’s the deal with Twitter and its recent overhaul?”, “what are the former and current challenges of developing a (true) free speech platform?”, “what new features does Minds have in store?”, and more. Bill Ottman has also talked in various other podcasts, including the Joe Rogan Experience, advocating the right to privacy and uncensored expression online, as well as how a decentralized and open-source approach to all this plays a vital role. Check it out!

Nim has been a promising programming language for a while now and I’ve kept an eye on it for the past few years. Recently, it seems that it’s found its niche in web development (back-end) and a few other applications such as gaming. Its C-like efficiency and intuitive syntax that is reminiscent of Python make learning it an appealing and not-so-challenging task. But how does it factor in cryptography and what is its potential in helping preserve our privacy? In this episode, we’ll explore all that, without getting too technical about the language.

A data pipeline is a complex entity and something we often encounter in analytics, particularly in data science and data engineering. Surely privacy there is important too, right? Isn’t that where the privacy of the data is at its most vulnerable? And clearly, encryption can’t be used much since the data is in a process of transformation. So, what do we do? In this episode, we’ll attempt to answer these questions and most importantly, help you leverage your curiosity to ask your own such questions, for your data analytics projects. No in-depth understanding of the data science pipeline is required.

A data pipeline is a complex entity and something we often encounter in analytics, particularly in data science and data engineering. Surely privacy there is important too, right? Isn’t that where the privacy of the data is at its most vulnerable? And clearly, encryption can’t be used much since the data is in a process of transformation. So, what do we do? In this episode, we’ll attempt to answer these questions and most importantly, help you leverage your curiosity to ask your own such questions, for your data analytics projects. No in-depth understanding of the data science pipeline is required.

Data science has a variety of applications in different industries, much like Cybersecurity is applicable in various vectors. But what happens when data science is applied to Cybersecurity itself? And what makes a Cybersecurity system become better through data work? In this interview with Ritwik Bandyopadhyay, a data scientist in a Cybersecurity start-up, we explore this topic and come up with some interesting insights that any data or cybersecurity professional can derive value from, regardless of their level of expertise. Check it out!

Ah, the almighty search engine! The online guru who can answer all of our questions, or at least help us research them if the topic is complex enough. It seems (and often feels) like a dream come true! As a bonus, it’s also free and easily accessible. It almost makes one wonder how this is even possible at a time that even a private email account comes at a cost (a worthy investment, but still). Perhaps the key thing here is privacy since conventional search engines deal with lots of data, much of which is private. That’s doubly so if you use them with your own account that connects all your searches. Is it possible, however, to bypass this problem that threatens our privacy? This episode explores this matter.

This may be a niche topic but something that many a data scientist would wonder about, especially if they leverage AI-based models in their work. If you haven’t considered it, or perhaps find it a bit untimely a matter to concern yourself with, perhaps you’d change your views if somewhere this matter were covered from various angles. One such place could be this podcast episode. Since it’s a complex matter, it’s hard to give a crisp answer to it, but it’s possible to be proactive about it and possibly raise a defense shield that can keep the A.I. hackers at bay, at least for the time being.

Authentication is iniquitous these days. With so many options and sophistication in many of these options, it can seem nightmarish and frustrating. Fortunately, Mr. Tanaka of the MIRACL company that offers single-step MFA has something to say that can bring us some peace of mind. Among other things, we talk about the issues with current authentication methods, how a different kind of authentication can alleviate them, and how quantum computing factors in all this. With this episode as a map and compass, you can navigate out of this perilous place that authentication is and how this process can be both more convenient and future-proof.

Believe it or not, privacy is often closer to business than it is to hands-on analytics work. That’s something that most business people know, though not that many people in the analytics field. Fortunately, professional educators like Prashanth who also have one foot in the business world are more than happy to help us understand the two worlds and bridge the gap. This way, privacy isn’t an afterthought but something we consider even before analytics work starts. So, take a listen to this episode and find out how everything fits together and how analytics can be an asset, facilitating decision-making and other business processes.

OK, we’ve looked at social media and online communications previously, but many people hang out in other places like blogs and various other websites. Isn’t private data there too? How do we manage such scenarios? Although it’s not feasible to cover all possible websites, in this episode we’ll look at a few of the most common ones involving private data, particularly PII. So let’s get to it, shall we?