Data Mining

The process of analyzing large datasets to discover patterns, correlations, trends, and insights that aren't immediately apparent. Data mining uses statistical analysis, machine learning algorithms, and pattern recognition to extract valuable information from data. Common data mining applications include customer segmentation, fraud detection, recommendation engines, risk assessment, and predictive analytics. From a privacy perspective, data mining raises concerns because it can reveal sensitive insights about individuals that they didn't explicitly provide—inferring health conditions from purchase patterns, predicting personal attributes from seemingly innocuous data, or identifying individuals in supposedly anonymous datasets. Privacy laws require lawful basis for data mining, transparency about analytical purposes, appropriate security for mining activities, and protections when mining produces sensitive inferences. Organizations should consider privacy impact assessments for data mining projects, implement access controls, and ensure mining results don't enable discrimination.