big data benefits and issues for agriculture by satya narayan
TRANSCRIPT
Satya S. Narayan [email protected] Phone: 650.521.5745
BIG DATA BENEFITS & ISSUES FOR AGRICULTURE
Silicon Valley AgTech Conference May 12, 2014
Volume
Massive quantities of data combined and analyzed
Velocity Real time delivery of information to
mobile devices and smart equipment
Variety Data from weather reports, soil conditions, GPS mapping, water
resources, fertilizer/ pesticide use, field characteristics commodity market
conditions analyzed
Veracity Connecting different data points to
facilitate decision making
BIG DATA
“Big Data is a term that describes large volumes of high velocity, complex, and variable data that requires advanced techniques and technologies to enable the capture, storage, distribution, management, and analysis of the information.” - TechAmerican Foundation.
BIG DATA PROCESS IN AGRICULTURE
Farm-level data and personal data uploaded or collected from ground &
equipment sensors, robotic drones, etc.
Service provider aggregates farmers’ data, combines other relevant data sets, and applies algorithms
Service provider provides farmer customized solution
BIG DATA BENEFITS
Weather forecasters can now predict a 3-in-10
chance of rain
Better yields from precise instructions on planting depth,
density, and schedule; pinpointing areas for soil amendments; precise management of soil moisture and
composition
Herd health management by continuously assessing the health of cattle and predict
the onset and spread of disease
Who controls the data? - Farmer/ Rancher owns the data but grants service provider
rights to use the data o Use/ disclosure of data to provide/ improve the service
- Disclosure to service provider’s affiliates and local representatives
o Disclosure to other third parties (e.g. seed providers) o Use/ disclosure pursuant to court orders
- Farmer/ Rancher can stop data collection but data previously submitted may not be erasable from the service provider’s database
BIG DATA ISSUES – DATA CONTROL
“Aggregated Data” may be freely used and disclosed by
the service provider - “Aggregated Data” is data combined from two or more sources - Typically stated to be “anonymized” but is it?
o Is all personal data (including GPS location information) removed?
o Are there sufficiently numerous data sources? o Can the Aggregated Data be reverse engineered?
BIG DATA ISSUES – AGGREGATED DATA
EPA CAFO sensitive data incident - Names, street addresses, latitude and longitude, and contact
information for 80,000 livestock facilities across 30 states - Included personal data that was not publicly available which
was the only data that was later redacted
Government regularly requests service providers for user/ customer data - More than 10,000 requests for user data by US Government in
the last 6 months of 2013 (Google Transparency Report)
BIG DATA ISSUES: GOVERNMENT REQUESTS
Big data benefits to farmers and ranchers is real Use of smart technology and big data analytics is here to
stay Ask big data service providers questions What data is being collected? How will the data be used? To whom will the data be disclosed? Particularly, what
third parties will have access to your data? What are the service provider’s practices regarding: data return/ destruction? government requests? (Ask for transparency reports.)
American Farm Bureau Federation’s “Data Privacy Expectation Guide”
Conclusion
PALO ALTO 1717 Embarcadero Road
Palo Alto, CA 94303
LOS ANGELES 11150 Santa Monica Blvd.,
Suite 1200 Los Angeles, CA 90025
SAN FRANCISCO 135 Main Street,
12th Floor San Francisco, CA 94105
Satya S. Narayan [email protected]
Phone: 650.521.5745
Royse Law Practice Areas Corporate Securities
Tax Mergers & Acquisitions
Fund Services Intellectual Property
Technology Transactions Labor & Employment
Immigration Litigation
Estate, Trust & Wealth Strategy Real Estate
International