Data collection, aggregation and analysis have become some of the largest profit generators for companies like Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) and Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) who have designed an array of algorithms purposed with harnessing user data in order to better optimize the user interfaces of their applications and their online marketplaces.
While collecting the data is the ultimate objective, the events of the past few years have also shown that securing it and ensuring that the privacy of customers and users is protected is imperative.