The economy is technically in recovery, and has been for two or three years. But it hardly feels that way. Growth is sluggish. Unemployment remains painfully high. Economists generally agree that it would help – a lot – if people were more willing to go out and spend money. After all, filling demand (as expressed by open wallets) is what a market economy is all about.

And one analyst suggests that Big Data could help. The linked article is British, so it has some minor exoticisms, from "high street" for Main Street to the title's reference to austerity, a term that has gotten less play in the United States.

But the main point makes the transatlantic flight with no problem. People are a bit more likely to open their wallets if they are offered a product they want. Especially if the offer comes just as they are looking for it, or at least thinking about it.

And from a business perspective, achieving those things is a very large part of what Big Data is all about. In principle, it is true, Big Data simply means large volumes of mostly-unstructured data, larger and more varied that traditional relational database queries can effectively handle.

In practice, Big Data largely means marketing data, made available through consumers' online actions and interactions, and allowing micro-targeting to a degree previously unimagined. If a consumer "likes" a product on Facebook, Big Data means we can promptly respond with an offer – perhaps right as the consumer is passing a store that carries it.

There are complications – including privacy issues that the linked piece does not address. Big-box chain Target provoked some well-justified controversy when it used Big Data analytics to identify young women as pregnant and bombarded them with baby-goods offers.

At GRT Corporation we believe in harnessing the power of Big Data, and avoiding its pitfalls, by approaching the Big Data challenge with a mix of intelligence and good sense. If it also helps the economy, so much the better!

 The security principles set forth in industry standard ISO/IEC 27002 provide a framework for effective security, built around the cycle of Plan, Do, Check, and Act (PDCA). Many good security products are on the market, but all are designed to meet specific threats – and will not block other threats. At GRT Corp. our security philosophy is built around these words by noted security expert Dr. Bruce Schneier: "Security is not a product, but a process."