I was struck by a headline on MRWeb.com today “SAS Tool to Police Social Networks”. My first thought was that it was some sort of typo, or a journalist missing the point. But when I read the article and then checked out the press release on SAS’s own website I was left amazed at SAS’s chutzpah and folly.
What SAS appear to be saying is that their new tools will allow companies to monitor large data sets, including transaction and social media activity to do all of the following:
- Spot people who are engaged in commercially fraudulent behaviour (including phishing).
- Spot trends in online discussions that are of value to brand managers and marketers.
- Identify people who are being critical of the brand and identify their online ‘friends’ and networks.
I think SAS could be heading for a real problem here. Spotting problems such as fraud is a good thing. Spotting messages and memes in the blogosphere is a good thing. Using the same function to monitor, fight, and control criminals on the one hand whilst at the same time using it manage information about law abiding people is going to worry people.
What SAS says on their website is “In this era of relationships, the same business analytics that sift through data volumes to detect hidden fraud patterns can also strengthen brands by revealing insights in customer interactions.”.
To group criminals and people who criticise the brand together is, if anything, even more worrying than grouping criminals and ordinary customers together.
What does SAS say on this? Here are their words “From phishing and skimming to claims fraud and money laundering, increasingly sophisticated fraud techniques are causing huge losses and harming customer relationships. So too are negative online comments that quickly spread through Web sites, blogs, Twitter and other channels, resulting in lost business and damaged brands.”.
I suggest that SAS have a re-think about this grouping of criminals and critics together.
If their tools are as good as they say they ought to see this post, which raises the point about whether SAS can tell the difference between a someone who is trying to hurt them, as opposed to a critical friend?
Comments