另類資料賣家洩露隱私

The alternative data industry, which sells information such as APP downloads and credit card purchases to investment groups, is failing to adequately erase personal details before sharing the material, according to several hedge funds.

多家對衝基金表示，向投資集團出售應用(APP)下載、信用卡購買交易等資訊的另類資料產業在分享這些資料之前未能充分抹去個人資料。

The rapidly growing world of big data is seen as an increasingly attractive source of information for asset managers seeking a vital investment edge, with data providers selling everything from social media chatter and emailed receipts to federal lobbying data and even satellite images from space.

大資料的快速增長正被尋求關鍵投資優勢的資產管理者視為一項越來越有吸引力的資訊來源，而資料提供商可以出售一切資訊——從社交媒體聊天記錄、用電郵傳送的收據，到聯邦遊說資料、甚至從太空拍攝的衛星影象。

But several hedge funds say some vendors are selling information that still contains sensitive personal information that could be used to identify individuals.

但多家對衝基金表示，一些賣家出售的資訊仍包含可被用於識別個人的敏感個人資訊。

The vendors claim to strip out all the personal information, but we occasionally find phone numbers, zip codes and so on, said Matthew Granade, chief market intelligence officer at Steven Cohen’s Point72.

賣家聲稱抹去了所有個人資訊，但我們偶爾會發現電話號碼、郵政編碼等資訊，史蒂文.科恩(Steven Cohen)旗下對衝基金Point72的首席市場情報官馬修.格拉內德(Matthew Granade)說。

It’s a big enough deal that we have a couple of full-time tech people wash the data ourselves.

問題相當嚴重，以至於我們有兩名專職技術人員負責清洗資料。

The head of another big hedge fund said that even when personal information had been scrubbed from a data set, it was far too easy to restore.

另一家大型對衝基金負責人表示，即便從資料集中抹去個人資訊，恢復這些資訊也過於容易。

We were shocked at how easy it was to de-anonymise the data, he said.

我們對於消除這些資料的匿名性的容易程度感到震驚，他說，

It took one of my analysts 30 minutes to discover someone who was probably having an affair.

我的一位分析師用了30分鐘就發現了一個很可能有婚外情的人。

Sophisticated algorithms such as machine learning allow money managers to siFT through enormous data sets for profitable patterns.

機器學習等複雜演算法使得資金管理人可以梳理海量資料集，從中發現有利可圖的規律。

But the sensitivity of some of the information being offered has raised concerns.

但是，一些被兜售的資訊的敏感性引發了人們的擔憂。

Robert Schoshinski, assistant director in the Federal Trade Commission’s division of privacy and identity protection, said the issue was on the FTC’s radar but he refused to say if there were any open investigations into misuse of data.

美國聯邦貿易委員會(Federal Trade Commission)隱私與身份保護部門助理主管Robert Schoshinski表示，聯邦貿易委員會已經注意到這一問題，但他拒絕透露是否已對資料濫用展開調查。

Tammer Kamel, chief executive of Quandl, a well-reputed alternative data vendor, said his company was super zealous about scrubbing any personal information out of its aggregated data.

聲譽良好的另類資料提供商Quandl執行長塔默.卡邁勒(Tammer Kamel)表示，他的公司在從聚合資料抹去所有個人資訊方面超級較真。

No one wants to be on the wrong side of this, he said.

沒有人希望在這個問題上站在錯誤一邊，他說。

Another hedge fund manager pointed out that if there were legal issues, the litigation axe would be more likely to fall on them than the data vendors.

另一名對衝基金經理指出，如果出現法律問題，訴訟的矛頭更有可能落在他們身上，而非資料提供商。

We are incredibly careful about licensing and privacy issues because when things go wrong legally, the plaintiffs go after the people with the money, he said.

我們在授權和隱私問題上極為謹慎，因為如果出現法律問題，原告追究的必定是擁有資金的人，他說。