Big corporations are more and more dependent on analytics and machine learning, to gain insight into their operations and to help them make the right decisions to maximize their performance.

But corporations are not the only ones with data. Everyone, today, has a wide range of detailed data being generated and available to them on every aspect of their lives. The benefits that corporations gain from the analytics on their data, can similarly be enjoyed by individuals with their own data! By understanding the insights that are available in your own life, you can make informed decisions and be in better control of all aspects of your life.

Corporations have entire organizations of data architects, report authors, and data scientists dedicated to their analytics. That's obviously something not available for people to use to understand and find the patterns in their personal data.

There really is a lot of data readily available for many aspects of everyday life:

• Health and fitness data - steps/distance walked, heart rate, weight, glucose levels, etc.
• Financial data - stock prices, banking/credt card transaction history
• Household utility usage - gas, water and electricity usage
• Smarthome sensors - temperature, humidity, air quality
• Online activity - social media responses, time spent online, etc.
• Online business - sales data from Etsy, Shopify, etc.
• Community public data - weather, sports stats, police statistics, public health data, etc.

The business model of so many online companies these days is focussed on making money by using and selling the data on their users. The importance of personal data privacy has become a priority in the public consciousness. A related topic, is data security. Every other day we are hearing about a security breach at one company or another, that has exposed personal data of its users.