data mining

noun

|Updated on: 19 May 2018

Definition of data mining

: the practice of searching through large amounts of computerized data to find useful patterns or trends

Recent Examples of data mining from the Web

All that data mining has given some Americans pause.

— ronda kaysen, New York Times, "Is My Not-So-Smart House Watching Me?," 27 Apr. 2018
Data science and data mining are analytics taken to the extreme, serving to streamline industries, ironing out inefficiencies, and ensuring personalized custom marketing and solutions.

— phillip molnar, sandiegouniontribune.com, "Is Facebook still a good place for businesses?," 6 Apr. 2018
Basically: Westworld is the data mining goldmine that corporate dreams are made of.

— todd vanderwerff, Vox, "Westworld finally answers some big questions in “Reunion”," 30 Apr. 2018
Zuckerberg is trying to restore public confidence after recent revelations that information from up to 87 million Facebook users was shared with Cambridge Analytica, a data mining firm used by the Trump campaign in the 2016 election.

— erin kelly, USA TODAY, "Zuckerberg: Federal regulation of Facebook 'inevitable'," 11 Apr. 2018
Top on the list of Zuckerberg’s - and lawmakers’ - culprits was Cambridge Analytica, a data mining firm that was initially bankrolled by conservative fundraiser Robert Mercer, a top Cruz benefactor.

— kevin diaz, San Antonio Express-News, "Cambridge Analytica? Cruz presses Zuckerberg on alleged 'political bias' on Facebook," 10 Apr. 2018
Facebook may be embroiled in scandal following multiple revelations of data mining and privacy violations at the social media giant.

— scott roxborough, The Hollywood Reporter, "MIPTV: Advertising, Non-Scripted Key to Facebook's TV Strategy," 9 Apr. 2018
Facebook is merely the most recognizable face of data mining science springing up in recent years to gather information on nearly every industry.

— phillip molnar, sandiegouniontribune.com, "Is Facebook still a good place for businesses?," 6 Apr. 2018
Equally important, Apple has invested heavily in building data mining tools that respect user privacy and attempt to anonymize and obfuscate user data in mathematically defensible ways.

— alex salkever, Fortune, "Commentary: Apple Actually Cares About Users’ Data. Facebook Could Learn a Lesson.," 27 Mar. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'data mining.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

First Known Use of data mining

1968

in the meaning defined above

See Words from the same year

NEW! Time Traveler

Financial Definition of DATA MINING

data mining

noun

What It Is

Data mining refers to the systematic software analysis of groups of data in order to uncover previously unknown patterns and relationships.

How It Works

So called because of the manner in which it explores information, data mining is carried out by software applications which employ a variety of statistical and artificial intelligence methods to uncover hidden patterns and relationships among sets of data. For instance, a data mining program might be able to uncover a relationship between high sales volumes and poor weather conditions.

Why It Matters

Data mining software is able to perform complex calculations and analyses on sets of data in a very short time. For this reason, data mining is used by companies in strategic planning.

Source: Investing Answers