data mining

noun

Definition of data mining

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

Examples of data mining in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Facebook leadership also pushed for unified profiles across its products that could be used for data mining and ad targeting, as well as a recommendation system that would suggest Facebook friends based on WhatsApp contacts. — Nick Statt, The Verge, "WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum is leaving Facebook after clashing over data privacy," 30 Apr. 2018 Roper’s job is to bring new tools to the Air Force, and in this age that means data mining. — Joe Pappalardo, Popular Mechanics, "Can Big Data Save Old Warplanes?," 23 Jan. 2019 Earlier this year, the company had to acknowledge that as many as 87 million people may have had their data accessed by Cambridge Analytica, a data mining firm that worked for the Trump campaign and aimed to use the data to influence elections. — Michael Liedtke, The Seattle Times, "Facebook wants people to invite its cameras into their homes," 9 Oct. 2018 But that was all surface fluff compared to the real story about surveillance and data mining underneath. — Rachel King, Fortune, "Your Summer Reading List: Page-Turning Novels Set in Politics, Finance, and Tech," 6 July 2018 The idea to build a data mining system was sparked when Ingrooves management noticed that labels were trying to use their financial information from the Trends and Sales Reporting system to try and identify marketing opportunities. — Ed Christman, Billboard, "Ingrooves' New 'Trends Now' Tool Helps Labels Sort Through Streaming's Data Dump," 12 Apr. 2018 Senators grilled him about privacy in the wake of pro-Trump data mining firm Cambridge Analytica’s collection of Facebook data on millions of Americans without their knowledge. — Time, "During Facebook's Senate Hearing, Reddit Reveals It Banned Almost 1,000 Russian Trolls," 11 Apr. 2018 Much of the furor surrounding the data mining revelations has focused on Cambridge Analytica's ties to the Trump campaign. — Kevin Diaz, San Antonio Express-News, "Cambridge Analytica? Cruz presses Zuckerberg on alleged 'political bias' on Facebook," 10 Apr. 2018 Does data mining have similarly unknown costs that exceed our current economic frame? — James Vincent, The Verge, "This beautiful map shows everything that powers an Amazon Echo, from data mines to lakes of lithium," 9 Sep. 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.

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Last Updated

23 May 2019

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The first known use of data mining was in 1968

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data mining

noun

Financial Definition of data mining

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

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