You currently work for Alpha Investments Inc. (AII) as an investment analyst with an insurance company in Eastern Canada. You recently purchased access to a national online claims database from a data broker that has data on claim settlements (injury, damage, financial payout, and so on). This data has been provided with authorization from many professionals (from medical professionals to lawyers) and is allowed to be used for predicting claim volumes and costs. Government agencies and other stakeholders use this information and have done so for many years. You intend to mine this data to forecast the types and volume of claims expected in your region for the upcoming year.

You had asked your IT assistant, Janis Lee, to run a variety of programs on this data to narrow down the information to what you need. Janis has just met with you and given you a summary of what she was able to do.

By running the programs, Janis has been able to extract not only the type of claims made, but also information on age, gender, and address of each claimant. Janis was also able to identify personal information linked to each claimant, including the name of the claimant, the extent of damage/injury, and the potential for recovery.

Janis is very excited about this development, since she has recognized some of the names. In particular, she recognized Helen Rosenberg, the vice president of market research at one of AII's competitors. Helen was in a serious car accident four months ago. Helen is key to the success of AII's competitor, and you believe the company will be at a significant disadvantage with her absence. You also know that there is no one else at the company who could take on Helen's role without negative repercussions. By using this data, you predict that the company's share price will fall significantly once the news becomes known.

You have concerns about using the data and have had a brief discussion with your supervisor. He has asked for a report outlining your concerns about this data and the implications of using it.

Required:

Discuss the implications and concerns you have about this data, in particular:

A) From the perspective of using the data to help you analyze the insurance industry and forecast future claim activity. Draw a conclusion as to whether you should use the data for this purpose.

B) From the perspective of using the data to predict share price movements for your competitor. Draw a conclusion as to whether you should use the data for this purpose.