--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: The data clearly tells us that there are…" description: "\"“The data clearly tells us that there are many, many horrifying searches that rarely lead to horrible actions. And there has been, as of yet, no proof ..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a21/seth-stephens-davidowitz-10761_data-science_the-data-clearly-tells-us-that-there-are_2278708.jpg" --- # The data clearly tells us that there are many, many… ![“The data clearly tells us that there are many, many horrifying searches that rarely lead to horrible actions. And there has been, as of yet, no proof that the government can predict a particular horrible action, with high probability, just from examining these searches. So we have to be really…” quote by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a21/seth-stephens-davidowitz-10761_data-science_the-data-clearly-tells-us-that-there-are_2278708.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a21/seth-stephens-davidowitz-10761_data-science_the-data-clearly-tells-us-that-there-are_2278708.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a21/seth-stephens-davidowitz-10761_data-science_the-data-clearly-tells-us-that-there-are_2278708.jpg) > ““The data clearly tells us that there are many, many horrifying searches that rarely lead to horrible actions. And there has been, as of yet, no proof that the government can predict a particular horrible action, with high probability, just from examining these searches. So we have to be really cautious about allowing the government to intervene at the individual level based on search data. This is not just for ethical or legal reasons. It’s also, at least for now, for data science reasons.”” [Seth Stephens-Davidowitz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-stephens-davidowitz/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Data on searches rarely predicts violent acts, so government intervention based on searches is premature and risky. **In simple terms:** Search data isn’t reliable for predicting crimes Key Takeaway Be cautious about surveillance policies Themes privacy ethics data science Mood cautious analytical Type policy ethical When to use this quote - law enforcement - policy making - technology regulation Key Concepts predictive analytics civil liberties Questions to Reflect On - What safeguards are needed for data use? - Can we trust predictive algorithms? A Different Perspective Predictive models can be biased and overreach. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Data science](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/data-science/) [Examining Searches](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/examining-searches-5310164/) [Government Predict](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/government-predict-5310162/) [Horrifying Searches](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/horrifying-searches-5310161/) [Reasons Data](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/reasons-data-5310163/) [Searches Really](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/searches-really-5310165/) ## Related quotes > [“Beware of precise plans by government. Let government predict: it makes them feel better about themselves and justifies their existence.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nassim-nicholas-taleb/beware-of-precise-plans-by-government-let-government-predict-it-makes/) [Nassim Nicholas Taleb](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nassim-nicholas-taleb/) > [“Data science takes a natural and intuitive human process—spotting patterns and making sense of them—and injects it with steroids”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-stephens-davidowitz/data-science-takes-a-natural-and-intuitive-human-process-spotting-2/) [Seth Stephens-Davidowitz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-stephens-davidowitz/) > [“Data science takes a natural and intuitive human process—spotting patterns and making sense of them—and injects it with steroids, potentially showing us that the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-stephens-davidowitz/data-science-takes-a-natural-and-intuitive-human-process-spotting/) [Seth Stephens-Davidowitz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-stephens-davidowitz/) > [We are going to completely change what it means to do advanced analytics with our data solutions. We have machine-learning stuff that is about…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/satya-nadella/we-are-going-to-completely-change-what-it-means-to-do-advanced/) [Satya Nadella](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/satya-nadella/) > [I keep saying that the sexy job in the next 10 years will be statisticians, and I'm not kidding.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/hal-varian/i-keep-saying-that-the-sexy-job-in-the-next-10-years-will-be/) [Hal Varian](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/hal-varian/) > [“All businesses could use a garden where Data Scientists plant seeds of possibility and water them with collaboration.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/damian-mingle/all-businesses-could-use-a-garden-where-data-scientists-plant-seeds/) [Damian Mingle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/damian-mingle/) > [In the next 10 years, data science and software will do more for medicine than all of the biological sciences together.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/vinod-khosla/in-the-next-10-years-data-science-and-software-will-do-more-for/) [Vinod Khosla](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/vinod-khosla/) > [Data that is loved tends to survive.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kurt-bollacker/data-that-is-loved-tends-to-survive/) [Kurt Bollacker](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kurt-bollacker/) > [Data isn't information; information isn't knowledge; knowledge isn't wisdom.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ian-lowe/data-isn-t-information-information-isn-t-knowledge-knowledge-isn-t/) [Ian Lowe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ian-lowe/) > [You need to use data science and machine learning to get the ground truth of what's happening inside of a company.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/chamath-palihapitiya/you-need-to-use-data-science-and-machine-learning-to-get-the-ground/) [Chamath Palihapitiya](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/chamath-palihapitiya/) > [“Invite your Data Science team to ask questions and assume any system, rule, or way of doing things is open to further consideration.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/damian-mingle/invite-your-data-science-team-to-ask-questions-and-assume-any-system/) [Damian Mingle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/damian-mingle/) > [Big data isn’t about bits, it’s about talent.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/douglas-merrill/big-data-isn-t-about-bits-it-s-about-talent/) [Douglas Merrill](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/douglas-merrill/) > [“I foresee the next wave of revenue growth in corporate America will come directly from Data Science.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-poirot/i-foresee-the-next-wave-of-revenue-growth-in-corporate-america-will/) [Ken Poirot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-poirot/) > [ \[Sherlock Holmes:\] The temptation to form premature theories upon insufficient data is the bane of our profession. ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/arthur-conan-doyle/sherlock-holmes-the-temptation-to-form-premature-theories-upon/) [Arthur Conan Doyle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/arthur-conan-doyle/) > [“Data Scientists should recall innovation often times is not providing fancy algorithms, but rather value to the customer.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/damian-mingle/data-scientists-should-recall-innovation-often-times-is-not-providing/) [Damian Mingle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/damian-mingle/) ## More by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz > [“I am now convinced that Google searches are the most important dataset ever collected on the human psyche. This”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-stephens-davidowitz/i-am-now-convinced-that-google-searches-are-the-most-important/) [Seth Stephens-Davidowitz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-stephens-davidowitz/) > [“DIGITAL TRUTH DIGITAL LIES • Searches • Social media posts • Views • Social media likes • Clicks • Dating profiles • Swipes”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-stephens-davidowitz/digital-truth-digital-lies-searches-social-media-posts-views-social/) [Seth Stephens-Davidowitz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-stephens-davidowitz/) > [“Allowing us to zoom in on small subsets of people is the third power of Big Data.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-stephens-davidowitz/allowing-us-to-zoom-in-on-small-subsets-of-people-is-the-third-power/) [Seth Stephens-Davidowitz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-stephens-davidowitz/) > [“Facebook is digital brag-to-my-friends-about-how-good-my-life-is serum. In Facebook world, the average adult seems to be happily married, vacationing in the Caribbean, and perusing the Atlantic.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-stephens-davidowitz/facebook-is-digital-brag-to-my-friends-about-how-good-my-life-is/) [Seth Stephens-Davidowitz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-stephens-davidowitz/) > [“Sometimes new data reveals cultural differences I had never even contemplated. One example: the very different ways that men around the world respond to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-stephens-davidowitz/sometimes-new-data-reveals-cultural-differences-i-had-never-even/) [Seth Stephens-Davidowitz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-stephens-davidowitz/) > [“Netflix learned a similar lesson early on in its life cycle: don’t trust what people tell you; trust what they do.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-stephens-davidowitz/netflix-learned-a-similar-lesson-early-on-in-its-life-cycle-don-t/) [Seth Stephens-Davidowitz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-stephens-davidowitz/) > [“Milan Kundera, the Czech-born writer, has a pithy quote about this in his novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being: “Human life occurs only once,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-stephens-davidowitz/milan-kundera-the-czech-born-writer-has-a-pithy-quote-about-this-in/) [Seth Stephens-Davidowitz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-stephens-davidowitz/) > [“... I was shock aplenty by what the internet reveals about human sexuality...”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-stephens-davidowitz/i-was-shock-aplenty-by-what-the-internet-reveals-about-human-sexuality/) [Seth Stephens-Davidowitz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-stephens-davidowitz/) > [“And it is certainly possible that lying played a role in the failure of the polls to predict Donald Trump’s 2016 victory. Polls, on…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-stephens-davidowitz/and-it-is-certainly-possible-that-lying-played-a-role-in-the-failure/) [Seth Stephens-Davidowitz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-stephens-davidowitz/) > [“... I was shocked aplenty by what the internet reveals about human sexuality...”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-stephens-davidowitz/i-was-shocked-aplenty-by-what-the-internet-reveals-about-human/) [Seth Stephens-Davidowitz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-stephens-davidowitz/) > [“Newspaper readership, on average, tilts a bit left. (They have data on that.) And newspapers, on average, tilt a bit left to give their…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-stephens-davidowitz/newspaper-readership-on-average-tilts-a-bit-left-they-have-data-on/) [Seth Stephens-Davidowitz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-stephens-davidowitz/) > [“Why is the presence of rich people such a powerful predictor of poor people’s life expectancy? One”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-stephens-davidowitz/why-is-the-presence-of-rich-people-such-a-powerful-predictor-of-poor/) [Seth Stephens-Davidowitz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-stephens-davidowitz/) > [“The next Freud will be a data scientist. The next Marx will be a data scientist. The next Salk might very well be a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-stephens-davidowitz/the-next-freud-will-be-a-data-scientist-the-next-marx-will-be-a-data/) [Seth Stephens-Davidowitz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-stephens-davidowitz/) > [“Clark Benson is the CEO of ranker.com, a news and entertainment site that relies heavily on A/B testing to choose headlines and site design.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-stephens-davidowitz/clark-benson-is-the-ceo-of-ranker-com-a-news-and-entertainment-site/) [Seth Stephens-Davidowitz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-stephens-davidowitz/) > [“Do you think the United States is currently a united or a divided country? If you are like most people, you would say the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-stephens-davidowitz/do-you-think-the-united-states-is-currently-a-united-or-a-divided/) [Seth Stephens-Davidowitz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-stephens-davidowitz/) [Explore all 63 Seth Stephens-Davidowitz quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-stephens-davidowitz/) ## More Data science quotes > [“Data Scientists should recall innovation often times is not providing fancy algorithms, but rather value to the customer.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/damian-mingle/data-scientists-should-recall-innovation-often-times-is-not-providing/) [Damian Mingle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/damian-mingle/) > [ \[Sherlock Holmes:\] The temptation to form premature theories upon insufficient data is the bane of our profession. ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/arthur-conan-doyle/sherlock-holmes-the-temptation-to-form-premature-theories-upon/) [Arthur Conan Doyle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/arthur-conan-doyle/) > [“I foresee the next wave of revenue growth in corporate America will come directly from Data Science.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-poirot/i-foresee-the-next-wave-of-revenue-growth-in-corporate-america-will/) [Ken Poirot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-poirot/) > [Big data isn’t about bits, it’s about talent.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/douglas-merrill/big-data-isn-t-about-bits-it-s-about-talent/) [Douglas Merrill](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/douglas-merrill/) > [“Invite your Data Science team to ask questions and assume any system, rule, or way of doing things is open to further consideration.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/damian-mingle/invite-your-data-science-team-to-ask-questions-and-assume-any-system/) [Damian Mingle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/damian-mingle/) > [You need to use data science and machine learning to get the ground truth of what's happening inside of a company.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/chamath-palihapitiya/you-need-to-use-data-science-and-machine-learning-to-get-the-ground/) [Chamath Palihapitiya](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/chamath-palihapitiya/) > [Data isn't information; information isn't knowledge; knowledge isn't wisdom.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ian-lowe/data-isn-t-information-information-isn-t-knowledge-knowledge-isn-t/) [Ian Lowe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ian-lowe/) > [Data that is loved tends to survive.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kurt-bollacker/data-that-is-loved-tends-to-survive/) [Kurt Bollacker](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kurt-bollacker/) > [In the next 10 years, data science and software will do more for medicine than all of the biological sciences together.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/vinod-khosla/in-the-next-10-years-data-science-and-software-will-do-more-for/) [Vinod Khosla](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/vinod-khosla/) > [“All businesses could use a garden where Data Scientists plant seeds of possibility and water them with collaboration.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/damian-mingle/all-businesses-could-use-a-garden-where-data-scientists-plant-seeds/) [Damian Mingle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/damian-mingle/) > [I keep saying that the sexy job in the next 10 years will be statisticians, and I'm not kidding.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/hal-varian/i-keep-saying-that-the-sexy-job-in-the-next-10-years-will-be/) [Hal Varian](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/hal-varian/) > [We are going to completely change what it means to do advanced analytics with our data solutions. We have machine-learning stuff that is about…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/satya-nadella/we-are-going-to-completely-change-what-it-means-to-do-advanced/) [Satya Nadella](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/satya-nadella/) > [The combination of some data and an aching desire for an answer does not ensure that a reasonable answer can be extracted from a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-tukey/the-combination-of-some-data-and-an-aching-desire-for-an-answer-does/) [John Tukey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-tukey/) > [The bigger a data set that you have, the more polls, the more surveys that you have that people undertake, the more accurate your…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/brittany-kaiser/the-bigger-a-data-set-that-you-have-the-more-polls-the-more-surveys/) [Brittany Kaiser](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/brittany-kaiser/) > [“Data science is the civil engineering of data. Its acolytes possess a practical knowledge of tools and materials, coupled with a theoretical understanding of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rachel-schutt/data-science-is-the-civil-engineering-of-data-its-acolytes-possess-a/) [Rachel Schutt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rachel-schutt/) [Browse all 52 Data science quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/data-science/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“The data clearly tells us that there are many, many horrifying searches that rarely lead to horrible actions. And there has been, as of yet, no proof that the government can predict a particular horrible action, with high probability, just from examining these searches. So we have to be really cautious about allowing the government to intervene at the individual level based on search data. This is not just for ethical or legal reasons. 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