Data Mining For Dummies

Chapter 11

Buying Data

In This Chapter

Wising up about private data

Understanding the sorts of data that vendors provide

Searching for suppliers

Gauging the value of a vendor’s data

Even if you have access to massive quantities of data in internal databases and invaluable public data resources, you may at times still find it worth your while to buy data from commercial suppliers. When the data you need is unavailable, or when it’s available but isn’t up to snuff, turning to private sources for data can make a lot of sense. Some of the advantages of commercial data are as follows:

• Availability: Some data is available only through private sources: data generated in the course of business or other nongovernment activity, for instance, such as consumer or business credit histories or lists of individuals with specific affiliations or interests.
• Preparation: Gathering data from disparate public sources, organizing it into consistent formats and exercising proper management control over that process can be time-consuming and costly. If, for example, you need real-estate transaction data ...