Behavioral analytics
Behavioral analytics is an advancement in business analytics that reveals new insights into consumer behavior on eCommerce platforms, online games, web and mobile applications, and Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Growth in the volume of raw event data generated by digital platforms has enabled methods that go beyond demographics and other traditional metrics, which describe what kind of people took what actions in the past. Behavioral analysis instead focuses on how consumers act and why, allowing predictions about future actions. Applications include allowing marketers to target offers to specific consumer segments.
Behavioral analytics can be useful as authentication as for security purposes. It uses non-identifiable but individually unique factors to confirm the identity of the user. The identity of the user is authenticated in the background using factors such as mouse movement, typing speed and habits, login history network detail like IP address, browser used, etc.
Behavioral analytics utilizes the massive volumes of raw user event data captured during sessions in which consumers use applications, games, or websites, including traffic data like navigation paths, clicks, social media interactions, purchasing decisions and marketing responsiveness. Event-data can include advertising metrics like click-to-conversion time, as well as comparisons between other metrics like the monetary value of an order and the amount of time spent on the site. These data points are then compiled and analyzed, whether by looking at session progression from when a user first entered the platform until a sale was made, or what other products a user bought or looked at before this purchase. Behavioral analysis allows future actions and trends to be predicted based on the collection of such data.
Since the analysis requires collection and aggregation of large amounts of personal data, including highly sensitive one (such as sexual orientation, sexual preferences, health issues, location, religious affiliation, etc.) which is then traded between hundreds of parties involved in targeted advertising, behavioral analytics is causing significant concerns about privacy violations.
While business analytics has a more broad focus on the who, what, where and when of business intelligence, behavioral analytics narrows that scope, allowing one to take seemingly unrelated data points in order to extrapolate, predict and determine errors and future trends. It takes a more holistic and human view of data, connecting individual data points to tell us not only what is happening, but also how and why it is happening.