Meta faces challenges in managing and understanding large-scale data ecosystems and has invested in advanced technologies through its Privacy Aware Infrastructure (PAI).
Meta adopted a 'shift-left' approach with early integration of data schematization and annotations in product development and a universal privacy taxonomy for standardized data privacy management.
Flexibility and collaboration were key in understanding data across Meta's diverse systems and languages, with ongoing privacy initiatives embedded in product development.
A decade-long journey saw Meta catalog millions of data assets daily, ensuring privacy considerations at every product development stage.
Data understanding at Meta involves capturing asset structure and meaning, with privacy driving product innovation through tools like PAI.
Efforts in data understanding have evolved to address challenges such as inconsistent definitions, missing annotations, and organizational barriers.
Meta's approach included introducing shared asset schema formats, a unified taxonomy of semantic types, and investing in heuristics and classifiers for accurate data understanding.
Data understanding initiatives involved steps like schematizing data, predicting metadata at scale, annotating with privacy taxonomy, and inventorying assets using systems like OneCatalog.
Maintaining data understanding involved shift-left strategies, detecting and fixing annotation gaps, collecting ground truth, and providing canonical consumption APIs for compliance.
Data understanding has helped Meta streamline developer workflows, improve AI systems, ensure operational efficiency, and drive product innovation through comprehensive data understanding.