Preface

Social and economic factors have a growing impact on our lifestyle. These factors provide the basis for our decisions in choosing healthcare, education, shopping, and other key choices of our life. The advancement in various technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial intelligence, Data Analytics and Machine Learning has made it possible to measure and positively impact these socio-economic factors. In this competitive world, companies must identify trends and make projections to estimate the future direction of their business. In addition, businesses need to incorporate various technologies to gauge their customer buying behaviour and overall opinions on the products and services. Customer buying behaviour is determined by capturing the customer's involvement in purchase decisions before buying a product or service through various technological platforms, including search engines, social media posts, and a variety of other tools.

Similarly, sentiment analysis is among the critical approaches that businesses must employ to detect and quantify attitudes, opinions and emotions among various customer segments. However, the significant influence of technology on these socio-economic factors has escalated several serious concerns. Among those concerns, the digital divide and the security issues are the biggest challenges to overcome. The digital divide is primarily caused by insufficient technological access, lack of digital skills and cost of the underlying infrastructure. Moreover, knowledge and comprehension of the underpinning security technologies and their application to safeguard these systems are critical. Furthermore, understanding the key issues pertinent to using security technologies and the legal framework within which the security technologies are used is of utmost importance. Investigating the use of emerging technologies for socio-economic and secure infrastructure development will not only support technological sustainability but will also significantly affect the future development trends.