The perils of big data

Abstract

Big Data is transforming many aspects of our lives. In “The Era of Big Data,” I argue that Big Data “represents a transformative shift in processing information that, in turn, is beginning to change the way we approach and think about the world.” Big Data involves the great expansion of information coupled with new, cheap, and user-friendly technological devices that permit the efficient collection, management, and use of such massive amounts of data. Big Data is consequently making it “possible to explore and examine many things that previously could not have been done, let alone imagined, from preventing diseases to improving social conditions, monitoring personal habits, analyzing business trends, predicting terrorist activities, and so on; indeed, the list is seemingly endless.” But this opening up of new possibilities also reveals Big Data’s dark side.