Embedding privacy and ethical values in big data technology

Abstract

The phenomenon now commonly referred to as “Big Data” holds great promise and opportunityas a potential source of solutions to many societal illsranging from cancer to terrorism; but it might also end up as “a troubling manifestation of Big Brother, enabling invasions of privacy, decreased civil freedoms (and) increased state and corporate control”(Boyd Crawford, 2012, p.664).Discussions about the use of Big Data are widespread as “(d)iverse groups argue about the potentialbenefits and costs of analyzing genetic sequences, social media interactions, health records, phone logs, governmentrecords, and other digital traces left by people”(Boyd Crawford, 2012, p. 662).This chapter attempts to establish guidelines for the discussion and analysis of ethicalissues related to Big Data inresearch, particularly with respect to privacy.In doing so, it addsnewdimensionsto the agenda setting goal of this volume.It is intended to help researchers in all fields, aswellas policy makers, to articulate their concerns in an organized way, and to specify relevant issues for discussion, policy-making and action with respect to the ethics of Big Data.Onthe basis of our review of scholarly literature andour own investigations with big and small data, we havecome to recognize that privacy and the great potential for privacy violations constitute major concerns in the debate about Big Data.Furthermore, our approach and our recommendations are generalizable to other ethical considerations inherent in Big Data as we illustrate in the final section of the chapter.