Skip to main content

Big Data Privacy and Ethical Challenges

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Big Data, Big Challenges: A Healthcare Perspective

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Bioengineering ((LNBE))

Abstract

Big data is a complex phenomenon of technical advances in storage capacity, computational speed, the low cost of data collection and predictive analytics. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a key to unlocking the value of big data, and machine learning underpins and facilitates AI. All three concepts combine to result in big data analytics, the properties of which challenge compliance with information privacy principles that have led to recent significant legislative changes in data protection. Further, the use of profiling and automated decision-making made possible by machine learning and AI go well beyond privacy protections and will require ethical oversight. Personal data protection regimes, like the European Union General Data Protection Regulation, are instruments for governance of data flows and remain valuable for classical data processing. Yet they may be inadequate to address the unprecedented challenges raised by big data. New digital geopolitics created by differences in data protection rules across national borders no longer represent the limits of data flows, and the consequences for global governance are significant. There is rising consensus that a digital ethics framework is needed to provide modern terms for identifying, analyzing and communicating new human realities with existing and foreseeable technological changes.

Similarity with source 1 which however is cited (edps) in the text and added to the references. https://edps.europa.eu/about-edps_en

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 139.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 179.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Denham E (2017) Big data, artificial intelligence, machine learning and data protection. Version 2.2. Information Commissioner’s Office. Available from https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisations/documents/2013559/big-data-ai-ml-and-data-protection.pdf. Accessed on 19 June 2018

  2. European Union. General data protection regulation. Available from https://gdpr-info.eu and https://ec.europa.eu/commission/priorities/justice-and-fundamental-rights/data-protection/2018-reform-eu-data-protection-rules_en#abouttheregulationanddataprotection. Accessed on 19 June 2018

  3. Abrams M (2014) The origins of personal data and its implications for governance. OECD. Available from http://informationaccountability.org/wp-content/uploads/Data-Origins-Abrams.pdf. Accessed on 19 June 2018

  4. European Data Protection Supervisor Ethics Advisory Group (2018) Towards a digital ethics. Available from https://edps.europa.eu/sites/edp/files/publication/18–01-25_eag_report_en.pdf. Accessed on 19 June 2018

  5. Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario (2017) Big data guidelines. Available from https://www.ipc.on.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/bigdata-guidelines.pdf. Accessed on 19 June 2018

  6. The Council for Big Data, Ethics and Society (2016) Perspectives on big data, ethics, and society. Available from https://bdes.datasociety.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Perspectives-on-Big-Data.pdf. Accessed on 19 June 2018

  7. Cavoukian A (2011) Privacy by design. The 7 foundational principles. Information and Privacy Commissioner of Canada. Available from https://www.ipc.on.ca/wp-content/uploads/Resources/7foundationalprinciples.pdf. Accessed on 19 June 2018

  8. Metcalf J, Crawford K (2016) Where are human subjects in big data research? The emerging ethics divide. Big Data Soc (Jan–June):1–14. Available from http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2053951716650211. Accessed on 19 June 2018

  9. World Medical Association (2016) WMA declaration of Taipei on ethical considerations regarding health databases and biobanks. Available from https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-taipei-on-ethical-considerations-regarding-health-databases-and-biobanks/. Accessed on 19 June 2018

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Paulette Lacroix .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Lacroix, P. (2019). Big Data Privacy and Ethical Challenges. In: Househ, M., Kushniruk, A., Borycki, E. (eds) Big Data, Big Challenges: A Healthcare Perspective. Lecture Notes in Bioengineering. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-06109-8_9

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-06109-8_9

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-06108-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-06109-8

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics