Ethical Issues Pertaining Big Data

As the world becomes digitized and connected, technological giants have released millions and millions of devices that are capable of capturing data in all aspects of human life even without human interaction and storing the data for future use.

According to Oxford, big data is  extremely large data sets that may be analyzed computationally to reveal patterns, trends, and associations, especially relating to human behavior and interactions. Nobody doubt this is both revolutionary as the government and other interested parties are able to precisely understand business behavior and patterns that may lead to better planning and controlled productions.

However critics have questioned the following ethical issues relating to the big the data;

• How secure is our data that is held by this agencies and Govemement?
• Is our data commercially viable and does the owner profits from this? Recently Facebook was fined $5 Billion for exposing Facebook data to third party Cambridge Analytical
• What exactly is the use of this private data?
• What obsession with the data?
• Is the Government using this data to target dissidents and opposition?
• Where is the boundary between what is considered private and public information?
• Does the government use the data to discriminate minorities and racial segregation?