Privacy in the Age of Big Data

A thorough update to a classic in the field of privacy and big data.

We have a global privacy problem. The average person provides more information about themselves to more outsiders than any time in history. Corporations, governments and even our neighbors can know where we are at times, can quickly learn our preferences and priorities and see who we meet.

The past decade has brought deep changes in the collection of our private information, the regulation of that collection, and in people's sensitivity to loss of privacy. The nascent privacy-threatening technology trends of a decade ago have blossomed into relentless data-capturing systems that police and companies have come to rely on. To address the expansion of personal data capture, entire data regulatory regimes have arisen throughout the world, with new regulations added each year.

People are more concerned, regulators are more aggressive, yet data collection continues to increase with…