Privacy, big data, and the public good: frameworks for engagement

Massive amounts of data on human beings can now be accessed and analyzed.And the new 'big data' 1 are much more likely to be harvested from a wide variety of different sources.Much has been made of the many uses of such data for pragmatic purposes, including selling goods and services, winning political campaigns, and identifying possible terrorists.Yet big data can also be harnessed to serve the public good in other ways: scientists can use new forms of data to do research that improves the lives of human beings; federal, state, and local governments can use data to improve services and reduce taxpayer costs; and public organizations can use information to advocate for public causes, for example.Much has also been made of the privacy and confidentiality issues associated with access.Statisticians are not alone in thinking that consumers should worry about privacy issues, and that an ethical framework should be in place to guide data scientists; 2 the European Commission and the U.S. government have begun to address the problem.Yet there are many unanswered questions.What are the ethical and legal requirements for scientists and government officials seeking to use big data to serve the public good without harming individual citizens?What are the rules of engagement with these new data sources?What are the best ways to provide access while protecting confidentiality?Are there reasonable mechanisms to compensate citizens for privacy loss?The goal of this book is to answer some of these questions.The book's authors paint an intellectual landscape that includes the legal, economic, and statistical context necessary to frame the many privacy issues, including the value to the public of data access, clarifying personal data ownership questions, and raising issues of agency in personal data.The authors also identify core practical approaches that use new technologies to simultaneously maximize the utility of data access while minimizing information risk.As is appropriate for such a new and evolving field, each chapter also identifies important questions that require future research.The work in this book is also intended to be accessible to an audience broader than those in the research and policy spheres.