Privacy and Big Data: The Players, Regulators, and Stakeholders

by Terence Craig, Mary E. Ludloff

Much of what constitutes Big Data is information about us. Through our online activities, we leave an easy-to-follow trail of digital footprints that reveal who we are, what we buy, where we go, and much more. This eye-opening book explores the raging privacy debate over the use of personal data, with one undeniable once data's been collected, we have absolutely no control over who uses it or how it is used. Personal data is the hottest commodity on the market today―truly more valuable than gold. We are the asset that every company, industry, non-profit, and government wants. Privacy and Big Data introduces you to the players in the personal data game, and explains the stark differences in how the U.S., Europe, and the rest of the world approach the privacy issue. You'll learn

Genres: Technology, Computers

103 pages, Paperback

First published September 16, 2011

Reviews

[Ted Compton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short, clear, introduction to the subject.

[Sara Watson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This O’Reilly Media book provides a thorough and easy to understand overview of the forces at play in the ongoing privacy discussion. The authors do a decent job of outlining some of the fundamental differences in the US v. EU approach to privacy, but the overview tends to create a false dichotomy between these two regimes, giving little weight to the Asian or 3rd world regulation of privacy, or the implications of a lack thereof.

I particularly like how they handle the discussion of advertising use of data (targeted ads are relatively innocuous, and are the backbone of the internet economy), and they make a fair attempt to bring the privacy debate past this point, directing further discussion and energy towards the real, more insidious and as yet unrealized potential harms from data uses.

I had to wonder, of course, about the business motivations behind the book. The writers represent their big data company, PatternBuilders, and I thankfully couldn’t fault them for not staying objective throughout the book. But in their broad survey of the current state of things, they’ve managed to not be at all prescriptive or helpful in suggesting what happens, or should happen next. For that reason, this book has a pretty short shelf life (that is, unless O’Reilly does their book update thing, which is cool in an “experiments in publishing” kind of way). Instead, they’ve saved their personal experiences and predilections about privacy for the afterward, which feels (not surprisingly) like an afterthought and a cop out.

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

Relatively shallow overview of a number of digital privacy topics, heavily centered on US advertising markets and regulatory policy. Not the worst primer on the material, but it smacked of an undergraduate essay (or collection of them, really, as each chapter appeared self-contained) -- hitting high-level points in some pre-described order, offering tons of citations without a lot of detail to show for them, coming up with a vague well-what-might-the-future-hold?-who-knows-but-it'll-be-interesting sort of conclusion. (And the citations were ridiculous: links in-line in sentences, footnoted at the bottom of the page, AND in a bibliography at the end of EACH chapter, often for things that didn't need to be cited at all.)

Definitely an important (and interesting) topic, but it deserves a better treatment than this, which I expect can be found elsewhere.

[Georgi Mirchev · Rating 3 out of 5]

It gives you same base perspective of what the situation is for Europe and USA. But basically it does not give you anything beyond that. The overall conclusion is that there is no thing as privacy on the web. :)

[Terry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent book. Too wordy. Discussion threads hard to follow. Rushed effort it seems at times.

[Neil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Basically a generic overview of data in the web. Not useful for someone already in the field. May be good for someone new to security on the web.