-- MathewKenneally - 16 Sep 2014

The articles in “On the Radar” give examples of the growing industry in collecting and selling personal data. Colloquially this is referred to as “Big Data”. Negative consequences we have explored in the reading include: predatory lending; higher insurance premiums, and increasingly insidious advertising. However, others point to the numerous benefits we can gain from collecting information on the entire population including: an increased ability to predict when people will get sick; improvements in medical research; and more information from which to design social policy. Can these social benefits from information collection be acquired without eroding privacy and concentrating power in a few companies? Or is it necessary for society to exchange (consciously, or unconsciously) these freedoms for the economic and social benefits?

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