Little privacy in the age of big data

In the era of big data, the battle for privacy has already been fought and lost – personal data is routinely collected and traded in the new economy and there are few effective controls over how it is used or secured. Data researchers and analysts now say that it’s time for legislation to reclaim some of that privacy and ensure that any data that is collected remains secure.“We have become the product,” says Rob Livingstone, a fellow of the University of Technology and the head of a business advisory firm.n“We are being productised and sold to anyone,” he said. “We’re being monetised in essence. We are being mobilised as products with inducement of the services of we use such as Facebook and Twitter.” However, Livingstone says the dilemma facing regulators is how they can regulate the collection, storage and trading of personal data on the on the internet, when all of these activities, and the corporations themselves, operate across multiple continents and jurisdictions.