Assessing Big Data: Launch of Cooperation Project
Smartphones, social networks, and commodity items connected to the Internet – more and more sources produce constantly growing data volumes. How can politics, industry, and actors in society use big data in a positive way? And how can this technology be brought in line with the protection of personal rights? These questions are examined by scientists of the Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS) and the Institute for Information, Telecommunication, and Media Law (ITM) of the University of Münster in the framework of the project ABIDA – Assessing Big Data. The project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) with more than 6 million euro for a period of four years.
"The technical possibilities of recording, linking, and evaluating data for various purposes increase very rapidly, and so does the uncertainty of what happens with the data," says Armin Grunwald, head of ITAS and spokesperson of the project. He also emphasizes that the discussion of how this technology can be used responsibly and brought in line with our concepts of data protection and privacy is still at its beginning. Therefore the project shall provide concrete options for action for politics, research, and development which will contribute to a use of big data with a good balance between innovation potentials and the protection of privacy.
Citizen Conferences, Expert Surveys, and Prognosis Methods
The ABIDA activities focus, among others, on three citizen conferences at different places in Germany. Together with a representative citizen survey, these conferences will provide information on the expectations and fears that citizens associate with the new technology. The scientists will also conduct individual studies and expert surveys to point out which impacts big data applications, data flows, and business models already have on our life. To assess future developments, scenarios for big data will be designed and discussed with the help of an expert delphi. (31.03.2015)
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