Building a wall around Big Data

In a world dominated by smartphones, cloud computing, biometrics, and chip cards, big data is the driving factor keeping the economy rolling along. Thanks to big data flowing wild and free, GDP increases up to $450 billion annually, and countries that push data sharing across borders enjoy 40 percent more economic benefits than their less-connected counterparts.

So said Big Data industry expert Ajay Banga in a recent article reviewing the economic benefits of Big Data. Banga then outlined multiple different ways Big Data is changing how we interact with our world and each other. Big data helped healthcare workers beat back the Ebola virus in West Africa because the right data was being shared by the right people.
While data sharing in the healthcare industry tends to bring up concerns about privacy and protecting personal information, healthcare professionals across the globe are finding ways to implement big data while also protecting their patients’ rights to privacy.

It’s a tightrope walk, but big data’s rapid development is happening with these safeguards being built in place, giving people the benefits of evolving data science while honoring legitimate privacy concerns.

Some are calling for greater security measures, demanding that data be held in the nation by which it is collected. Banga said that’s a bad idea.

“These restrictions often confuse concerns about access to data for national security and law enforcement purposes with commercial use of data. The outcome is the fragmentation of data that creates a ‘splinternet,’ one that risks not only stifling economic growth but reversing it as well,” Banga wrote.

From a public perception perspective, that collision of safe-seeming restrictions and the loss of benefits caused by these decisions creates a constant cost-benefit tug of war between those feel the technology is moving too far too fast and those who are focused on the intense benefits being revealed – and enjoyed – by those who have begun to enthusiastically adopt big data science.

The bottom line in this back and forth is very simple: nations and businesses need the data, not just access to data but the ability to move it safely, for the world to fully realize the benefits of big data. This doesn’t mean anyone – I mean ANYONE – can get sloppy with data security. In fact, all efforts should be made to protect the sanctity of information in all its forms.

However, creating artificial walls that, when it’s all said and done, randomly restrict without offering any additional protection, hurts everyone.