What is Big Data?

Big Data is a term that describes the large volume of data both structured and
unstructured- that indicates a business on a day to day basis. But its not the
amount of data that is important. Its what organizations do with the data that
matters. Big data can be analyzed for insights that lead to better decisions &
strategic business moves. (Source: sas)
What are the types of Big Data?
Structured: Information with a high degree of organization, such that inclusion in
a relational database is seamless and readily searchable by simple,
straightforward search engine algorithms or other search operations. For eg.
Transactional data, created data like customer surveys
Unstructured: Information which has no identifiable internal structure and
essentially the opposite of structured data i.e. it cant be gathered based on
clicks, purchases or a barcode. Its mostly human generated and not machine
generated. For eg. Emails, Word Files, PDF files, Spreadsheets, Digital Images,
Video, Audio, Social Media Posts
What to do with Big Data?
Large volumes of complex data require advanced techniques and technologies to
enable the capture, storage, distribution, management, and analysis of the
information. Eg. Hadoop, open source software for storing and processing very
large data sets.
As of now, only 0.5% of Big Data is used while studies claim that actually 33% of
the ever-growing data could be of use and help finding answers to enable cost
reduction, product development, time reductions etc.
Big Data can be used for the following:

Predictive modelling: Predicting outcome using variables in datasets

Unexpected discoveries: Finding different uses or relationship of two
variables using analytics eg. Medical science: an antidepressant drug was
found to have anti-cancer qualities
Real time analytics: gathering and processing data as it happens for timely
insights. Eg. Analysing root causes of failures & issues in near real time
Fix a problem before it becomes a crisis: eg. Detecting fraudulent
behaviour before it affects your organization.

LEGAL IMPLICATIONS OF BIG DATA

Potential use and benefits of analysing Big Data also raise privacy related
concerns. Data protection laws and confidentiality issues have to be in
compliance with while using the Big Data.
Data Ownership

o
o
o
o

It is a crucial legal issue to determine whether and to what extent the

companies using Big Data can claim ownership or proprietary rights.
Evaluating and assessing ownership of data is an essential step for
determining the value of a company or of its assets in case of bankruptcy
In EU, the law of data ownership originates from the Data Protection
Directive 95/46 and the Database Directive 96/9
It has been recently held in, Google Spain and Google Inc v Agencia
Espanola de Proteccion de Datos of Mario Costeja Gonzalez1 that that the
individual's right to data protection "will override the economic interest"
(i.e. the property right) "of the operator of the search engine".

Open Data & Public Sector

o
o

The Open Data association and governments around the world, including
the EU, are dedicated to make data publicly available and usable.
The EUs present review of the Public Sector Information Directive aims at
unlocking the potential of Big Data held and accumulated by government
authorities both with regard to the public sector itself leveraging the
potential and efficiencies that come along with a Big Data strategy, as well
as to enable innovators and private enterprise to access Big Data held by
public authorities.

Presently, India does not have specific privacy legislations or data protection
legislations. Despite this, Indian judiciary has interpreted Article 21 (right to life
and personal liberty) includes right to privacy as a fundamental right 2, but also
not absolute.
Big Data is accumulation of data on a digital platform and provisions relevant to
data protection are included, but not limited to, in IT Act, 2000
Copyright Act:
Shashank Shekhar Mishra v Ajay Gupta 3

1 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A62012CJ0131
2 Kharak Singh v State of UP, AIR 1963 SC 1295; People's Union of Civil Liberties
v. the Union of India, (1997) 1 SCC 318
3 2011 Indlaw DEL 2713