In May 2014, the President’s Council of Advisors in Science and Technology (PCAST) submitted the report to the President titled “Big Data and Privacy a Technological Perspective” that analyzes big data transformation and its effect on the future of privacy.
The report examined:
- What distinguishes big data from data on a smaller scale
- The infrastructure for handling and analyzing big data evolving through services such as cloud computing
- Opportunities and limitations that technology can offer in protecting privacy
PCAST recommends steps the Federal government should take around big data and privacy:
- Recommendation 1—Policy should focus more on the actual uses of big data and less on collection and analysis
- Recommendation 2—Policies and regulations at all levels of government should not embed particular technological solutions but should be stated in terms of intended outcomes
- Recommendation 3—The Networking and Information Technology Research and Development program should strengthen U.S research in privacy-related technologies and in areas of social science to produce information on the application of technologies
- Recommendation 4—Office of Science Technology Policy (OSTP) together with the appropriate educational institutions and professional societies should encourage education and training opportunities concerning privacy protection, including career paths for professionals
Go to www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2014/05/01/pcast-releases-report-big-data-and-privacy to view the report.