You can Shelve your Big Data Startup Plans if you don´t have Privacy Covered - A Standards Perspective

Identity experts (yes, that´s you) usually seem to be inoculated against hype: when Cloud Computing emerged, we all realized, at least from a standards perspective, that there would be evolutionary rather than revolutionary changes in authentication, security and privacy. So far, we have turned the same jaded eye to Big Data issues, having long appreciated the connection between identity and personal data, and problems of scale, storage and velocity.  With Big Data, could it be that we need to pay better attention?

The promise of Big Data on the vendor side largely is related to deeper, better analytical tools, with the challenge being to convert data into information or intelligence.   We actively seek new, actionable analytics that couldn´t be produced before.  At the same time, as open data sources collide and combine, and we ramp up BI projects, we also learn things we didn´t expect.  Some new kinds of information just show up, unsummoned, from "big data" projects, including sensitive personal data, and we have to cope with that, too.

With these trends, the individual and his or her data emerge at the center of Cloud and Big Data computing.   Privacy and the rules and standards that measure it will not just become a hot button in the years to come -- they may actively get in the way of many Big Data business plans, unless we manage them well.   This tension is already evident in government, from the recent collisions of plans and goals between regulatory agencies tasked with justice, privacy and connectivity.