Big Data and Privacy: Control and Awareness Aspects

Big data is increasingly used by organizations to be better able to predict consumer behaviour; therefore, allowing organizations to better forecast customer demand and allocate resources accordingly. As big data use increases, a number of questions about the ethical collection and use of consumer data has arisen. For example, the data obtained for use in big data is not always explicitly provided to organizations from individuals. As a result, ownership of the data is not always clear. Organizations must find a balance in exploiting rich customer data and consumers’ privacy via its practices and information systems development. Further research is required on the social implications of big data and the impact to individual privacy. Previous privacy research has indicated the when organizations encroach on an individual’s personal boundaries; there is an impact on the relationship between consumers and the organization. Given this, it is imperative that organizations determine best practices on the use and collection of personal data. This paper explores the gap in research on privacy and big data and proposes a research agenda to determine the degree to which the factors of control and awareness account for information privacy concerns with big data and how organizations can utilize these factors to mitigate information privacy concerns