Does Big Data Change the Privacy Landscape? A Review of the Issues

Abstract

The current data revolution is changing the conduct of social science research as increasing amounts of digital and administrative data become accessible for use. This new data landscape has created significant tension around data privacy and confidentiality. The risk–utility theory and models underpinning statistical disclosure limitation may be too restrictive for providing data confidentially owing to the growing volumes and varieties of data and the evolving privacy policies. Science and society need to move to a trust-based approach from which both researchers and participants benefit. This review discusses the explosive growth of the new data sources and the parallel evolution of privacy policy and governance, with a focus on access to data for research. We provide a history of privacy policy, statistical disclosure limitation research, and record linkage in the context of this brave new world of data.