Market research and the ethics of big data

The term 'big data' has recently emerged to describe a range of technological and commercial trends enabling the storage and analysis of huge amounts of customer data, such as that generated by social networks and mobile devices.

Market research and the ethics of big data

Daniel Nunan

University of Reading

MariaLaura Di Domenico

University of Surrey

Introduction

We never, ever in the history of mankind have had access to so much information so quickly and so easily.

(Vint Cerf, ‘father of the internet’, quoted in Silva 2009)

Concerns over privacy, and the collection and use of personal information, have been closely associated with the growing influence of technology in society (Garson 1988; Zuboff 1988). As long ago as 1890, legal scholars raised concerns over the commercial application of new photographic technologies in the newspaper...

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