S-M-L-XL Data : Big Data as a New Informational Privacy Paradigm

Can informational privacy law survive Big Data? A few scholars have pointed to the inadequacy of the current legal framework to Big Data, especially the collapse of notice and consent, the principles of data minimization and data specification. These are first steps, but more is needed. To better understand the informational privacy implications of Big Data, this short comment locates Big Data as the newest point on a continuum of Small-Medium-Large-Extra Large data situations. This path indicates that Big Data is not just "more of the same", but a new informational paradigm. One suggestion is to conceptualize Big Data in terms of property: Perhaps data subjects should have a property right in their data, so that when others process it, subjects can share the wealth. However, privacy has a complex relationship with property. Lawrence Lessig's 1999 proposal to propertize personal data, was criticized: instead of more protection, said the critics, there will be more commodification. Does Big Data render property once again a viable option to save our privacy? I begin a query about the property/privacy relationship, by juxtaposing informational privacy with property, real and intangible, namely copyright. This path indicates that current property law is unfit to address Big Data