What do whistleblower Edward Snowden, UKIP politician Nigel Farrage and Donald Trump have in common? Big data played a crucial part in their career lives.
General information about big data
- „Big Data“: A definition
- The ‚Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung‘ published a magazine about big data.
Big data – a threat to democracy?
- Mass surveillance: Whistleblowers argue that „I have nothing to hide“ is a dangerous attitude when it comes to mass surveillance: See an interactive website about the whistleblower Edward Snowden and the NSA files (The Guardian)
- Elections: Can big data be used to influence elections and thus undermine the bedrock of democracy?
- The (now closed) company Cambridge Analytica claims to be able to create individual voter profiles by using big data collected on social media sites like Facebook (Cambridge Analytica was hired by the Brexit-campaign and by Donald Trump’s team); the same company boasts that it could also use dirty tricks to influence elections.
- Extensive material about the Cambridge Analytica scandal
- Hoewever, some people question that Cambridge Analytica was in fact able to influence the US elections considerably, e.g. Dennis Horn from WDR