Big Data: A Very Short Introduction

An unimaginably vast amount of data is now generated by our online lives, including all our uploaded documents, social media traffic, online shopping, and even GPS date from our cars. At the same time, our ability to manage this data is becoming ever more sophisticated.

In this Very Short Introduction, Dawn Holmes explains how big data is stored, analysed, and exploited by a variety of bodies, from large companies to organizations concerned with medical research. As big data transforms the way business operate, it simultaneously raises important ethical issues, as cases such as the Snowden affair and hacked smart devices have shown.