A qualitative change of personal information in the age of big data: A Study of court case in Taiwan

Big data is boosting the economy, transforming traditional business models and creating new opportunities through the use of business intelligence, sentiment analysis, data mining and analytics. At the same time, the data overflow presents privacy concerns that could create a regulatory backlash, restraining the data economy and stifling innovation. In fact, the principles of privacy and data protection must be balanced against additional societal values, such as economic efficiency, public health, environmental protection, law enforcement, and national security. To strike a balance between the beneficial uses of data and individual privacy, governments should address an appropriate structure of privacy law, including redefinition of “personal identifiable information” (PII) based on a risk matrix taking into account the potential consequences of re-identification. The article examines current definition of personal information in various countries and discusses the effect of qualitative change influenced by the big data. The article then analyzes a court case occurred in 2014 in Taiwan to discover the extent of indirectly PII the data protection law applies, and argues that we need a new legal framework of personal information protection in the age of bid data.