We Are Big Data : New Technologies and Personal Data Management

This article aims to present a critical view on the use of personal data in the current scenario of hyper-connectivity, bringing to the fore, as an alternative, the possibility of self-managing data, based on a concrete project. We will first present a panorama of privacy in the twenty-first century emphasizing that it is a multifaceted right that has gained new contours in the face of contemporary technologies and presents challenges that have not yet been answered. Second, we will introduce the notion of big data, a term that describes any voluminous amount of structured, semi-structured or unstructured data that has the potential to be exploited to obtain information. We will also try to highlight the notion that the big data is us and that we have incentives to regain control over this information. In a third moment, we will give an exposition about the personal data management project called MyData. We will conclude this analysis by arguing that a project of this bias can be an effective alternative to protect the right to privacy in the contemporary world