CyberSightings

In the Spotlight

One of the top technology buzzwords in 2013 is Big Data. In general, this term refers to huge data sets, whose processing and storage requirements exceed all traditional paradigms and infrastructure. Big Data offer the opportunity to run complex analyses on a unique set of related data, allowing the identification of information patterns, which could not be achieved on small series of data. Such Big Data not only include structured databases, but also data from etherogeneous sources (e.g., images, e-mails, GPS data, social networking data). What is interesting about this trend is that tools used to analyze and manage Big Data are no longer used exclusively by large enterprises, but are also potentially available to individual users, who can use them even from their smartphones or tablets.

According to several analysts, the increasing availability of Big Data, in particular those generated by social media, is having a significant impact on traditional industrial sectors, from business intelligence to healthcare. However, others suggest that Big Data could also change policy making: by analysing bottom-up information flows, governments could produce more sophisticated and focused interventions. From this perspective, Big Data could be integrated in large-scale social experiments for policy determination, also known as “behavioural insights.” This is the idea of using randomized controlled trials to test efficacy of public policies. While such an evidence-based approach is already common in medical research, its application to inform policy making is a potential breakthrough. Although this may sound strange, politicians are taking this approach seriously. As reported by Olivier Oullier in a recent article in Nature (2013, 501, p. 463), UK Prime Minister David Cameron established a Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) within the influential Cabinet Office shortly after he was elected; the U.S. equivalent started its activities this summer. According to Oullier, who is Professor of Behavioural and Brain Sciences at Aix-Marseille University, randomized controlled trials can facilitate governments in taking the best decisions, preventing errors and eventually saving taxpayers' money.

It is certainly too early to know if behavioural insights will, in the long term, replace conventional policy making approaches. However, Big Data could provide a shortcut to make this vision come true. Actually, Big (social) Data allows for the definition of sophisticated, large-scale social experiments and monitoring the effects of specific policies by taking into consideration a number of indicators. Furthermore, Big Data could allow decision makers and citizens to collaborate more closely, creating a new forms of participatory approaches to policy and governance. Clearly, the other side of the coin concerns the risks of new forms of social control, not to mention privacy-related harms associated with personal data collection and use. To address these issues, it will be necessary to enact new regulations and promote a new code of ethical principles.

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