FTC warns of using big data to exclude consumers | PCWorld

But the U.S. shouldn’t abandon long-held ideas that individuals should have control over their personal data, said Pamela Dixon, executive director of the World Privacy Forum. “I don’t think the [longtime] structures need to be reinvented or shoved aside because data sets are larger,” she said. “It’s important to keep the regulations that we have ... to ensure that fair information practices are still applicable and relevant.” Dixon and Danah Boyd, a principal researcher at Microsoft Research, both noted that the big data industry is in many ways in its infancy. Many companies using big data are still figuring out how to use the information responsibly, Boyd said.