Privacy Leader Takes Issue With ‘Myths’ About Big Data

Responding to a recently published story in Health Data Management, “The Biggest Big Data Myths of 2013,” as well as the news that drug database vendor IMS Health Holdings will go public, Deborah Peel, M.D., leader of the Patient Privacy Rights advocacy group, offers a different view of Big Data:

“The biggest myth about ‘Big Data’ users of the entire nation’s health information is that personal health data was acquired legally and ethically.

“Just ask anyone you know if they ever agreed to the hidden use and sale of sensitive personal information about their minds and bodies by corporations or ‘research’ businesses for analytics, sales, research or any other use. The answer is ‘no.’