The availability of “big data” and “smart” products are credited with advancing solutions to complex problems in medicine, transportation, and education, among others. However, with big data comes big responsibility. The collection, storage, sharing, and analysis of data are far outpacing individual privacy protections, whether technological or legislative. The Internet of Things (IoT), with its promise to create networks of networks, will magnify individual data privacy threats. Recent data breaches, exposing the personal information of millions of users, provide insight into the vulnerability of personal data. Although seemingly expansive, there are core individual privacy issues that are central to current big data breaches and anticipated IoT threats. This article examines both big data and the IoT using examples of data privacy breaches to illustrate the impact of individual data loss. Furthermore, the article examines the complexity of tackling technological and legislative challenges in protecting individual privacy. It concludes by summarizing these issues in terms of the future implications of the IoT and the loss of privacy.
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