Big Data Before and After Snowden

The author reflects on a symposium panel discussion on “Swimming in the Ocean of Big Data: National Security in the Age of Unlimited Information” that occurred before the Snowden disclosures. He analyzes the panel discussion in context of the time at which it occurred and compares it to what has become known since June 2013.… Continue reading Big Data Before and After Snowden

The Democratization of Big Data

The author explores the origins of “big data” and how the phenomenon was able to spread to a wider audience through parallel technological advances in computer hardware and the open source movement. The article focuses specifically on the progress made by Google related to a series of papers published from 2003 to 2006 that were… Continue reading The Democratization of Big Data

The NSA and Accountability in an Era of Big Data

In his symposium speech, the General Counsel of the National Security Agency, Raj De attempts to bridge the gap between the public discourse about NSA and the reality of the legal rules, oversight, and responsibility that currently exist at the agency. De sought to clarify NSA’s activities relating to data collection and storage and what… Continue reading The NSA and Accountability in an Era of Big Data