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Paper long abstract:

The technological progress and the plethora of new data driven applications, which have are discussed as "Big Data", raise serious concerns about new possibilities for surveillance. In particular the recent disclosures about the activities of secret services has shown the potential of data collection and analysis as means of surveillance. At the same time, many of the data used by those surveillance programs accrue in services which form an integral part of the quality of life in modern societies: easy and mobile access to the internet, effective and fast communication and social networking, access to widespread sources of information. Furthermore, companies, states, and NGOs are working on potentially beneficial uses of "Big Data". To name a few, they hope to improve healthcare, education, energy distribution, resilience against catastrophes, or the predication of disease outbreaks. These positive outlooks create an "ethical dissonance" with the negative connotations of surveillance. Furthermore, the negative implications of "Big Data" are not limited to surveillance. For example, increased use of data might lead to socially unjust distributions of healthcare; unjust insurance policies; or paternalist schemes concerning education, drug use, or diet. Against this background, we inquire to what extent surveillance is suitable as a critical paradigm for "Big Data". To that aim, we propose a wider perspective of analysis that shows which new ways of action are enabled or disabled and how power and participation are distributed in these processes.