The role of privacy-preserving technologies in the age of big data

The potential social and economic benefits of big data applications are highlighted by researchers and the media alike. However, they can also have negative implications, which are not limited to privacy issues. With alarming regularity, massive data breaches become public. Measures taken by both policy makers and business leaders do not seem to be effective. Privacy preserving technologies have long been a hot topic in research, but they have not yet been widely integrated into big data solutions. To understand the mechanisms that drive or prevent the deployment of privacy-preserving technologies better, we investigated their effectiveness and the challenges they pose as well as their perception and use in the context of big data. The findingsindicate that privacy-preserving technologies are quite mature, have different aims and need to be combined to be effective. The mechanisms that affect their deployment are manifold.