The changing privacy landscape in the era of big data

Thirty years ago, it was relatively easy to protect one’s privacy and remain anonymous. Few computerized systems existed to store our personal information, the internet was so primitive that most were not even aware it existed, and only a few thousand individuals were privileged enough to own a handheld cellular phone. Fast forward to our current day and life—everything has changed. Rapid electronic transactions among individuals and between individuals and entire communities occur on an unprecedented scale, our life stream is continuously digitized and archived—GPS positioning information, cell phone calls, text messages, credit card purchases, e-mails, online social network chatter and even our electronic medical records (Figure 1). In fact, today the marketing department of your neighborhood Target can know before you that your own daughter is pregnant, given changes in purchase patterns (Duhigg, 2012). Long gone are the days of anonymity and privacy. The life and biomedical sciences have not been shielded from—and are on the verge of massively contributing to—the big data revolution. For example, we recently demonstrated