Why we need to talk about big data

On the other hand we read now about online technologies, combined with big data and artificial intelligence, becoming "the autocrat's new toolkit". The same technologies we enjoy - voice recognition, intelligent applications, wayfinding, habit-based recommendations - can now be used to keep track of our location, our communications and our personal lives. Every advance seems to have a potential downside. The very same NHS-DeepMind collaboration which has been improving diagnoses, has drawn privacy concerns about DeepMind's sharing of UK data with its US-based parent company Google. Citizens, businesses and governments need to talk about these issues, or the technology will run ahead of what societies want or will tolerate.