Masters of Big Data: Concentration of Power Over Digital Information

Abstract

In our society, information has assumed a fundamental role in every decisional and social process. Governments and big private companies collect huge amounts of data that represent a strategic and economically relevant asset. The predictive relevance of big data management and the global dimension of this phenomenon has led us to reflect on the nature and the dynamics of a centralized power held by only a few subjects. The increasing power that derives from big data necessitates the adoption of adequate remedies to control and limit the information asymmetries and their consequences in terms of economic advantages and social control. From this perspective it is important to adopt adequate measures to control those who have this power, in order to limit possible abuse and illegitimate advantages, and, at the same time, to increase access to information, in order to spread informational power.