Sure, discuss big data all you want. Articles have been written, reports commissioned and studies done, but it's always portrayed as benign and anonymous. Some anonymous server in some distant data centre deciding what products to send you adverts on, or some anonymous actuaries sitting in a grey building writing formulas to calculate everyone's risks and premiums based on a huge sample of population data.
The reality of the invasion of privacy is much more nefarious and personal. It's about housing estates compiling lists of names, ID and cellphone numbers, and fingerprints, then selling them to the highest bidder, whether that's a SMS spammer or an insurance company! It's about gyms *cough*Virgin Active*cough* demanding your bank details so that they can circumvent the civil justice system when it comes to collecting debts. It's about every form you fill in demanding your ID number, even if all you want to do is buy some gum.
That's why I'm looking forward to the POPI Act. Clause 10 - it should protect us from that sort of blatant data collection. Collection by faceless corporations that intend to profit off the data that they're demanding for free. Pity the only methods the public has of enforcing this are expensive court cases and public shaming. It's still a nice piece of legislation, though.
