  Big data has become a great asset for many organizations, promising improved
operations and new business opportunities. However, big data has increased
access to sensitive information that when processed can directly jeopardize the
privacy of individuals and violate data protection laws. As a consequence, data
controllers and data processors may be imposed tough penalties for
non-compliance that can result even to bankruptcy. In this paper, we discuss
the current state of the legal regulations and analyze different data
protection and privacy-preserving techniques in the context of big data
analysis. In addition, we present and analyze two real-life research projects
as case studies dealing with sensitive data and actions for complying with the
data regulation laws. We show which types of information might become a privacy
risk, the employed privacy-preserving techniques in accordance with the legal
requirements, and the influence of these techniques on the data processing
phase and the research results.
