  This paper presents the risks and opportunities of big data and the potential
social benefits it can bring. The research is based on an analysis of the
societal impacts observed in a set of six case studies across different
European sectors. These impacts are divided into economic, social and ethical,
legal and political impacts, and affect areas such as improved efficiency,
innovation and decision making, changing business models, dependency on public
funding, participation, equality, discrimination and trust, data protection and
intellectual property rights, private and public tensions and losing control to
actors abroad. A special focus is given to the risks and opportunities coming
from the legal framework and how to counter the negative impacts of big data.
Recommendations are presented for four specific legal frameworks: copyright and
database protection, protection of trade secrets, privacy and data protection
and anti-discrimination. In addition, the potential social benefits of big data
are exemplified in six domains: improved decision making and event detection;
data-driven innovations and new business models; direct social, environmental
and other citizen benefits; citizen participation, transparency and public
trust; privacy-aware data practices; and big data for identifying
discrimination. Several best practices are suggested to capture these benefits.
