Big Data has been one of the most important digital phenomenon since the beginning of the 21th century. In 2014, it achieved a turnover of 10 billion dollars. On the other hand, we can now count Internet data in zettabyte.
These two facts show us, why in our economy Big Data is such an important concept. We can underline the impact of social networks too. Indeed, they collect billions of personal data every day. So, it was these networks that have actively helped the digitalisation of our society.

Article 10 - Big Data & Data Mining, image - Lienhardt Jean-Laurent


How Big Data and Data Mining are connected ?
In practice, Big Data represents a group of processes, techniques and data, which have been connected by networks (Internet, etc.). We can underline some techniques such as:

  • Machine learning / Meta-learning,
  • Visualization,
  • Data fusion and integration,
  • Data Mining,

 
We can notice the fact that Data Mining is a tool aiming at analysing informations. Nevertheless this concept is older than “Big Data”. It’s correct to say that Big Data has deeply changed the way we use and understand this analysis tool. The huge quantity of Data that compose the Big Data has needed some new instruments to mine and to analyse data:

  • Machine learning and neural networks,
  • Specific analysis model (CRISP, 6-sygma, SEMMA)

 
These new practices allows to analyse data and the Internet deeper and deeper. They show us data that were hiding in the deep web since now. Machines are automatically targeting data and doing some first processing on these. So, if machines can “think” by themselves which one is responsible of data processing? Indeed, machines have more and more possibilities to make their own decision to keep the process of analysis easy for business decisions.
 
The artificial Intelligence a new research problem for lawyers
The main problem is the fact that when machines are mining, they could use black or grey data. That’s why main issues of mining Big Data are concerning legal aspect. This lack of an adapted legal frame to deal with the data mining evolution will become a real problem.
Indeed, when you know who are using and processing data, there’s no problem to deal with this organisation. But if machines are automatically processing data? In many cases the owner of the data mining tool doesn’t know exactly how much and what are the data, which are using by machines. So, it’s difficult to say that companies are to be find guilty, if they cannot know the fact that machine have used grey or black data during the analysis process.
We can notice the fact that in France, the “LIL – Loi Informatique et Liberté” tries to protect personal data. This is a good initiative, but it’s not enough considering the evolution of data mining. Maybe lawmakers should to take concern of these evolutions and adapt the law.
 

Jean-Laurent Lienhardt

Etudiant du Master 2 Droit de l’économie numérique de l’Université de Strasbourg. Autoentrepreneur dans les domaines de la comptabilité et du business consulting. Impliqué dans la recherche concernant le « Crowdfunding », je tâche d’appréhender les impacts sociaux, légaux et économiques de l’usage des nouvelles technologiques…

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