In an article for the MIT Technology Review, Jeffrey F. Rayport delves into "Big Data" and the myriad companies emerging that mine and aggregate "massive amounts of unstructured data"--800 billion gigabytes of which is currently available, estimates market intelligence firm IDC--for financial gain. "As the store of data grows, the analytics available to draw inferences from it will only become more sophisticated," Rayport opines, adding, "The potential dark side of Big Data suggests the need for a code of ethical principles." Rayport proposes a structure of ethics, including his own digital "Golden Rule: Do unto the data of others as you would have them do unto yours."
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