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zoobyshoe
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The Right to "Big Data."
"Troves of Personal Data, Forbidden to Researchers"
The issue is that not every scientist is allowed access to "big data".
Also, as it says in the first quote, there is no way to check on the papers based on exclusive-access "big data". They might well be fraudulent.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/22/science/big-data-troves-stay-forbidden-to-social-scientists.html
"Troves of Personal Data, Forbidden to Researchers"
PALO ALTO, Calif. — When scientists publish their research, they also make the underlying data available so the results can be verified by other scientists.
At least that is how the system is supposed to work. But lately social scientists have come up against an exception that is, true to its name, huge.
It is “big data,” the vast sets of information gathered by researchers at companies like Facebook, Google and Microsoft from patterns of cellphone calls, text messages and Internet clicks by millions of users around the world. Companies often refuse to make such information public, sometimes for competitive reasons and sometimes to protect customers’ privacy. But to many scientists, the practice is an invitation to bad science, secrecy and even potential fraud.
The issue is that not every scientist is allowed access to "big data".
He added that corporate control of data could give preferential access to an elite group of scientists at the largest corporations. “If this trend continues,” he wrote, “we’ll see a small group of scientists with access to private data repositories enjoy an unfair amount of attention in the community at the expense of equally talented researchers whose only flaw is the lack of right ‘connections’ to private data.”
Also, as it says in the first quote, there is no way to check on the papers based on exclusive-access "big data". They might well be fraudulent.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/22/science/big-data-troves-stay-forbidden-to-social-scientists.html