When They Are Your Big Data: Participatory Data Practices as a Lens on Big Data

The September 2014 post details a tension between the practice of self-quantification or self-tracking, and inaccessible, corporate-owned data streams. This tension, long present in debates about privacy and accessibility (Shilton 2012), is drawing a critical mass of attention as two (related) phenomena converge: more consumers are using personal fitness devices and self-tracking applications, and personalized health data are gaining prominence as a topic of scientific investigation.