The Big Data Revolution: How Big Data Impacts Trade Secret, Computer Fraud and Privacy Law

Seyfarth attorneys Robert Milligan, John Tomaszewski, and Joshua Salinas, along with Anthony Wong, a renowned IP and IT expert from AGW Consulting in Australia, will present the seventh installment in Seyfarth’s 2013 Trade Secrets webinar series. They will discuss how the Big Data Revolution has created a new age of discovery and opportunity by equipping companies with tools to derive valuable insight from once unnavigable oceans of data. Everyone uses Big Data–from employers trying to more efficiently resource and manage their workforce, to real estate investors attempting to maximize potential in land, to retailers gaining valuable insights for marketing and removing inefficiencies in distribution and operations, as well eCommerce trying to predict the “next big thing.” Everyone has the same need–to make useable information from the morass of noise that makes up the data ecosystem. Effective use of Big Data allows companies to tease out remarkable secrets from seemingly unconnected data points. But how do you leverage this capacity of making meaningful correlations without putting your company at risk?

Topics of discussion will include:

• The basics of Big Data and how companies can derive valuable insights from the previously unknown relationships between data points;
   
• How companies can utilize the benefits of Big Data, such as identifying and proactively addressing issues within their organizations, reducing operations costs, and understanding correlations in consumer behavior to differentiate your company from competitors;
   
• Big Data’s incumbent risks and challenges to privacy, trade secrets, and other intellectual property, including potential landmines regarding predictive capacity, accuracy, and ethics; and how to ensure the invaluable opportunities in Big Data are not outweighed by the potential legal and business risks.
   
• Mr. Wong will also discuss how Big Data challenges existing privacy frameworks and principles including the definition of personal information, principles of data minimization, purpose limitation and the concept of consent, as well as his experience from the Microsoft Global Privacy Summit.