‘Big Data,’ by Viktor Mayer-Schönberger and Kenneth Cukier - NYTimes.com

A timely book review; for a detailed book summary, see New Books in Brief

"Why spread such a huge net in search of a handful of terrorist suspects? Why vacuum up data so indiscriminately? “If you’re looking for a needle in the haystack, you need a haystack,” Jeremy Bash, chief of staff to Leon E. Panetta, the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency and defense secretary, said on Friday.
In “Big Data,” their illuminating and very timely book, Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, a professor of Internet governance and regulation at the Oxford Internet Institute at Oxford University, and Kenneth Cukier, the data editor for The Economist, argue that the nature of surveillance has changed."

‘Big Data,’ by Viktor Mayer-Schönberger and Kenneth Cukier - NYTimes.com