Big data helps to mitigate risks, but could it also be a huge risk within itself?

In recent years with the improvement of IT, we have been able to collect more data than ever. According to datafloq, an advertising company that works to leverage big data, over 90% of all user data has been collected in the last two years. That shows that companies are putting an emphasis on collecting and leveraging user data, collecting more and more about users everyday. Without much thought we give companies our names, birthdays, jobs, interests and even addresses. All of this key information allows companies to effectively analyze their consumer market, and allows them to better serve their customers. Big data has helped companies discover optimal business placement, adapt to changes in the market, assess financial risk, identify churn rates and potential fraud, among other things. At a glance, it’s easy to see just how big data can be a big benefit to companies, and even users. While big data can be leveraged to help companies mitigate risks, it can also carry quite a big one in the vulnerability of their IT systems. Big data breaches have shown vulnerability in companies of all sizes and carries considerable risk, such as in 2014 when Yahoo suffered a data breach that cost the company an estimated $350 million in value. This doesn’t just hurt the company but also puts the consumer at risk, with their information now being exposed to the public where it can be leveraged by black hat hackers for their own financial benefit. With several big data breaches in the past few years, and exposing millions of individuals data; it raises questions on how can we protect this information. Should companies be allowed to store user information? What type of data is too important to store? Should there be regulation imposed in an attempt to increase safety?