Big Data for Human Well Being and Survival: Opportunities and Challenges

Big data is gaining a lot of publicity these days as technology is intervening in all walks of human life. The paper discusses various uses of Big Data in our daily life and how it makes human activities hassle free. Instead of the high optimism on the possibilities of Big Data’s applications people are also concerned about its widespread adoption. Experts opine that it could result in as many harms like threats to privacy, more chances for cyber crimes, sidelining developing countries, the lack of transparency of methods used to process the data, over-dependence on Big Data analytics against traditional methods, the widening of digital divides etc. The paper gives a birds eye view of select countries making use of Big data to solve problems haunting the society, how Big Data is helping humainty in the wake of Covid- 19, and aspects to be considered to prevent harms of technology.