Deutsche Bank Research released a research report yesterday. The DB Research Big Data report provides an in-depth, well-researched and up-to-date overview over the current developments in the field. Thomas Dapp, the author, is DB Research’s expert on all things related to digital economy.

As Big Data has become an almost bingo-worthy term DB Research’s report enables an objective assessment of the current state of this relatively new field. The report introduces the various actors that play a role, the sources and drivers of this wave that is  growing ever bigger, and it includes a view on the economic value behind all the data.

Bitkom estimated that, by 2016,  the market potential of Big Data in Germany alone will exceed 1.6 billion Euros. The players with the power to participate in the potential benefits of big data go far beyond just the IT sector.

As the wave breaks over the entire economy, science and the public sector will have to react in a similar fashion.

That clearly also includes regulating the use of personal data, one of the very big question marks that still remain regarding the potential uses of the data available.

Dapp, in an interview with the FAZ, mentions that “for every positive use example of big data, [he] can also come up with a negative one”. In other words, a balance between the potential economic value of any personal data that can be collected and the right to an individual’s privacy needs to be struck.