Introduction

This chapter introduces the term ‘big data’ and provides an initial overview of critical data studies. It presents the recent context of the growth and hype of big data advocates and debates around contested data ethics and potential responses to datafication. Also considered is the position of critical data studies in relation to the assumptions underlying ‘Big Data’ discourse and the intertwining of corporate activity and academic research. It suggests questions of paramount importance for the book’s inquiry revolve around notions of those discourse conditions that exist for big data-driven health research, ethical arguments and lastly the normativities in play in considering big data-driven research on public health surveillance. In separate sections the author explains her approach to the terms ‘Big Data’ and ‘Critical Data Studies’.