The word “data” connotes fixed numbers inside hard grids of information, and as a result, it is easily mistaken for fact. … The term suggests assembling many facts to create greater, previously unseen truths. …
Kate Crawford, a researcher at Microsoft Research, calls the problem “Big Data fundamentalism — the idea with larger data sets, we get closer to objective truth.” Speaking at a conference in Berkeley, Calif., on Thursday, she identified what she calls “six myths of Big Data.” [cont.]
Quentin Hardy, New York Times