Public Management of Big Data: Historical Lessons from the 1940s by Margo Anderson – Distinguished Professor, History and Urban Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

“At its core, public-sector use of big data heightens concerns about the balance of power between government and the individual. Once information about citizens is compiled for a defined purpose, the temptation to use it for other purposes can be considerable, especially in times of national emergency. One of the most shameful instances of the government misusing its own data dates to the Second World War. Census data collected under strict guarantees of confidentiality was used to identify neighborhoods where Japanese-Americans lived so they could be detained in internment camps for the duration of the war.”– Executive Office of the President, Big Data: Seizing Opportunities, Preserving Values, May 2014