Long-term conservation of data is also hampered by changes in physical storage devices, IT platforms and software. The theory and practice of building archives in the big-data era is in its infancy; it needs to grow up fast. Third, the emergence of big data has raised the importance of data integrity, confidentiality and privacy to a level never seen before.
Protection of personal data is central to our societies; one could say that it helps to define them, to the extent that it is inextricably linked to the protection of individual rights more generally.