Big Data Analytics: Key Technologies and Challenges

We live in the era of big data. Big data generates immense economic and social value. Advances in data collection and the massive increase in cloud computing power are making technologies to effectively analyze large sets of heterogeneous data ubiquitous. Despite all the benefits of big data, the rise of "Big Data Analytics" in the private sector poses new challenges for privacy advocates. This paper discusses essential technologies and challenges related to big data analytics, namely (i) definition of big data analytics; (ii) essential technologies related to the big data analytics, with particular reference to the cloud computing, and hydoop etc.; (iii) risks arising from big data analytics, especially privacy harm.