Big data has enormous potential to generate new knowledge in many different sectors – knowledge that can contribute to better health, more efficient decision-making, better law enforcement, more personalized services, and more.   At the same time, the social and organizational behavior enabled through the use of big data analytical techniques create daunting ethical issues. This presentation begins with a discussion of the Facebook emotional contagion study, and the controversy surrounding it, in an attempt to frame big data analysis using personal data as a form of human subjects research.  In seeking to get to the heart of the ethical challenges, the presentation focuses on privacy and fairness.  The presentation argues that standard accounts of privacy especially those that focus on anonymity and the panoptic gaze are inadequate to deal with the kind of data collection that is now possible.  Much more attention should be focused on the accountability of organizations and their use of personal data and especially the fairness of organizational practices that are enabled by big data. 

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