In an increasingly digital society, data generated by human activity is the new black gold. New methods are being developed to acquire, transmit, sort, store and analyze this exponentially growing data in order to obtain useful information. Data science is the algorithmic analysis of massive amounts of structured and unstructured digital data (big data) through the use of analytical methods and I.T. These processes are made possible through the development of new infrastructures for data storage and processing (cloud computing; high performance computing), data exploration (data mining), automatic learning (machine learning; deep learning) and through the use of artificial intelligence.

The gathering and analysis of data, in particular of digital records, allows the humanities and social sciences give a sense to human and social behaviors. Social networking sites and platforms thus become key observation and analysis tools in regard to the evolution of our society, especially in the field of information, or inversely, of disinformation and fake news.

The use of econometric and statistical methods not only allows for the identification of patterns and of information on market trends, but also makes it possible to predict and influence a person’s purchasing behavior. In the legal field, LegalTechs are developing algorithms that can cross-reference and process case law data in order to render or predict legal decisions (predictive justice).

The use of digital data for the profiling of individuals raises social and ethical issues. The large scale processing of individuals’ digital data, often without the knowledge of the users who generate it, calls for the possibility to protect personal and sensitive data which are often difficult to anonymize. A consideration regarding the right to control one’s personal data, the right to prevent unauthorized disclosure, as well as the right to be forgotten or the right to have one’ s data removed from a database is necessary.