Sander Klous holds a PhD in High Energy Physics and contributed to the discovery of the Higgs boson at CERN (Nobel prize 2013). Klous works at KPMG and is professor in Big Data at the University of Amsterdam.

Nart Wielaard is a self-employed consultant and business writer. He develops compelling and clear stories on complex topics for a broad range of clients. Wielaard specializes in the domain where technology, society and business meet.

This book demonstrates the inevitability of a continuously growing role of data in our society and it stresses that this role does not need to be threatening: to the contrary, collection and analysis of data can help us prevent traffic jams, suppress epidemics, or produce tailor made medicine. The authors sketch the contours of a new information society, in which everything will be measured from our heartbeat during our morning run to the music we listen to and our walking patterns through department stores and they discuss the resistances within the society that have to be overcome.