Abstract
Over the past 20 years, the global economy has been reshaped by digital technologies. All over the world, individuals and organizations have adopted and increasingly rely upon digitally-enabled devices and technologies to help them conduct essential daily tasks. We are connected via the Internet and telecommunication networks that span the earth, through a global grid of close to 8 billion mobile connected devices (more than the human population). Individuals and organizations increasingly use these devices to continuously engage with digitally-enabled activities (which in turn generate digital traces). The concomitant consumption, usage, and generation of computer-mediated, computer-processed, and network-transmitted data have become an intrinsic feature of economic and social activity.