The White House issued a warning last week: Big data may be harmful to our privacy.

Give the White House credit. It is trying to keep an important issue before the eyes of the public. OK, this one does not deal with Benghazi or Obamacare. But in the long term, it will probably be even more important. The topic is big data.

The White House issued two well-thought out reports last week, one on the ethical ramifications and another on the technical aspects of big data in our lives. The topic did not gather a lot of press coverage, probably because it is not as sexy as other issues. In addition, it did not draw a lot of attention. It is one of those issues that simmers, rather than boils.

Big data is the gathering of massive amounts of information from all kinds of sources, from bridge crossings to online purchases to Internet searches to tweets and phone calls to bank records. You name it. With the new power of computers, all of those data points can be quickly analyzed and directed to detect patterns. The problem is that some of these patterns tell too much about our personal lives and leave us open to exploitation.

The analysts may be the National Security Agency or your friendly broadband company. It can even be that ice cream store down the street. The records of how many raspberry ice cream cones you bought or which movies you watched on cable are being recorded and analyzed. The NSA wants to predict the likelihood of terrorists living next store. The grocery store wants to predict what soda you will buy and what it will take to make you buy more...