re: We've become slaves to big data

Exactly. I am a data analyst and I have worked for companies where I would get the data requested, build some reports etc. give to mgmt and I have seen mgmt manipulate the data provided to fit their agenda. I got called on it at one company to which I pulled all data provided and showed how it was manipulated by my end user. The VP who did the manipulation was fired shortly after.
Also shite in= shite out.