To accompany the Big Data POSTnotes, the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) held a seminar in November 2014 on the opportunities and challenges of big data as well as the issues it creates for governance. Drawing a balance between maximising the utility of data and protecting personal privacy and civil rights, ensuring fairness and preventing discrimination poses difficult questions. At the seminar experts from across academia, government, industry and the third sector debated where this balance should lie and different means of achieving it.