This issue of the “Privacy e Innovazione” series contains the work of Elena Cirotti who won the second edition of Award for the best degree or doctoral thesis on the themes of data protection and innovation. The thesis was considered by the relevant committee to be highly contemporary, well written and assisted by an important bibliographic reference kit. Big Data has now become a part of our everyday life. But what pitfalls do Big Data entail and how national laws can react to them? These are key questions that guide the analysis throughout the entire book. The volume closely studies the exploitation of personal data by firms and its consequent impact on both the market and the individuals. It intends to contribute to the academic and political debate on whether or not more control over data should be granted to data firms. To do so, the volume undertakes a comparative analysis of the EU and US jurisdictions that, in the attempt to picture the complexity of the phenomenon, analyses three different branches of laws – competition, IP and data protection – and the intersections among them.