Big Data offers opportunities and challenges in all aspects of human life. In relation to research ethics, Big Data represents a normative difference in degree rather than a difference in kind. Data are more messy, rapid, difficult to predict, and difficult to identify owners; but the principles of informed consent, confidentiality, and prevention of harm apply equally to digital data. Recognition that technologies are not inherently value neutral, and that data collection, aggregation, and their use in decision making can both create and intensify inequities and harms is central to applying these principles. Data justice extends concern with voice and authenticity into the digital domain. Universities act as gatekeepers to professional accreditation in fields including software engineering. The relation between academic freedom of enquiry, state and corporate interests in the Big Data age raises important questions about power and control in the academy, which have governance implications.