Data mining was a term used more frequently before big data. Nissenbaum calls it an analytic technique, and according to Kuhn, it is more accurately called knowledge discovery in data (KDD) (1). It "uses large data aggregations to draw inferences about individuals" (44). Kuhn says it is "is the technology capable of distinguishing these patterns within millions of dossiers" (1).
References:
Kuhn, Martin. Federal Dataveillance: Implications for Constitutional Privacy Protections. New York: LFB Scholarly Pub., 2007. EBrary. Web. 19 Apr. 2014.
Nissenbaum, Helen. Privacy in Context: Technology, Policy, and the Integrity of Social Life. Stanford: Stanford Law, 2010. Print.