The Internet is awash with data, all of it with varying degrees of copyright protection. Big Data is intimately coupled with the Internet, as suggested by the fact that from an etymological perspective, it did not spring into existence until after the Internet was well established. Immense amounts of records were collected by computer business systems, such as the phone company and by governmental agencies such as the Census Bureau prior to the Internet, but that content was generally isolated and mass dissemination was difficult.

The Big Data-Internet connection is evidenced by the fact that the Internet is required for most Big Data transactions, including collection, storage and dissemination. Most of Big Data's content consists of uniquely Internet-related elements, namely users' transactions, meta-tag applicators and Internet content providers.

Disorderly digital data of the Internet is a big component in what is now being called Big Data. Most of the other constituents of Big Data, such as metadata, are derivatives of Internet data. By describing the contents and context of data files, metadata increases the value of said files. As a result, metadata facilitates the discovery and transfer of relevant information.