Data ethics
The human population is on the verge of a revolution with transformations in big data and the numerous phenomena associated with them such as social media usage, health tracking data, emails, and text messaging (Hand, 2018). These developments have been so rapid that the average user has often failed to know and understand their actions and the resulting consequences. Over the years, there has been a change of perception in ethics since many people and corporates are unaware of the unintended consequences of their actions (Zwitter, 2014). Therefore an ethical over-watch and restrictions over the data relating to peoples activities is required to ensure that the risks and benefits of data technology are balanced.
According to Zwitter ( 2014), Our activities have become completely transparent to anybody with the right access and skills. Data analysts are able to tell our shopping preferences, health status, online consumption and most information on our private life (Hand, 2018). This data can be used in a targeted way to influence people to act in a certain way, such as changing people’s preferences to a particular product based on their private information .Data from our day to day lives has been used in what is referred to as predictive policing, where law enforcement use big data analysis to predict a person’s likelihood of committing a crime (Zwitter, 2014). This raises concerns about the ethical role of those setting the threshold and the likelihood that they are correct. Many researchers take to social media such as Twitter and Facebook to conduct research about a particular subject or group (Willis, 2013). The researchers collect data from these sites without considering the lack of informed consent. This constitutes a breach of research ethics.
In conclusion, data ethics should be dynamic so as to cope with the rapid changes in technology and big data. It should also ensure that private customer data should be obtained from people with their consent. Third party companies sharing sensitive data need to have restrictions on whether that information can be shared.
References
Zwitter, A. (2014). Big data ethics. Big Data & Society, 1(2), 2053951714559253.
Hand, D. (2018). Aspects of Data Ethics in a Changing World: Where Are We Now?. Big Data, 6(3), 176-190. doi: 10.1089/big.2018.0083
Willis III, J. E. (2013). Ethics, Big Data, and Analytics: A Model for Application. Educause Review Online.