There’s a movement underway to capture an increasing amount of data about employees – from facial recognition or fingerprint systems used for tracking time and attendance, to systems that monitor your every keystroke. All of these invasive data collection technologies raise this question: What should be the limits of biometric data collection in the workplace? […]
A Brief History of Data Ethics
In this digital age, where data is an increasingly integral asset for every organization, the ethical implications surrounding data collection, storage, and usage have become prominent. The evolution and history of data ethics is a complex journey that connects technological advancements with societal values and legal frameworks. Understanding this evolution requires examining key historical milestones and the […]
Data Ethics: New Frontiers in Data Governance
Would you feel comfortable serving as a Data Governance consultant for an organized crime family … but not for a brokerage with tax fraud in its past? Could the use of ransomware be considered socially acceptable if its demands benefitted needy children? These hypotheticals might sound outrageous – indeed, they are meant to be provocative – but […]
Ask a Data Ethicist: When Is It OK to Use “Fake” Data?
It’s easier than ever to use AI-generated images or text and to create synthetic data for use in research. A recent high-profile story got me thinking more about this question: When is it OK to use “fake” data? Before we dive into this, I’m putting “fake” in quotes because I’m taking a wide perspective on […]
Data Ethics 101
Data ethics ensures that businesses handle data – beginning with its acquisition and ending with its distribution – with full attention to individual rights, privacy, and consent. Moreover, ethical decision-making in businesses has to strike a balance between technology and morality to preserve individual rights. This includes considerations around transparency, accountability, and fairness in the […]
Data Ethics 101
The term “data ethics” refers to a set of guidelines that ensure data collection, use, and management processes respect privacy and security while safeguarding fairness. This includes considering the implications of data collection methods, the transparency of algorithms used to process information, and how decisions based on data analysis might affect individuals and communities. What […]
Ask a Data Ethicist: What Is Data Sovereignty?
Recently, my DATAVERSITY colleague Mark Horseman shared that he’d been getting a lot more questions about Indigenous data sovereignty. We both agreed it would make a great topic for this month’s column. What is Indigenous data sovereignty, why does it matter, and how can we learn more about it? To answer these questions, it helps […]
Ask a Data Ethicist: What Happens When Language Becomes Data?
At a recent presentation for a local post-secondary institution, I fielded a number of questions related to the use of language, primarily English language texts, as training data for generative AI. There were questions around cultural impacts and related ethical concerns. These queries were more nuanced than the usual ones I get around copyright or […]
Now Is the Time for Executives to Deploy Ethical Rules Around AI
For better or worse, AI is causing disruption in almost every field imaginable. Corporations around the world are embracing its possibilities to make work more efficient. The success of ChatGPT and other generative AI tools has also caught the attention of nearly every industry in an effort to meet profitability, efficiency, and sustainability goals. Money […]
Human-AI Collaboration: How AI Can Enhance Human Capabilities and Ethical Considerations
Artificial intelligence is here to change the world, and it is up to us to embrace this technology and use it responsibly to reap its full potential. Although critics have expressed some valid concerns about the potential harm that AI technology could bring about, fostering an AI-human collaboration can allow us to use this powerful […]