The Present Understandings of Data Ethics and a Path Forward
Through my research process for the assessment in Ethical Data Futures, I began to think a lot more about how as ‘users’, we understand what consent means when agreeing to use a certain product like an Apple iphone, or online applications like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, or Twitter. After watching this Tedx talk by Fred Cate over Data Privacy and Consent, I realized that giving consent to these companies and applications does not exactly mean that the data we are providing to them is safe, or even being used in an ethical way. Most users dont even realize what they are agreeing to when ‘consenting’. I suggested in my final paper that instead of worrying so much about consent, ethical data practices should be used by the ones that hold data. Those who hold our data should act as stewards, looking out and using our data with the individuals best interest. At the same time, the common group of people that are using these applictions and products should understand that the cost of using those platforms is their individual data. That should be a fair tradeoff. Another step that users can take is to educate themselves on how their individual data might be used by the entities that are holding it.
This made me think of all the data that might be collected by these companies. I’m sure a large portion of that data is not even used for anything yet, just sitting in storage waiting for a purpose. Looking towards my dissertation research, I wonder what kinda data isn’t being used to help create successful conflict forecasting models. The model itself isn’t the problem but the indicators that are placed within these models to make predictions. How can Big Data be looked through to identify pieces of data that has no value yet or no definition, and potentially identify a goldmine of possible indicators? I belive trying to answer this question in my dissertation could provide great value to not just future forecasting models but also to the process of findings ways to identify and define unformatted data.
