Introduction to Data Ethics 1 Defining Data Ethics in His Book Tap, Anindya Ghose Imagines a Future in Which a Company Could
Introduction to Data Ethics Chapter from: The Business Ethics Workshop, 3rd Edition By: James Brusseau Boston Acacdemic Publishing / FlatWorld Knowledge ISBN: 978-1-4533-8744-3 Introduction to Data Ethics 1 Defining Data Ethics In his book Tap, Anindya Ghose imagines A future in which a company could send a coupon to a potential customer before she even leaves for a shopping trip that she didn’t even know she was going to take.1 This future will be made possible by data technology that gathers, stores, and organizes information about users of Facebook, Amazon, Google, Verizon. Every time you log in, you add details about who your friends are (Facebook), what you’re buying (Amazon), what’s going on in your life (Gmail), and where you are (mobile phone towers need to locate you to provide service). All this data is stockpiled atop the information about age, gender, location, and the rest that you handed over when you created your account. Then there are the databrokers—companies with less familiar names, Acxiom, for example—that buy the personal information from the original gatherers, and combine it with other data sources to form super-profiles, accumulated information about individuals that’s so rich, companies can begin to predict when you will go shopping, and what you’ll buy. The gathering and uses of data go beyond the marketplace. Law enforcement organizations, anti-terrorism efforts, and other interests are also learning how to gather and use digital traces of human behavior, but the most compelling scenes of data ethics are also the most obvious: occasions where we volunteer information about ourselves as part of an exchange for some (usually quick) satisfaction.
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