The Five Cs: Five Framing Guidelines to Help You Think About Building Data Products

Author: DJ Patil, Hilary Mason, Mike Loukides

Publisher: O’Reilly

Publication Year: 2018

Summary: The following article provides 5 guidelines to help build data products in a professional way. These include 1). Consent (making sure you have an agreement when obtaining consent to collect and use data); 2). Clarity (being clear about what users are consenting to); 3). Consistency & trust (being predictable and trustworthy in intentions and actions); 4). Control & transparency (being clear about what controls users have over their own data and what to do if they change their mind); and 5). Consequences (thinking through potential problems or issues before they occur).

Content provides a good introduction to data ethics in an easily digestible format, especially as the alliteration of the 5Cs makes it easy to remember for new learners. DJ Patil writes and speaks a lot about data ethics. He was the Chief Data Scientist of the United States under Barack Obama. Mike Loukides is an author and VP of content strategy at O’Reily Media. Hillary Mason is a data scientist and founder of a technology start-up. She is also the Data Scientist in Residence at Accel Partners.