Author: Maximillian Hofer
Publisher: Medium
Publication Year: 2018
Summary: The following article mentions some ethical challenges or issues with companies having large amounts of data on individuals. While using these large amounts of data can provide valuable information on a specific topic or population, such as being able to determine if an individual will be a repeat offender of a specific crime, the models created can be discriminatory against a specific race. Even though race discrimination is a problem with some models created, one other major issue is the fact that some companies lack transparency with the public on the model that they have created. Some companies may not want to share the creation or what the article called “inner workings” of the model because it might lead to a competitive disadvantage if they choose to share information like this. This is understandable, however, the public may not always be able to see clearly how the model works and see if it is actually biased towards or against certain groups of people. Another issue the article brought up is the problem with asking for customers to provide more information on their home electricity consumption. While it may be helpful to modelers, this can be considered as unethical to have a lot of information on a persons electricity consumption because information like this may indicate when a person may be home or not. Information like this could expose an individual’s personal life. So while there are benefits to creating better models with large amounts of data, some applications may be unethical.
