Author: Nathan Kinch
Publisher: Medium
Publication Year: 2019
Summary: The following article discusses the importance of making an actionable data ethics framework, why it is so difficult for companies to do so, and ways to get started. This article states that specificity is one of the most important parts of of a framework in order to maintain accountability. It needs to define a red line that the company will not cross, or else they have enough wiggle room to do whatever they want. They say “a data ethics framework is the consistent process we execute to decide, document, and verify how our data processing activities are socially preferable” and that this is the difference between actual trustworthy services and “trust hacks.” Kinch says that this is difficult for companies because they find ethics constraining; when you limit what you can do, then you are holding back innovation and profits. Kinch goes out of his way to make an example of Google’s AI Principles and says that there is no definition of what they will and wont do; no information is actually gained from reading it. He makes a point of asking how Google will do these things; how will Google actually incorporate privacy design principles? The Ethic Centre’s Ethical by Design is a great tool for framework building because it forces efforts to be explicit. Every part of a good data ethics framework should answer the “How?” behind each ethical action to take.