Scientific Research and Big Data

Author: N/A

Publisher: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Publication Year: 2020

Summary: The following resource is primarily focused on the way that big data and machine learning algorithms has changed the process of knowledge generation. At the end it explores the ethical constraints that arise from these developments. Aside from the usual concerns about discrimination, the article highlights the enormous incentives that corporations have to acquire personal data and keep it confidential. This commodification of personal data, and the design of services to extract even more data is arguably a form of exploitation, at least according to some philosophers.