Amazon

‘Millions of People’s Data is at Risk’ — Amazon Insiders Sound Alarm Over Security

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Author: Vincent Manancourt; Publisher: Politico; Publication Year: 2021. The following article discusses how last year, one European Union employee and 2 U.S. employees acted as whistleblowers on Amazon’s mishandling of customer data. For example, the data storage is so convoluted that it would be nearly impossible to enact “the right to be forgotten,” a right that people have the right to have their data completely…

Algorithmic Bias Explained

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Author: N/A; Publisher: TRT World; Publication Year: 2018. The following video discusses how because algorithms are written by humans, they are not any more objective than we are. Some examples of algorithmic bias include: Amazon’s Alexa failing to recognize different accents or Google Translate associating certain jobs with certain genders. Both machine learning and deep learning are dependent on huge…

Ethical Data Analytics — What Every Business Needs to Know

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Author: Tom Jongen; Publisher: Medium; Publication Year: 2021. The following article discusses how if any company uses customer data to make customer-facing decisions, there are ethical issues that need to be considered. Also, it asks us to consider “When ‘Know Your Customer’ goes too far;” and the issues related to Facebook/Cambridge Analytica political influence scandal from 2016 provide a clear…

Real-life Examples of Discriminating Artificial Intelligence

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Author: Terence Shin; Publisher: Medium; Publication Year: 2020. The following article begins by giving a brief overview of how dangerous artificial intelligence (AI) models can be if they are not properly checked for biases, then it dives into 3 real-world examples of actual ethical violations and biases that have happened in decision-making processes in real companies. The first involved a healthcare service favoring patients…

A New Study Finds a Potential Risk with Self-Driving Cars: Failure to Detect Dark-Skinned Pedestrians

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Author: Sigal Samuel; Publisher: Vox; Publication Year: 2019. The following article talks about the self-driving Uber cars. It points to a very important ethical issue in data science i.e. the issue that self-driving Uber cars so biased that they cannot detect a dark-skinned pedestrian for stopping. This shows that algorithms are inherently biased and that is probably because historically white males in positions of power…

An Introduction to Data Ethics

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Author: Shannon Vallor, William J Rewark; Publisher: Santa Clara University; Publication Year: N/A. The following article provides a deep dive into the risks and benefits that data can present. After that, the authors talk about what ethical issues or concerns may arise when working with data. The authors of the article take both perspectives in their article: user-based and people who are given access to the data. The authors also point out what dangers…

Amazon Shares Ring Doorbell Footage with Law Enforcement, Sometimes Without the User’s Permission

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Author: Sarah Lynch; Publisher: Fast Company; Publication Year: 2022. The following article discusses how Amazon shared Ring footage with authorities 11 times this year without the user’s knowledge or consent. While their guideline is to notify users, Amazon “reserves the right to respond immediately to urgent law enforcement requests for information in cases involving imminent danger of death or serious physical…

Is Amazon Alexa Invading Privacy? Analysis of an Ethical Dilemma

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Author: Nils Backe; Publisher: Medium; Publication Year: 2018. The following article discusses how the majority of consumers are still wary of the risk factors weighing into using a smart home device, particularly an Amazon Echo. The overarching ethical dilemma for Amazon is that consumers, as stakeholders of the company, want a personalized experience when using a smart home device without all of the privacy…

Justice for “Data Janitors”

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Author: Lilly Irani; Publisher: Public Books; Publication Year: 2015. The following article describes how when things in the technology world become automated, the work that is being “replaced” is not actually replaced, but displaced. For example, a manufacturing process that has been automated may replace the individual workers, but over the long term, it just displaces them to monitor the machines and facilitate…

Artificial Intelligence Has a Problem With Gender and Racial Bias. Here’s How to Solve It

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Author: Joy Buolamwini; Publisher: Time Magazine; Publication Year: 2019. In the following article, notable data ethics advocate Joy Buolamwini shares her journey combating gender and racial bias in artificial intelligence (AI). After encountering biased facial analysis software that could not recognize dark-skinned faces, the author was motivated to seek similar examples of discriminatory AI in the industry. After recognizing the…