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Discussion on: Big Data: ethical implications & example

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DIPA_DHUNGANA

As the name suggests, big data refers to the collection of data that are enormous in size, varied in content and fast to accumulate. Big data is generally defined using three characteristics of volume, variety and velocity. Volume refers to the increasing amount of data that are captured, variety implies that the data are captured and combined from various sources while velocity implies that data is generated with increasing speed (Someh, Breidbach, Davern, & Shanks, 2016).

The companies can use big data to find patterns and preferences that will help them in developing effective marketing program. But with big data comes big problems - ethical problems (Wallace, 2015). One of the pressing challenges is the ethical implications of Big Data. The diverse ethical issues associated with Big Data are:

Privacy

Any data on human subjects raise privacy issues. Ensuring privacy of data is related with defining and enforcing information rules about the collection, use and retention of personal information. Despite contributing to the big data, individuals do not have ownership rights over their data. The privacy notion implies that data owners should have control over personal data. Individuals do not have the ability to manage the flow of their information among the third parties over internet (King & Richards, 2014). Thus it is important to ensure that the privacy of the ones contributing to big data is not dead.

Confidentiality

Privacy and secrecy are two different things. Maintaining the confidentiality of the data shared over the internet is another ethical implication related with big data. There are chances of the data being sold or shared to third parties without the knowledge of individuals that make them reluctant about trusting the organization with their personal information. The ubiquitous nature of big data services is making individuals more anxious about the misuse of their personal data by big data services. So big data needs to maintain the confidentiality of the information to align with ethical values.

Transparency

The individuals cannot keep track of the data once it is provided. The data are sold or shared to third parties without the knowledge or consent of individuals possibly in the ways they do not want or expect. That is why it is important for the big data services to let the data owners know about where and how their data is being used.

Identity

Big data can compromise the identity of the data owners. The institution can determine who we are on the basis of the information provided that may not always be true. Our identity can be falsified over internet. Because of this, the data owners may be exposed to the things they do not want or desire.

For example: The promotional messages that were intended to pregnant women were being sent to a high school going girl in her teens because the big data service providers identified her as a pregnant women by analyzing the data about her (Wallace, 2015).

So it is important for the big data service providers to consider the ethical issues to maintain the privacy, confidentiality and transparency of the information without compromising the identity of data owners.

References

King , J. H., & Richards, N. M. (2014, March 28). What’s Up With Big Data Ethics? Retrieved from Forbes: forbes.com/sites/oreillymedia/2014...

Someh, I. A., Breidbach, C. F., Davern, M. J., & Shanks, J. (2016). Ethical Implications of Big Data Analytics. Research in Progress, Istanbul, Turkey. Retrieved from aisel.aisnet.org/ecis2016_rip/24

Wallace, P. (2015). Introduction to Information Systems (2nd ed.). New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.