maize mpub9970368 in
    « Prev chapter Next chapter »
    ‹ ›

    ETHICAL DATA USE

    1. The personal information you are giving away

    Jennifer Colby

    Which Disney Princess are you? What are your most-used words on Facebook? Which Hogwarts house would you be sorted into? Answering online quizzes is something many of us do everyday. But we freely give away personal information when we participate in these activities. Every click you make and every character you enter is monitored, analyzed, and sometimes shared with others.

    Companies and marketers use this information about you to track your behavior in order to place ads that will sell you (and others) more products. They can also use your personal information to make connections with your online and offline self. Think about the personal information you may be giving away to entities you don’t even know and what they might do with it.

    Resources

    Discussion questions

    1. What types of online quizzes have you answered? Make a list.
    2. What are the benefits and drawbacks of answering online quizzes? Why do you answer online quizzes? Do you realize you are sharing personal information?
    3. What types of personal information are you sharing when you answer online quizzes? How do you think a company might use that data in ways unrelated to the quiz? How do you feel about that?
    4. Have you ever stopped answering a quiz while taking it? Why or why not?
    5. What do you think about online ads? Do you pay attention to them? Have you ever bought something as a result of seeing an online ad? Why or why not? How do you feel when you’ve been browsing an online store and ads for what you just explored start popping up elsewhere?
    6. What does it mean to “opt-in” or to “allow” a third-party entity to access your account?
    7. According to The Wall Street Journal blog post above, a company called VisualDNA says, “We collect information about demographics, intent, interests, and personality. These can predict what people might be interested in buying or hearing about.” What are examples of how this information is used? How does it affect you?
    8. According to the BBC News article, many Facebook quizzes install an app that continues to run in the background collecting your Facebook data long after you have finished a quiz. What do you think about this? Is it important to limit third-party access to your information? Why or why not? What can you do to prevent third-party apps from collecting your data?
    9. After reading these articles and participating in the discussion, will you be more likely or less likely to answer online quizzes? Why or why not?

    2. Protecting student data in schools

    Jennifer Colby

    You (and your students) are a data goldmine. Whether taking an assessment, checking out a library book, or even just showing up to school — information is collected, analyzed, disseminated, and studied to determine how to make future decisions. But who is looking at this data? Who is that information shared with? Entities outside of your school also have access to your data, especially if you take a state or national standardized test, have a Google G Suite account, or use an app for a classroom activity. Some states have laws protecting student data and some do not. Understanding that your data is collected, shared, and used if the first step of knowing how to better protect your personal information.

    Resources

    Discussion questions

    1. What is student data? Brainstorm a list of the types of personal information students share in their daily lives at school.
    2. What are ways that student data is collected? What kinds of systems collect data, and for what purposes? Brainstorm a list of the ways that faculty, administration, or students might share student data while engaging in school activities.
    3. Is it important to protect student data? Why or why not? For how long after a student leaves should data be kept and protected?
    4. Do you know of any ways that your school protects your data? If yes, what are they? If no, how could you find out?
    5. What is meant by the term “third-party”? How does official student data end up in the hands of third parties?
    6. What is meant by “aggregating” data? Does aggregated data make you feel better about sharing of student data beyond the district level? Why or why not?
    7. Navigate to this article: http://www.ncsl.org/research/education/student-data-privacy.aspx and find your state in the “Student Data Privacy” map. Does your state have a law (legislative enactment) to protect student data? If yes, what year were laws enacted? What do the laws require? Allow?
    8. Consider the U.S. News and World Reports article. The state of California has the most rigorous law protecting student data. What makes it more stringent than the laws protecting student data in other states? Is that an advantage or disadvantage? How might your answer change if you were thinking like a school or district administrator, a state agency head, a family, or an individual student?
    9. Do you think there should be a national law to protect student data, or do you think those protections should continue to occur at the state level? Why?

    3. SAT and ACT information: What happens to it?

    Jennifer Colby

    More and more states are requiring high school students to take a college-admissions exam (SAT or ACT) in order to satisfy national education requirements. But if you have ever taken one of these tests, you know that all that bubbling in takes a long time as you answer questions about “geographic, attitudinal and behavioral information” (College Board 2017). The vast amounts of personal information gathered about students who take these tests is used for many purposes. The information can be used to design more fair and equitable tests, but it can also be accessed and analyzed by third-parties. Whether you are a student or an educator, did you ever wonder why this information is collected and what is done with it?

    Resources

    Discussion questions

    1. National assessments such as the PSAT/SAT and the ACT Aspire/ACT ask for personal information about the student. What do you remember about the kinds of information you have been asked for when taking one of these tests?
    2. How is this information used by The College Board and ACT? Why do you think this information is collected? What are third parties? What are examples of third parties?
    3. Consider the “All States” chart in this link: http://www.edweek.org/ew/section/multimedia/states-require-students-take-sat-or-act.html . What “high school test” does your state offer? Are you required to take it? How do you think mandatory use of these tests, which used to be taken only by those who wanted to continue on to college post-graduation, has changed now that they are mandatory in some states? What do you think about your state’s requirements compared to others?
    4. What are the benefits of personal information collection as identified by The College Board? Have you used any of the services identified? If so, have they been helpful?
    5. What do you think about The College Board’s claim of information collecting being optional? If you have taken the PSAT/SAT or the ACT Aspire/ACT, what was your experience?
    6. What are the “Five Principles to Protect Student Privacy” from the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy (PCSP) website? What is your reaction to them?
    7. Compare the privacy policies of both The College Board and ACT with the PCSP’s “Five Principles to Protect Student Privacy.” How do the testing institution’s practice comply with the Five Principles? How do they differ?
    8. Consider how the answers in the “emailed response” received from The College Board in the Washington Post article compare with its privacy policy. Does the response from The College Board align with its policy? Why or why not? Compare the privacy policies of The College Board and the ACT. How are they the same? How are they different?

    4. Surveillance cameras in schools and the case of special education

    Susan Smith

    Surveillance video is increasingly used in public spaces like intersections, parking lots, and entrances to deter and detect criminal behavior. The vast majority of schools in the U.S. have cameras in parking lots or at entrances, but how do we feel about cameras in the classroom?

    Students, teachers, and parents have conflicting concerns. We applaud surveillance technologies when they catch criminals and protect children, but when cameras violate our civil rights and change our school climate, it gives rise to debate over who and what gets recorded and who gets to review the archived video footage.

    Special education classrooms are a protected population for whom some parents feel security cameras are essential. Texas was the first state to pass a bill, effective in 2016, that required cameras in all special education classrooms. Las Vegas has a similar bill up for vote in 2017. Is this surveillance justified, or will it pave the way for increased surveillance in all classrooms?

    Resources

    Discussion questions

    1. What issues are we trying to solve with cameras? Have the laws in Texas and Nevada adequately defined acceptable use of the the surveillance cameras?
    2. Is video surveillance in the classroom justified? Under what circumstances or for which populations?
    3. Since surveillance cameras are an expensive purchase for any school district, who should decide if the expense is justified, when it necessarily comes at the cost of other educational services or tools?
    4. Before installing classroom surveillance systems, districts must clearly identify objectives and intended outcomes. How could video recording benefit teachers? Students? Parents? Who should be informed?
    5. If classroom video is collected, how long should it be retained? Should cameras collect video only? What are the advantages and disadvantages of recording both audio and video? (You might find it useful to review your state’s laws on recording and consent prior to discussing this question.)
    6. Who should have access to the recordings? Under what circumstances?
    7. Under what circumstances might the recordings be used for teacher training? Teacher evaluation?
    8. Are classrooms places where students and staff should expect privacy? If your school installed cameras in classrooms, what kind of atmosphere would it create at your school? How would it affect school climate?
    9. Should video recordings of students be considered “student records” and, as a result, fall under FERPA protection? How should schools handle inquiries from media or law enforcement about surveillance footage? Should these be considered “public records” that fall under the Freedom of Information Act?
    10. Once installed for other reasons, how might administrators use surveillance cameras to monitor staff? What might be the unintended consequences or benefits of surveillance cameras in classrooms?

    5. Student privacy in the age of cloud storage

    Susan Smith

    As cloud-based services become more popular in schools, privacy rights advocates question whether schools have the infrastructure and policies in place to adequately protect students. Fordham University released a report in 2013 suggesting public school districts large and small fail to protect data from student information systems, learning management systems, student performance, and classroom activities as they move to the cloud. Even when parents must set up accounts to access their own student’s data, they don’t realize that privacy protections from cloud services may be at odds with the District’s privacy policy. The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) protects education records, while the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) requires that parents be notified and consent to use of any student information collected by websites and games. Schools’ agreements with cloud service providers often do not include data security; vendors can retain student information in perpetuity. Furthermore, teachers are encouraged to adopt ed tech tools in the classroom without support for how new apps and platforms rate when it comes to student privacy.

    Resources

    Discussion questions

    1. Make a list of all of the online tools and services that a student accesses in your class. What do you make of this list?
    2. How transparent is your school or district in sharing the privacy agreements with its cloud providers? Do parents have access to these agreements? Are they shared automatically, or only if they ask?
    3. If you are a student, what information do you have about what kinds of data are collected about you?
    4. If you want to use a new cloud based tool in your classroom, who “approves” its compliance with student privacy protection? How does this affect your willingness to use it?
    5. What if the tool is suggested by a student? Selected at home by a student for use?
    6. What if a tool is a consumer product rather than an explicitly educational app? Do you have your own criteria established when evaluating new educational apps for your classroom?
    7. How can social media be used safely in the classroom? For what ages? For what purposes? Are there other tools that are less public that might meet similar goals?
    8. After reviewing “Congressional Committee Revives Data Security Legislation” above, do you think sites like Amazon and GoodReads comply with COPPA in regard to publishing student reviews? What loopholes might the companies exploit?
    9. How would you initiate a discussion among staff at your school about protecting student privacy? Who would you choose as allies?
    10. How would you initiate a similar discussion with parents or students? Consider the parent voices in the Electronic Frontier Foundation reading above as you discuss options.

    6. Big Data and government nudges

    Debbie Abilock

    Big Data is being used to better understand behaviors and preferences – in medicine, economics, and other fields. Governments use behavioral insights to help people make better choices that also serve government goals. Healthier people + healthier communities = less government money spent on health problems.

    Recognizing that people’s choices are affected by unconscious flaws in reasoning like confirmation bias, some government agencies engineer social outcomes through easy and cheap “nudges” to encourage people to make choices in their (and society’s) best interests. Called libertarian paternalism, the goal is to “alter people’s behavior in a predictable way without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives” (Thaler & Sunstein 2009, 58). For example, because my local government officials in Palo Alto, California, are aware from Big Data reports that an estimated ¼ of all food calories produced in the world are lost or wasted (Lipinsky et al 2013), the town now provides each household with a plastic kitchen bucket labeled with the kinds of food scraps that can be composted. This nudge free to me as a citizen and economical for the city’s zero-waste initiative — there is no penalty if I choose not to comply.

    Proponents welcome small nudges as a temperate way of framing good choices, creating incentives that improve people’s lives without coercion. Critics decry nudges as unconscious manipulation and question how sure one can be, given the lack of scientifically tested research, that these are the right solutions to complex problems.

    This case study looks at the nature of government nudges which arise from Big Data correlations and examines their effectiveness in addressing predictive assumptions about obesity and health.

    Resources

    Discussion questions

    1. Based on what you have read, how do you differentiate between a nudge and a regulation? Are they indistinguishable in practice?
    2. You have read how governments are attempting to address Big Data’s identified correlation between obesity and health. Under what circumstances do nudges appear to be more effective than laws and regulations?
    3. What city, state, and local government nudges can you brainstorm that might impact obesity?
    4. What criteria might you use to evaluate these government solutions – for example, using a ranking from high to low or a SWOT analysis (e.g., easy/hard implementation and limited/large impact)?
    5. What nudges could be implemented by more than one governmental entity (local, state or national)? What delicious and healthy “smoothie” of government nudges might you concoct to address this problem?
    6. What are the trade-offs between personal autonomy and government paternalism? Nudges may be economical and easy but are they unethical?
    7. Under what circumstances do you trust government to nudge you? Do you feel differently depending on which political party is in power?

    Bibliography

    • Lipinsky, Brian, Craig Hanson, James Lomax, Lisa Kitinoja, Richard Waite, and Tim Searchinger. 2013. “Reducing Food Loss and Waste, Installment 2 of Creating a Sustainable Food Future.” Working paper, World Resources Institute, Washington, DC, June. Accessed June 30, 2017. http://www.wri.org/sites/default/files/reducing_food_loss_and_waste.pdf .
    • Thaler, Richard H., and Cass R. Sunstein. 2009. Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness. Rev. exp. ed. New York: Penguin Books.

    7. The fear factor: Hyped-up use of data to sway public opinion/behavior

    Susan D. Ballard

    With increasing regularity, data is used/misused to create a heightened sense of urgency related to any number of social, environmental, and health concerns. Examples include hyped-up media coverage related to such issues as: the “Millennium Bug” (or Y2K computer flaw) where there was minimal if any impact; a never realized world-wide outbreak of bird flu; and inflated claims that violence in video games leads to the development of violent personalities.

    There are also examples of using data to sway public opinion such as the claim that significant numbers of “weapons of mass destruction” justified the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Additionally, the emergence of social media as a news source with citizen journalists reporting has intensified the “fear factor,” spurring an unprecedented immediacy. An example is the use of social media to influence the “Brexit” decision in the United Kingdom.

    In this case study, you’ll learn more about how data and social-media-as-data is changing both journalism and the way global citizens interpret the current events and decisions around them.

    Resources

    Discussion questions

    1. What do you know about journalistic and media integrity and ethics as it relates to journalism?
    2. What about integrity and ethics as it relates specifically to the use of data?
    3. “Fair and accurate” have been the long-time gold standard in reporting. In general, what is your analysis of the way data is used in reporting by the traditional mainstream media?
    4. How does social media contribute to the “fear factor” in sharing data?
    5. How can you distinguish between the hype about and the reality of an issue? Who or what are the sources that you rely on to know the difference?
    6. On the Media, the public radio show about the role of journalism and the media in American life, has developed a series of Consumer’s Handbooks related to emerging information. Visit http://www.wnyc.org/series/breaking-news-consumers-handbook and choose one of their handbooks to discuss in small groups. Which advice seems most important? Is anything missing? How might you share this information with others in your school or community?

    8. Those smart devices are smarter than you think

    Jennifer Colby

    “Alexa”, “Siri”, “Ok Google” — these declarations are how we can get the attention of the smart devices that surround us. But did you realize that our smart devices are always at attention and vulnerable to hacking? We all benefit from these devices, but the pervasive use of them on our wrists, in our pockets, in our homes, and in our cars may make us susceptible to surveillance and tracking more than ever before. Recent news of CIA hacking into private citizens’ phones, computers, and televisions may make us think twice about the benefits and drawbacks of using these devices and the connections they make between us and the outside world while passing along our personal information.

    Resources

    Discussion questions

    1. A smart device is an interactive electronic device that is wirelessly connected to other devices or networks. Brainstorm a list of smart devices that you own and/or have in your home.
    2. Do you find smart devices beneficial to your life? Why or why not?
    3. Now that it has been revealed that the CIA has hacked into personal smart devices, do you feel differently about using smart devices? Why or why not?
    4. In regard to the news of CIA hacking into smart devices, WikiLeaks stated that it would redact and anonymize some passages from the published documents. What does “redact” mean? What does “anonymize” mean? Is it important for WikiLeaks to redact and anonymize published information of this type? Why or why not?
    5. What do you know about the privacy features or settings of your smart devices? Do you need to protect your smart devices from unwanted data collection? Why or why not? What can you do to protect your smart devices from unwanted data collection?
    6. What is the purpose of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)? List three ways in which COPPA protects collected data. Do you think COPPA is an effective measure to protect children? Does it go far enough or too far? Why or why not?
    7. Who should be responsible for protecting the information that is collected by these smart devices? What is your reasoning? Should companies or parents be more responsible for protecting children’s data?

    9. Canaries in the mine: Chicago and Flint — haves vs. have-nots in use of data

    Susan D. Ballard

    In a tradition that lasted until the early part of the 20th century, canaries were carried into coal mines to detect carbon monoxide and other toxic gases before they could harm humans. The use of the phrase “like a canary in the mine” continues to be used to indicate when something is giving off early warning indicators that something is wrong and needs to be addressed. Similarly data can be harnessed as a means of providing insight and forewarning that certain products, systems, or behaviors have negative impact. The data can help drive potential solutions or avoidance measures. However, sometimes, the data is not utilized and/or ignored.

    Throughout this book, you’ve read examples of projects in which better data is linked with better outcomes. In this case study, we’ll examine what happens when data points to a problem that is not addressed.

    Resources

    Discussion questions

    1. Is there a pattern of dereliction of duty by decisionmakers when data results are confined to or affecting low socioeconomic communities versus middle and upper classes?
    2. Do you think that government would be more responsive if the data showed unacceptable conditions in middle- or upper-class communities instead of poor ones? Why or why not?
    3. Should citizens have a right to receive information and data from the government in order to participate in decisions about activities that impact the environment and health? Should more government data be made available to citizens so they can identify challenges and propose solutions? What kinds of supports would need to be in place so citizens would know how and where to access that data?
    4. How can successful initiatives like Boston’s Citywide Data Analytics Team be replicated in other communities? What, according to Hillenbrand’s article, do you see as the factors contributing to their success?
    5. How can communities be mobilized to help to gather and use data to improve services?
    6. What can you do in your community to use data to ensure citizen health and safety and improve the quality of life?
    7. Is data always the most persuasive tool citizens and government officials have in their toolkit? What other types of arguments, efforts, or activism have traditionally been successful? When might data be the least effective type of argument?

    10. The implications of privacy regulation on Internet privacy

    Tyler Hoff

    In response to the repeal of new Internet privacy regulations (see pages 101-103), many Americans have taken a larger interest in securing their Internet privacy. Many people have turned to a variety of workarounds to protect their privacy. These include proxy servers, which are intermediaries between a user and content to limit and organize requests for that content, and are not necessarily encrypted; Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), which are encrypted networks allowing users to access resources and services while not in a specific physical location; and other privacy workarounds like Tor, which stands for The Onion Router, is a secure method of accessing the Internet anonymously, and is also used to access “the dark web,” unindexed parts of the Internet mostly home to illegal or unethical activity. The following resources and discussion questions are intended to help a group explore the practical and ethical implications of using such tools.

    Resources

    Discussion questions

    1. Proxy servers are an oft-used tool to get around firewalls at schools and businesses that monitor and restrict onsite Internet activity. Considering the new focus on Internet privacy, is using such tools ethical when located in such a business or school? What about more generally?
    2. Virtual Private Networks, or VPNs, are legal tools in the United States that can allow you to circumvent surveillance from your ISP. However, some can slow your Internet connection, and the best ones cost a monthly fee. Are they worth it for your average consumer?
    3. VPNs can also monitor your web traffic in much the same way an ISP could, and are not required to keep that data private. Does this change your answer?
    4. In an April 2017 article for Quartz (above), Josephine Wolff wrote about ways citizens were “rebelling” against this legislation. They designed a series of tools to create artificial searches in your search engine or Facebook feed to disguise your preferences. Their goal is to create more Internet “noise” to make it harder for ISPs and companies to create an accurate sense of who you are. However, Wolff admits these noise generators may not be able to override algorithms. They also generate additional traffic that may overwhelm servers that host websites. Are such efforts ethical? How do you determine the morality of such moves? Does this problem solve a problem or create new ones? How do you decide?
    5. Tor can be used to access parts of the Internet that are mostly used for unscrupulous activity. If more people start using Tor to access the Internet, do you think more people will start accessing the dark web? Will illegal web activity increase? How would improved access for most people affect the contents of the dark web?
    6. In an interview with the Washington Post (see link above), Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the Internet, argues that you should not use VPNs and similar privacy tools as a method of protest to ensure that privacy on the web remains accessible to all people. Is this a “good” argument? Why or why not? What arguments can one make that this is (or is not) an effective method of action?
    7. Would you use any of the tools discussed above during your normal activity on the Internet? Why or why not? Would you recommend that other people use these tools, even if you do not want to?

    NOTE: To continue your conversation on this topic, please see the case study “ISP consumer data collection,” also written by Tyler Hoff, on pages 101-103.

    11. Data philanthropy

    Tasha Bergson-Michelson

    Businesses sometimes come under fire for collecting a lot of information about individual clients and user behaviors and preferences. What if a business commits to sharing that information for the public good? This idea of “data philanthropy,” which emerged in 2011 at the Davos World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, promotes the corporate world’s ability to add significantly to the public good by donating to Big Data collections. The United Nations’ Secretary General, António Guterres, has started the Global Pulse Big Data initiative that favors data philanthropy.

    Already, fields like health, humanitarian aid, and disaster relief have benefited from data donations. But the story is not purely a rosy one: if there are questions about the ethics of businesses tracking customers and their behavior in the first place, does donating it to a global cause change that picture?

    Resources

    Discussion questions

    1. Why might a company want to donate its data? What are the advantages and disadvantages for the company?
    2. Sometimes companies are donating their own data, but sometimes they are using their resources and skill sets to make existing public data (gathered from governments or other organizations that cannot do it themselves) more accessible to others. What are the implications for a company making someone else’s data available to the public?
    3. Can it hurt people if companies donate their data in aggregate? In what ways?

    4. The United Nations has been considering the ethics of data philanthropy. They see four potential ways for companies to share user data:

      • Share aggregated data to try and protect individual users;
      • Have independent researchers go into many companies and look at each company’s data separately, behind that company’s firewall;
      • Partner groups of competitors together and have them all contribute their data to aggregate datasets, so no one gets a competitive advantage; or
      • Let companies analyze their own data and give them guidelines for when to alert an independent organization that something is happening that needs attention.

      Which of these methods do you think would be most useful, based on all you have learned about Big Data, ethics, and protection of personal information? What are the strengths and pitfalls of each?

    5. A really interesting example of a private organization paying for and creating systems for sharing government data is USAFacts.org. Funded by former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, USA Facts attempts to first bring together data from over 60 U.S. government agencies and, secondly, to demonstrate visually and interactively the sources of U.S. revenue (e.g., taxes) and how those taxes are spent (federal budget). Now that Ballmer has provided this valuable resource, what are his ethical obligations to the public to maintain it?
    6. One of the things that USA Facts attempts to do is make government data easier to find and more accessible. Think back to Question 2 above, which posed a similar scenario in which a company is “packaging” existing data from another source. Does the addition of navigation tools or other features to an existing dataset fundamentally change that dataset? For example, if it’s easier to browse or look for information inside a dataset, does that fundamentally change the potential impact of sharing the data, either for positive or negative reasons?
    « Prev chapter Next chapter »