ANALY ZE T H I S !
“Nobody in history has
ever had the opportunity
to innovate, or been faced
with the risks of
unintended consequences,
that big data now
provides.”
— Kord Davis
20
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topics as diverse as digital strategy, supply
chain optimization, application development
and values-based management. As such, he
has a unique perspective that motivates him
to take these important – and very thorny –
questions seriously. As he writes in the book’s
Preface, “nobody in history has ever had the
opportunity to innovate, or been faced with
the risks of unintended consequences, that
big data now provides.”
In particular, Davis identifies four
major aspects of any serious data ethics
discussion:
• Identity: In the digital world, who we
are is tacitly defined by the data we leave
behind and indeed our own sense of self
is often tightly intertwined with our online
activities. Davis points out that capturing
and analyzing our digital trail “provides
others the ability to quite easily summarize,
aggregate or correlate various aspects of
our identity – without our participation or
consent.”
• Privacy: Does your decision to
engage in a digital interaction confer
upon other entities the right to utilize data
captured in the course of that specific
interaction, and to link it to other sources
of data that may correspond to you? As
Davis asks, “Does privacy mean the same
thing in both online and offline worlds?…
should individuals have a legitimate ability
to control data about themselves, and to
what degree?”
A N A LY T I C S - M A G A Z I N E . O R G
W W W. I N F O R M S . O R G