Ethics, Cybersecurity and Data Science Workshop
24 November 2017 | London | 9.30 – 16.30
Data science and cybersecurity raise many under-discussed ethical issues. Both operate with big data. Commercial big data is often collected from people who do not understand what they are giving away, and whose “informed consent” is often granted carelessly, without inspection of terms and conditions that are in any case very complex and unclear.
Big data in security contexts – typically communications and location data—is often collected without direct consent and without the knowledge of data subjects. It is possible but not obvious that the free use of search engines and apps is a fair return for commercially collected data; it is possible that bulk collection of communications data gives early warning of terrorist threats: still, the costs to privacy and democracy can be considerable. Then there is the research ethics of big data, whether it is open source or not. Once again the conditions for informed consent are unclear. Institutional ethics review is often opaque.
Finally, there is insufficient acknowledgement of whose data are and ought to be protected by cybersecurity regimes. Is the security in question personal, commercial or state security? This workshop will review these and other considerations around the topic of cybersecurity and data science.