Ethics of Big Data EU $2017$

Attached you will find an excerpt from a $2017$ European Union study entitled The ethics of Big Data: Balancing economic benefits and ethical questions of Big Data in the EU policy context. This document is required reading for this week's discussion and will help you frame your initial posts and replies.

The first two pages 'Section $1$: Introduction, Setting the Scene' describe a scenario in which Alice and her husband encounter various examples of situations, places and products that gather data on individuals.

The following five pages, 'Section $7$: Ethical Issues', list $10$ different types of ethical issues related to Big Data and data gathering on individuals in general.

The task of initial posters this week is to consider a 'situation, place or product' you have encountered or used or own and address the following issues$/$questions$.$ Some research may be required, in particular what types of data is gathered or how the data is used. If$,$ after some research, you do not have a clear picture on either $($or any$)$ of these questions, please let us know.

Feel free to cut and paste the bullet points below into you post, to ensure that you cover the requirements. Do not hesitate to compose your post in Word, offline and then cut and paste into LEO. Accidents do happen and it is highly frustrating to lose a post that takes an hour or more to compose.

What type of data is gathered?

How is the data used?

What is the 'functional purpose' of gathering the data $($how does the data enhance the purpose$)?$

Is there an opportunity to 'opt out' of sharing data?

Of the $10$ Ethical Issues in the EU Study, Section $7,$ which are relevant to the situation$/$place$/$product you have chosen, and why?

Does the benefit $($to you as a user or the society at large, be sure to clarify$)$ outweigh the costs of sharing data?

Any other comments, questions, observations....

You are expected to "host" the discussion for your own topic, monitoring it closely throughout the week, answering any questions, responding to postings, furthering the conversation, etc.

If you have general questions about these instructions, please ask BEFORE the discussion week begins in the Ask the Professor discussion area.