Zhang Kar-wai, a computer engineering graduate from Stanford University, has recently accepted his first paid position at a start-up company in San Francisco. The company's main product consists of a suite of smartphone applications designed to track individuals' personal health information. The collected data includes their medical records, seasonal illnesses, blood pressure and glucose levels, eating habits, sleep cycles, and even their weight and reproductive health. The products are designed primarily to help individuals reach health-related goals and enable users to manage their overall health and wellbeing. Information about the user is stored in this app, including what prescriptions they are taking and how frequently they schedule doctor's appointments. As the developers of the app, Zhang and his company have access to this information. Although Zhang is a relatively new hire, he performed a significant and critical role in developing the app and is justifiably proud of his work. He was excited to tell his father, a professor of epidemiology at Stanford's School of Medicine, about his assignment. However, when Zhang told his father about his responsibilities at his new job, his father's reaction was not what he expected. His father expressed concern about the project's use of personal data and the company's ability to design algorithms that could use data from app users to accurately predict and track disease outbreaks based on their data. Zhang explained to his father that the data would be aggregated, and the algorithms will undoubtedly sometimes fail, as all models do, but they will be tested continuously and upgraded. So, he assured his father that he was up to the task. His father remained hesitant to share in Zhang's enthusiasm and warned him to think more about the ethical implications of his project and not just about whether his app will succeed or not. Shortly afterward, the company's marketing department requested Zhang supply them with customer-specific information so they could better target ads and app suggestions to the users. Zhang understands that he is part of a company, but he also feels that the privacy of the app users should be protected. Additionally, he thinks that as an engineer, he should be responsible to those who use his technology. Questions These guide your thinking; they're not meant to be listed on a sheet of paper and answered individually. As you prepare your case study, you will no doubt end up responding to some of them organically. 1. Should Zhang take his father's concerns more seriously? . Should users of online applications or search engines be notified about the potential use of their personal data (even in aggregated form) for public health measures? Why/why not? 3, How does Zhang determine how much of the user's information should be shared with marketing? 4. Is targeting advertisements to specific consumers inherently unethical? What about when personal medical data is involved? 5. What are some of the ethical risks of the proposed big data analytics or algorithms, which can sometimes lead to false positives in their efforts to identify outbreaks and/or predict outbreak trajectories? What might be done to mitigate such risks