Should Zhang take his father's concerns more seriously? Is targeting advertisements to specific consumers inherently unethical? What about when personal medical data is involved? 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?
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.
- Should Zhang take his father's concerns more seriously?
- Is targeting advertisements to specific consumers inherently unethical? What about when personal medical data is involved?
- 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?
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