What are the Ethics Issues in Big Data Research?

On 29 November experts met in Basel at a symposium about “Ethics Issues in Big Data Research”.

As big data are more and more used in research to address questions in science, the humanities and medicine this use also raises important ethical questions. The aim of the symposium was it therefore to explore some of the most pressing ethical issues like anonymization, fairness or data protection. The symposium was opened by Professor Bernice Simone Elger, Institute for Biomedical Ethics, University of Basel, and President of the Swiss Society of Biomedical Ethics. The first speaker was Dr Michele Loi from the ELSI Task Force, a cross-cutting project of NRP 75, and post-doctoral researcher at the University of Zurich. The talk was followed by four presentation from Swiss researchers in the field of epidemiology, psychology, and data science.

Talks

Ethics of Data and Politics of Algorithms

Dr Michele Loi, Institute of Biomedical Ethics and Digital Society Initiative, University of Zurich
In the beginning Michele Loi asked the question why people like big data. It is because big data are a great way of recycling. Big data are efficient and insightful. Producing data is so easy because you do not have to ask people to produce data. They are there. Big data should be objective simply because you have a lot of data. Big data is trustworthy and therefore something we should base your decisions on. In a simple picture data is the mirror of nature. In a somewhat more complex picture data make you do something that you think that others want you to do. It is an interpretation of the data – not the data. This results in a new problem landscape: How do data or rather the interpretation of the data shape individuals and also the society. If we go from individuals to groups, we see that groups are different than before. They are no longer clearly defined because the boundaries are no longer a priori known. The groups are only defined after analysing the data. It is not only the misuse of data but also the misuse of the interpretation of data on groups. So, if algorithms are new social institutions what social and political norms derive from there? Do dominant internet platforms have obligations similar to governments?

Citizen Cohorts – Big Data to Promote Public Health Utility of Personalized Health Innovation

Professor Nicole Probst-Hensch, Head of the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (TPH), University of Basel

Big Data and Psychological Research

Professor Gizem Hülür, International Max Planck Research School on the Life Course (LIFE), Department of Psychology, University of Zurich

Mobility, Activity, and Social Interactions for Improved Aging

Professor Pia Bereuter, MOASIS Project, Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz, and Department of Geography, University of Zurich

Big Data in Data Science

Professor Philippe Cudré-Mauroux, eXascale Infolab, Vice-President Département d’Informatique, University of Fribourg