Data ethics is now a cause celebre.
Digital ethics and privacy shot into research and advisory company Gartnerstop ten strategic technology trends for 2019.
Before that it barely raised a mention.
In the past yeargovernments,corporationsandpolicy and technologythink tanks have publisheddata ethicsguides.
An entire cohort of expert data ethicists have magically materialized.
Why this sudden interest in data ethics?
What is data ethics?
Whose interests are the guidelines designed to serve?
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The picture that emerges is of an industry immune from the regulatory constraints that apply to everyone else.
The shine has gone
Over the past few years the information industry has lost its luster.
These concerns have led to calls for regulation.
But these have struggled to gain traction against the prevailing regulatory orthodoxy for the technology sector.
This dates back to Al Goresfive principlesfor enabling what was then quaintly called the global information superhighway.
This was code for no regulation, or self-regulation.
In Australia it was known aslight touch regulation.
Circling closer
Europe never completely adopted this laissez-faire approach.
This provides individuals in the European Union with the most comprehensive data protection rights in the world.
The rights have extraterritorial reach, involve regulatory oversight, and employcivil fines of eye-watering magnitude.
Other jurisdictions are beginning to follow suit.
In parallel, regulators from other disciplines are beginning to circle.
Anti-trust regulators are looking afresh at information monopolies and big techs use of market power to restrict competition.
Data means money
Big tech does not want to be regulated.
Personal information is the raw material for the algorithms that enable it to monetize our attention.
Data ethics is one of the means it has developed to fight regulation.
It does so by appropriating the virtues associated with ethics but by emptying them of content or consequence.
TakeGoogles principles for AI.
(AI is artificial intelligence).
There are several layers of ambiguity here.
How will it be accountable?
If I am unhappy with Googles version of accountability, to whom do I appeal for justice?
Ethics have been studied and debated for aeons.
Within western traditions, ethics are traced back toSocrates.
Applied ethics aims to bring the principles of ethics to bear on real-life situations.
There are numerous examples.
Public sector ethics are governed by law.
If I breach them, there are consequences.
They are part of a regulatory apparatus and not just feel good statements.
Feelgood, high-level data ethics principles are not fit for the purpose of regulating big tech.
The harms linked to big tech can only be addressed by proper regulation.
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