Ethics are a popular topic in big data and related areas, as I was reminded by Sam Ransbotham’s The Ethics of Wielding an Analytical Hammer.
Here’s a big data ethics problem.
In order to select individuals based on some set of characteristics, habits, etc., we first must define the selection criteria.
Unfortunately, we don’t have a viable profile for terrorists, which explain in part why they can travel under their actual names, with their own identification and not be stopped by the authorities.
So, here’s the ethical question: Is it ethical for contractors and data scientists to offer data mining services to detect terrorists when there is no viable profile for a terrorist?
For all the hand wringing about ethics, basic honesty seems to be in short supply when talking about big data and the search for terrorists.
Yes?