Ethics & Law

While data is bringing various benefits to different companies and businesses, it also presents unique ethical and legal challenges. Doing ethics right is not just a moral responsibility: it's obligatory of every business. Therefore, it's crucial to have ethical and legal knowledge when working in the field of data science. That is the core focus of this module - to acquire knowledge in ethics and law.

Throughout the duration of the module, you will be reading the recommended literature related Data Science. The knowledge will be used during in-class debates (within the Data Lab Days) as well as to complete the final assignment.

Assignment

For the final assignment, students will be asked to create a checklist for ethical inquiry of the project which is based on the literature provided through the module. Students are required to fill the checklist, interpret and explain aspects important for the project.

Requirements:

  • Create a checklist for ethical inquire of the project using DEDA framework, GDPR guidelines and Ethical Guidelines for Statistical Practice;

  • The checklist needs to be based on the literature provided during the module, therefore it's important to provide sources and cite them according to APA standards;

  • Ethical and legal aspects that are important for this project should be explained;

  • Ethical and legal aspects that are not important for the project should be explained;

  • Facts, reasons, examples, explanations, and evidence are provided;

  • Argumentation is based on important facts, details, examples, and explanations from multiple authoritative sources;

  • The students need to come up with improvements of the approach based on argumentation;

  • The checklist needs to be filled in.

Deliverable(s):

The final report should be uploaded to GitHub no later than 5 pm on the last Data Lab Day.

Debates

Throughout the block B you are required to participate in debates during dedicated Data Lab days. At the beginning of Block B, you will receive the class division for debates and your roles during debates.

Literature

Committee on Professional Ethics of the American Statistical Association (2018, April 14). Ethical Guidelines for Statistical Practice. https://www.amstat.org//asa/files/pdfs/EthicalGuidelines.pdf

De Ethische Data Assistent (DEDA). (2017). Utrecht Data School. https://dataschool.nl/deda/

Dignum, V. (2019). Responsible Artificial Intelligence: How to Develop and Use AI in a Responsible Way (Artificial Intelligence: Foundations, Theory, and Algorithms).

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) – Official Legal Text. (2019, 2 september). General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). https://gdpr-info.eu/