I'd like to pose an interesting question to the list. Forbes published an
article today detailing retailer Target's data mining practices. In particular,
Target tracks customer purchase by credit card number (in addition to, of
course, membership cards) and uses that data to glean highly accurate and often
extremely personal data about their customers. They then use this data to
tailor their marketing efforts to individuals. In other words, the digital
realm is invading the real world.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-target-figured-out-a-teen-girl-was-pregnant-before-her-father-did/
Big data, and the mining thereof, is enabled by IT professionals such as
ourselves. Sysadmins, DBAs, network engineers, and the like, are responsible
for building and maintaining the systems and toolsets that make this kind of
behavior possible. So here's the question: What ethical responsibilities, if
any, do we carry in enabling this kind of data mining? Where are the lines, and
when should we encourage our peers to draw them?
Already, I've heard the argument that there is nothing for us to do. If we
don't build these systems, we will be fired and somebody else will. I think
that is effectively a punt on an important ethical question and we can do
better than that.
--
Benjamin
PS. This could be a contentious question. Everyone please play nice.
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