I think you are right by saying that IT professions enable them, however I really don't feel there are any ethical requirements for it.
The top 3 reason (well the 1st 3 I could think of) why follow: #1 It is currently legal (however if it should be or not be is a whole different topic) #2 If you don't do it someone else will. As bad as it sounds the profession we are in is not a mystical one where there are only a handful of people in the world that can do it. #3 The same argument could go for anything that someone doesn't find ethical. Such as the CIA, the new Army Cyber-defenders, so on and so forth. Basically if you have an issue with it, don't take the job. I think if we as a community were to do everything it should be to inform the world of what can be tracked, how it can be tracked, and what to do to help minimize this risk. On a personal note, I really have no issue with the tracking and I know it happens. Yes they can tell what I have bought, however I don't buy anything (at least not in a way it can be tracked) that I would care if people knew about. -Billy Vierra From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Benjamin Krueger Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2012 11:33 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [lopsa-discuss] The ethics of enabling big data 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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