The World Economic Forum has said that by 2025, individuals and companies throughout the world will produce an estimated 463 exabytes of data each day. On the other hand, nations around the world started implementing data privacy norms and demanded companies to make ethical and responsible data analytics.
In today’s world ethical and responsible data analytics is not only a matter of legal compliance but also a strategic imperative for sustainable and successful B2B operations. Ethical and responsible data analytics is essential for improving customer trust, ensuring data security, enhancing decision quality, mitigating risks, attaining long-term relationships with business clients, and part of corporate social responsibility.
However, conducting ethical and responsible data analytics has a few intricate challenges. At the heart of ethical data analytics lies the paramount concern for privacy. As analysts are tasked with navigating a delicate balance between addressing the needs of their organizations and managing a multitude of concerns.
The Essence of Ethical and Responsible Data Analytics
Ethical and responsible data analytics entails the execution of data analysis in accordance with ethical principles, legal norms, and a dedication to social accountability. This practice ensures that data is gathered, processed, and utilized in ways that uphold individual privacy, foster fairness, and prevent harm to individuals or communities.
Data with Integrity: The Imperative of Ethical and Responsible Data Analytics
Although organizations are increasingly cognizant of these issues, there remains a lack of clear understanding and consistent implementation of ethical responsibility in analytics. This is where the concept of responsible business analytics becomes essential.
Further, the laws governing data collection, privacy, and storage are still in their early stages of development. But it is evolving rapidly around the world.
Ethical considerations are crucial for ensuring business intelligence and analytics is fair, transparent, and accountable. Additionally, businesses placing a priority on ethical analysis are more inclined to earn the trust of their customers and stakeholders, potentially resulting in improved long-term business outcomes.
Efforts on Data Security and Privacy around the World
According to UNCTAD, 137 (71% of countries) out of 194 countries had put in place legislation to secure the protection of data and privacy. The UNCTAD also mentioned that around 9% of the countries have drafted legislation. Some of the important Data Security and Privacy efforts around the world are,
European Union (EU): General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
GDPR stands as the world’s most stringent data protection regulation and regarded as the current gold standard for data privacy regulation. It places responsibilities on any global company that gathers or processes data associated with EU residents.
The fundamental principles, obligations and rights enshrined in the GDPR include data minimization, Right to edit and delete information, Lawfulness, Fairness, and Transparency, etc. The penalties for breaching GDPR regulations are exceedingly substantial.
The United States
The United States lacks a comprehensive privacy law similar to the GDPR. Instead, few of its states have enacted data privacy legislation and regulations for their states. For example, California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), Utah Consumer Privacy Act (UCPA), etc.
Canada: Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA)
Canada’s federal privacy legislation, PIPEDA, was established in the year 2000. It is applicable to private-sector entities operating in Canada engaged in commercial activities that involve the use, collection, or disclosure of personal information. The Act defines commercial activity, personal information and made companies to follow 10 fair information principles such as accountability, accuracy, openness, etc.
Brazil: General Data Protection Law (LGPD)
It is closely modeled after the EU’s GDPR. It is also the largest data privacy regulation in the world after GDPR and CCPA. The individual to whom personal data pertains is referred to as the holder and they are endowed with various rights concerning their personal information.
India: Digital Personal Data Protection Act
The legislation establishes protocols for the lawful handling of personal data, consequently empowering and safeguarding the rights of Data Principals. It’s closely modeled after the GDP. This includes considerations such as accountability, transparency, data minimization, etc.
Other Noteworthy Data Privacy Laws are mentioned in the image below.
Unveiling Ethical Dilemmas: Exploring the Realities of Data Analytics
Lack of attention to ethical and responsible data analytics
For instance, in a McKinsey Global Survey conducted in 2021, only 27% of approximately 1,000 respondents revealed that their data professionals actively verify for skewed or biased data during data ingestion.
Predatory marketing campaigns
The exploitation of client data without their informed consent might lead to various complexities. Such as deceptive targeting of businesses, excessive customer profiling and stereotyping of clients, data breaches and misuse of client information, excessive and unwanted marketing communications like spam emails, etc.
Focus on short-term ROI
Employees are often tempted to make unethical data choices for their short-term profits. Short-term financial pressures of companies often target growth and EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization). Often these targets are linked with their salary and bonuses. So, to achieve that, the employees tend to collect as much data as possible and use it without paying attention to ethical analysis.
Surge in artificial intelligence (AI)
The surge in artificial intelligence (AI) has raised ethical issues regarding the collection, storage, and analysis of data by businesses. The same Mckinsey Survey said that merely 30% of respondents indicated that companies acknowledge equity and fairness as relevant AI risks.
Notably, companies such as Apple and Verizon have prohibited their employees from utilizing ChatGPT due to concerns that the chatbot might accumulate and disclose sensitive client information.
Even the mighty do slip and create discriminatory algorithms
Even prominent companies that lead in artificial intelligence (AI) and business intelligence and analytics encounter challenges in ethical and responsible data analytics. This has resulted in harming individuals and communities. Google discovered that its Vision tools exhibited higher accuracy only with certain skin tones, while Amazon had to abandon its AI-enabled recruiting tool due to its tendency where women faced disadvantage in the application process.
Rapid Technological Advancements
The dynamism of technological advancements in the data analytics field poses a challenge for ethical considerations to keep pace. To keep pace with technological advancements in data analysis, there is a continuous need to update ethical frameworks and guidelines. Organizations must remain vigilant to emerging technologies and the ethical implications they bring.
Lack of standardization
The lack of standardized ethical guidelines while analysis of data results in varying practices across industries. It is essential to establish industry-wide standards and frameworks to foster a unified approach to ethical data analytics.
Technology’s Vital Role in Ethical Data Analytics
Technology assumes a central role in empowering and bolstering ethical data analytics by furnishing the requisite tools, frameworks, and methodologies essential for the collection, processing, and analysis of data in a conscientious and morally sound manner.
Technology can
- Facilitate the establishment of robust data governance frameworks and maintain the integrity of data.
- Protect sensitive client’s data and ensure privacy through deployment of solutions such as encryption, access controls, and data anonymization.
- Help in developing user-friendly interfaces that enable client/customers to provide informed consent for data collection and processing.
- Automate auditing processes to ensure compliance with data protection regulations and ethical standards.
- Support the principle of data minimization by collecting and retaining only the data necessary for the intended purpose.
- Enable secure data sharing mechanisms such as secured data rooms, encrypted file sharing, and secured APIs. These tools allow organizations to share data with partners while maintaining privacy and security.
- Enable real-time monitoring and alerts to make faster response against potential ethical violations and help in rapid corrective actions.
- Facilitate building a culture of ethical data use within organizations by providing online training and awareness creation materials on data ethics.
However, technology should be used responsibly else it might cause some irreparable damage to the Organization by generating biased algorithms, causing privacy violations and much more.
The Guiding Principles for Ethical and Responsible Data Analytics
Always ask for permission from customer
Individuals have ownership of their personal information. It is both illegal and unethical to take their data without their consent. So, the consent of the user is extremely important for ethical and responsible data analytics. This can be done in various ways such as creating written agreements, prompts for digital privacy policies, check box-based pop-ups to track users’ online behaviour, etc.
Setup company-specific rules
The leaders from various business units, functional areas, as well as legal and compliance teams need to collaborate in developing a data usage framework for employees. These common data usage rules will embody a shared vision and mission regarding the company’s utilization of data. This will provide employees with a clear understanding of the company’s tolerance for risk. This will also reduce employees to prioritize short-term gains.
Communicate and Ensure Transparency both inside and outside
After setting up standardized data usage rules, it’s crucial to communicate them efficiently both within and outside the organization. This is because individuals have the right to know the intentions behind the collection, storage, and utilization of their data. This is one of the key traits to ensure ethical and responsible data analytics. This will earn the public’s trust in business analytics.
In Binary we ensure transparency throughout the analysis of data. For instance, Binary is working on a project to improve website experience based on individuals’ buying habits. In cookies, we will clearly mention that these cookies are used to track users’ behavior and that the data will be stored securely and utilized for training algorithms that provide a personalized website experience.
Accountability
Accountability promotes transparency in data analytics processes. Further, it will also promote organizations to comply with relevant laws and regulations. For instance, in Binary Semantics, our constant commitment to accountability has pushed us to earn various certifications like ISMS-ISO 27001, CMMI Level 3 Version 2.0, SOC 2 Certification and others.
Accountability acknowledges the rights of clients as well by making clear communication of actions. In Binary, our accountability ensures clients have control over their data and they are informed frequently about how the data is used at every step. Since accountability is ingrained in our organization’s culture, it became a shared value that guides decision-making at all levels.
Ensure privacy at best
Customer’s consent to collect, store and analyse personally identifiable information (PII) doesn’t mean that the data can be publicly published. To safeguard individual privacy, it’s crucial to store data in a secure database to prevent unauthorized access. Methods such as dual-authentication password protection and file encryption can help in enhancing data security.
To avoid accidental data leaks, firms can start de-identify the collected data sets. For instance, in Binary, we remove all PII data and retain only the anonymous data. This procedure enables analysts to examine connections between variables of interest without establishing direct associations between specific data points and individual identities.
Analyse the intention of data collection
Prior to data collection, in Binary, we scrutinize the purpose of collecting data, anticipated gains, and potential changes post-analysis. We avoid collecting unnecessary, sensitive data. Instead, we strive for the minimum viable amount to make a meaningful impact while minimizing intrusion.
Ethical use of Algorithms to monitor and mitigate biases
Companies may face substantial reputational and financial consequences if algorithms are trained using biased datasets or if datasets are compromised, sold without consent, or mishandled in any way. Incorporating human evaluators, ensuring representative training data, and involving diverse stakeholders can enhance algorithmic development for a better and brighter future.
Build a diverse data-focused team
A strong ethical and responsible data analytics practice requires dedicated attention. This can involve appointing specific roles or teams, such as chief ethics or chief trust officers. Further, the team should include diverse membership such as including members from business units, marketing, compliance, legal, IT, and the C-suite. For example, Procter & Gamble (P&G) has established a Data Ethics Board with members from diverse backgrounds.
Building Trust: The Imperative of Ethical Data Analytics Practices
Ethical and responsible data analytics are not merely buzzwords; they are the pillars upon which trust in the digital age is built. As organizations continue to leverage data for innovation and efficiency, a commitment to ethical practices is non-negotiable. In such a scenario, ethics and law should not be an afterthought in any data analytics. Instead, it should be an integral consideration throughout the entire development and implementation process.
The path to responsible business intelligence and analytics is an ongoing journey, and as custodians of invaluable resources, organizations carry the responsibility of ensuring their ethical and responsible utilization. Binary Semantics is not only having ISMS-ISO 27001:2013 certification for data security, it also GDPR ready and follows ESOMAR (European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research) and the MRSI’s Code of Conduct (Market Research Society of India). This makes sure Binary Semantics is one such company which ensures ethical and responsible data analytics as the heart and soul of its operations.
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