Infusing Data Ethics into the Development of Data Users

• Activity Number: 430 - Infusing Data Ethics into the Development of Data Users
• Type: Invited
• Date/Time: Thursday, August 12, 2021 : 4:00 PM to 5:50 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Statistics and Data Science Education
• Author(s): Susan Winter* and Michael Kalichman* and Ben Baumer* and Anne Washington* and Natalie Evans Harris*
• Companies: University of Maryland and University of California San Diego and Smith College and New York University Steinhardt School and Harris Data Consulting
• Keywords: data science education; ethics; ethics education; data science

Abstract

Data ethics addresses ethical problems and responsibilities related to data (including its generation, processing, storage, security, and sharing), associated algorithms and tools, and broader related concepts like professional codes of conduct and the social impacts of data use. Ethical practice is especially critical as applications of data analytics increasingly address highly charged political and socially complex problems that combine not just technical hurdles but also social, ethical, and organizational challenges. Ensuring that students are well-prepared to recognize, grapple with, and clearly communicate ethical issues related to data depends on both formal and informal education about data ethics and requires the cultivation of critical ethical decision-making.

Panelists will address the evolution of data ethics education, provide an overview of urgent challenges and promising practices associated with the incorporation of ethics in the data science curriculum, highlight key issues in data ethics ed