What are big data ethics and why do we need them?

Major executives discuss how the largest tech organisations gather and use consumer information, and what can be done to improve data security and introduce more ethical data practices.

The world has made tremendous progress in developing a range of technologies in recent decades – but questions about how to use this tech ethically haven’t been answered as quickly.

Luckily, there has been a gradual shift in recent times towards more ethical data use practices, although some large businesses are still taking advantage of less honest marketing strategies.

“[There’s] some bad players. If you look at things like data farms … that are using really really granular, personally identifiable information to market products or services to people – that can become really intrusive. Particularly if someone hasn’t given consent for that,” said Kristin Luck, founder of ScaleHouse and president of ESOMAR.

These aggressive forms of marketing have also put consumers on higher alert about seemingly free-to-use products, “there’s certainly a higher degree of awareness from people around the idea of ‘if you’re not paying for the product, you are the product.’ So that has certainly created a higher degree of scepticism,” said Booking.com CTO Rob Francis.

Solutions are now emerging around danger spots such as data privacy, while, most importantly, companies at large are realising that a firm ethical stance can be a foundation for growth.

Rob Francis, CTO at Booking.com, and Kristin Luck, founder of ScaleHouse and president of ESOMAR, spoke to VentureBeat correspondent George Lawton at Web Summit 2022.

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Main image of a big data storage facility: Oleksiy Mark/Shutterstock