Digital Ethics

With the institutionalization of algorithms as content creators, professional journalism is facing transformation and novel ethical challenges. This article focuses on the concept of Algorithmic Journalism on the basis of natural language generation and provides a framework to identify and discuss ethical issues. The analysis builds on the moral theories of deontology, utilitarianism, virtue ethics, and contractualism and remaps the ethical discussion for Algorithmic Journalism at the intersection of digital media ethics and cyberethics. In order to capture the whole range of potential shifts and challenges in journalism ethics the article combines the ethical multi-layer system of responsibility by Pürer with the classification of journalism by Weischenberg, Malik, and Scholl on an organizational, professional/individual, and social/audience sphere. This analytical framework is then complemented with attributes derived from the technical potential of Algorithmic Journalism. As a result, the analysis uncovers new ethical challenges and shifts of responsibility in news production for journalism practice and journalism research at the  levels of objectivity, authority, transparency, and at the level of implicit or explicit values.

‘Becoming on YouTube: Exploring the Automedial Identities and Narratives of Australian Mummy Vlogging’ examines 37 Australian mummy vloggers on YouTube and explores how these women construct and present their automedial identities and narratives in the participatory, networked digital space. Using a method of virtual ethnography, consisting of long-term observation and participation in the space, the thesis tracks how these women use vlogging to negotiate their social role as mothers, and construct their own performance of the role, in dialogue with all participants in the network including viewers, vloggers, technology, media, products and brands. Situating the automedial practice of vlogging as an intimate yet public process of ‘becoming’ that resembles the published diary online, this thesis finds that the automedial identities and narratives of Australian mummy vloggers are shaped and managed by community, reliant upon authenticity, include intimate and vulnerable others (children), and are ephemeral, always changing, appearing and disappearing. ‘Becoming on YouTube: Exploring the Automedial Identities and Narratives of Australian Mummy Vlogging’ contributes to scholarship in Communication and Media Studies, including Internet Research, particularly in the areas of Networked Digital Media and Identity, and to scholarship in Life Writing Studies, including Auto/Biography Studies, particularly in the area of contemporary digital life writing practices, and the emerging field of Automediality.

Artificial intelligence and data science are contributing to new patterns of innovation, value chains, and new business models that are adaptable and can be re-purposed across sectors, for example how different research had to be re-purposed to tackle the Covid 19 pandemic. Some of the emerging technologies have made cross-cultural social and economic interactions possible. While this convergence has seemingly brought us together, the digital divide between those who have and those who don't is widening. New innovations like the metaverse, by relying on huge datasets, challenge us to develop a shared and common understanding of the various contexts in which data-centered digitalization is taking place in order to minimize the risk of exclusion.

Реквизиты:

Международный форум "Цифовые технологии в инженерном образовании: новые тренды и опыт внедрения" (Москва, 28-29 ноября 2019 г.) : сборник трудов / Московский государственный технический университет им. Н.Э. Баумана (национальный исследовательский университет). Москва : МГТУ им. Н.Э. Баумана, 2019. - 526 с. Стр. 436-476. 

Цифровая трансформация всех сторон жизни требует кардинального изменения системы образования и обучения, выдвигая новые требования к качеству образовательных услуг, связанных, в том числе, с дифференциацией и индивидуализацией обучения с применением технологий искусственного интеллекта. Уровень человеческого капитала определяет интеллектуальный потенциал государства и является важной составляющей национального богатства, обеспечивающего, в том числе, экономическую и социальную стабильность общества. В этих условиях Россия стоит перед необходимостью применения новых возможностей в области образования и обучения, чтобы идти в ногу со временем и достойно конкурировать на рынке человеческого капитала.

Digital transformation of all life aspects requires a fundamental change in the system of education and training, putting forward new requirements for the quality of educational services related, inter alia, to the differentiation and individualization of education with the use of artificial intelligence technologies. Nowadays the level of human capital determines the intellectual potential of the state and it is an important component of national wealth, which ensures the economic and social stability of society. In these conditions, Russia faces the need to apply new opportunities in the field of education and training in order to keep up to date and compete worthily in the human capital market.

Der Beitrag interpretiert die Forderung nach einer Algorithmen-Ethik als exemplarischen Ausdruck für die verschiedenen medienethischen Herausforderungen durch die Digitalisierung der Kommunikation. Davon ausgehend zielt der Text eine ethische Reflexion für den Bereich der öffentlichen Kommunikation an. Die These lautet, dass die Folgen der Digitalisierung Auswirkungen haben auf die Freiheit öffentlicher Kommunikation. Um diese These zu prüfen, beginnen die Überlegungen mit der Macht der Algorithmen und den sozialen Phänomenen, die hinter der Internetnutzung liegen. In einem politisch-ethischen Zugriff wird daraufhin die Bedeutung der Freiheit öffentlicher Kommunikation betont und gefragt, ob diese Freiheit in der digitalen Medienwelt bedroht ist. Die Argumentation endet mit handlungsorientierten Überlegungen zur Zukunft der öffentlichen Kommunikation in Zeiten des Internets.

are two of a long series of studies conducted over the past decade on the status of cybersecurity. From year to year, data about cyber attacks and their impact continue to increase indicating that cyber attacks pose an ever-growing threat for information societies. There are two lessons to be learned from these data. The first lesson is not controversial , digital infrastructures are porous. We should think of them as agile, flexible, but brittle systems. This brittleness, as I argued elsewhere (Taddeo 2016, 2017a), favours offence over defence, explaining in part the continue growth of cyber threats and the escalation of their impact. The more digital technologies become pervasive, the wider becomes the surface of attacks, and with it also number of successful attacks grows. Think for example about the distribution of Internet of Things (IoT). In 2018, a Symantec study reported an average of 5200 attacks per month on IoT devices, the figure almost double the 3650 attacks counted in 2016. The second lesson may be harder to learn, for it is about the inadequacy of the ways in which we have framed and governed cybersecurity. This is clear when considering that data on the escalation of number and impact of cyber attacks, despite the growing value of the cybersecurity market and the increasing efforts of companies and state actors to improve the security of information systems and infrastructures (Technavio 2018). The lack of effective cybersecurity measures has a potential knock-on effect on the information revolution, and on the development of information societies around An early version of this letter has been published here https ://www.wefor um.org/agend a/2019/08/ we-must-treat-cyber secur ity-like-publi c-good/ * Mariarosaria Taddeo

PurposeThis research analyzed the existing academic and grey literature concerning the technologies and practices of people analytics (PA), to understand how ethical considerations are being discussed by researchers, industry experts and practitioners, and to identify gaps, priorities and recommendations for ethical practice.Design/methodology/approachAn iterative “scoping review” method was used to capture and synthesize relevant academic and grey literature. This is suited to emerging areas of innovation where formal research lags behind evidence from professional or technical sources.FindingsAlthough the grey literature contains a growing stream of publications aimed at helping PA practitioners to “be ethical,” overall, research on ethical issues in PA is still at an early stage. Optimistic and technocentric perspectives dominate the PA discourse, although key themes seen in the wider literature on digital/data ethics are also evident. Risks and recommendations for PA projects co...

Ethics is a growing concern in the realm of data science, artificial intelligence (AI), and data-centric technologies in general. There are good reasons for this. We are all familiar with concerns over such issues as data privacy, data-driven surveillance, and the increased intertwining of the data industry with the finance industry and the so-called defense industry. We are all familiar with the fact that data-extracting and data-driven algorithms increasingly regulate the temporal , affective, and intersubjective modalities of everyday life. And we are all familiar with how this regulation-along with the sometimes over-the-top, but sometimes legitimate, concerns of how AI may change the very definition of the human, as well as life itself-is increasingly of not only ethical but also existential concern. Indeed, there are good reasons we are experiencing what I would call an ethical demand made by the data-centric situation in which we now find ourselves. In this essay, I will discuss the dominant ways in which ethics is talked about vis-à-vis data-centric practices and technologies today. I will then turn to a more adequate ethical response to the demand of our current data-centric situation: this is what I call relational ethics.

Privacy is currently at the centre of a fierce battle. On one side, powerful data companies like Google, Facebook, and major data brokers are collecting and analysing as much personal data as they can. They are lobbying governments around the world, and trying to get governments to depend on them. During the coronavirus lockdown, for instance, governments depended on platforms to conduct their meetings online. The analysis of data is increasingly outsourced to companies like Palantir, which has contracts with American and British public institutions. Intelligence agencies and public health authorities argue they need as much data as possible to keep us as safe as possible. On the other side of the privacy battles, a techlash from consumers, human rights organisations, privacy experts, a few businesses, and new regulation such as Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California’s Consumer Privacy Act, represent forces that are pushing corporations and governments to respect our privacy. It is up to citizens to decide what kind of future we want.

Investigations of the moral consequences of socialbots typically involve asking about the influence these mechanisms have on human users and the effect of this influence on the construction of human sociality. This chapter seeks to develop a more fundamental mode of moral inquiry that grapples with other questions—questions concerning who or what can or should be considered “Other” in social relationships and communicative exchange. Toward this end, the chapter investigates both sides of the ethical relationship—moral agency and moral patiency—in an effort to develop a more nuanced  understanding of the social challenges and opportunities of bots.

The paper intends to analyze two timely trends: Digitalization and associated Digital Ethics, both of which are deepening their roots globally. Data is thought to be the cornerstone of these trends: where once firms were overwhelmed by large quantities of unused structured and unstructured data, they are increasingly adapting their operations and value creation models, guided both by new digital tools and the data themselves. Website cookies, mobile applications, and surveillance cameras, as well as data from third-party vendors, have thus become the new "digital oil", as firms exploit process and customer data in pursuit of digitalization. Established firms' core business models have shifted in response to data availability: Apple Pay and Google Pay (operating systems), AliPay (e-commerce), and Lufthansa's Miles & More purchase enabled loyalty card (travel) emerged from old, established businesses. Still, other firms are partially or wholly digitizing existing business processes in order to respond to the challenges posed by digitalization. Banks, for instance, are using fingerprint and facial recognition to make their services more convenient and to improve security. These developments are not only visible among competitive private sector firms: the public sector is also becoming digitalized, not only to promote efficiency but also to promote transparency and accountability. However, customers and citizens are waking up to the fact that their information is being collected by both private and public entities, and have begun to demand control and transparency. Governments and other regulating bodies (ISO, ACM, and IEEE, among others) are taking a more proactive role in responding to these demands. This paper will delve into the tensions inherent in digitalization, zooming in on digital ethics, shifts in societal values, utilitarian benefits and risks, the future of digitalization, the role of technology in digital ethics, and other themes which could impact all society stakeholders and raises question about ethical issues in several topics. CCS Concepts •Security and privacy~Software and application security~Social network security and privacy •Security and privacy~Software and application security~Social network security and privacy

This course examines the ethical issues involved in communication. How ought we to play our part in all of the interactions we are party to? How should the media cover issues of a sensitive or potentially harmful nature? How do new technologies and practices impact the ethical situations in communication? How do our interactions with others reflect and shape who we truly are? We will build our examination of communication ethics from two fundamental premises: (1) we create the sort of person that we are through our actions and inactions, and (2) an ethical communicator is one who acts with integrity. We will examine the ethical theories of a variety of thinkers and consider what they have to say about the selves we are creating through how we communicate with others. We will also see what light they shed on the topic of living and communicating with integrity. Lively discussion will be encouraged by our frequent analysis of case studies. Additionally, students will be able to write a term paper on a topic of their choice in communication ethics. This course will begin with an examination of some major theorists in normative ethics. We will read selections of important works from Aristotle, Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill, Immanuel Kant, John Rawls, and Jürgen Habermas. Additionally, we will read contemporary sources in feminist and pragmatist ethics. We will then take our knowledge of moral decision-making and begin exploring contemporary topics in media and communication ethics. These shall include the topics of free speech, interpersonal communication, political communication, advertising, public relations, blogging, journalism, photo manipulation, documentary film, fake/comedy news, and online speech. Through our examination of these ethical issues, we will continue to explore the uses and limits of the normative theories analyzed at the beginning of this course. Students are encouraged to determine for themselves which ethical system best captures what we think ought to be included in our concept of the person who lives and communicates with integrity.

This course explores the ethical issues inherent in our use of digital and online media. We will engage a range of current issues and topics through the application of important moral theories, attending to how new technologies often challenge what we know about morality, virtue, and the good life. We will use the analysis of case studies to encourage reflection and discussion over contemporary issues in digital ethics. Topics to be covered include the ethics of hacking, Anonymous operations, online privacy, blogging ethics, online shaming and activism, revenge pornography, online free speech, trolling, social media and virtue, WikiLeaks and issues in online journalism, as well as other contemporary topics dealing with digital media.

The data science technologies of artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), big data and behavioral/predictive analytics, and blockchain are poised to revolutionize government and create a new generation of GovTech start-ups. The impact from the 'smartification' of public services and the national infrastructure will be much more significant in comparison to any other sector given government's function and importance to every institution and individual. Potential GovTech systems include Chatbots and intelligent assistants for public engagement, Robo-advisors to support civil servants, real-time management of the national infrastructure using IoT and blockchain, automated compliance/regulation, public records securely stored in blockchain distributed ledgers, online judicial and dispute resolution systems, and laws/statutes encoded as blockchain smart contracts. Government is potentially the major 'client' and also 'public champion' for these new data technologies. This review paper uses our simple taxonomy of government services to provide an overview of data science automation being deployed by governments worldwide. The goal of this review paper is to encourage the Computer Science community to engage with government to develop these new systems to transform public services and support the work of civil servants.

In 2017, the WannCry and NotPeya showed that attacks targeting the cyber component of infrastructures (e.g. attacks on power plants), services (e.g. attacks to banks or hospitals servers), and endpoint devices (e.g. attacks on mobiles and personal computers) have a great disruptive potential and could cause serious damage to our information societies. WannaCry crippled hundreds of IT systems. And NotPetya costed pharmaceutical giant Merck, shipping firm Maersk and logistics company FedEx around US$300 million each. At a global level, cyber crime causes multibillion dollar losses to businesses, with average losses per organization running from US$3.8 to US$16.8 million in the smallest and largest quartiles respectively (Accenture 2017).

A case study on the use of artificial intelligence to make "Deepfakes," or realistic but fake videos using facial images of a celebrity or private person. The ethical challenges of using this technology to make fake porn videos or fake news content is discussed. Authors: James Hayden & Scott Stroud. More case studies at: https://mediaethicsinitiative.org/case-studies/

Underestimated for a long time, serendipity is an increasingly recognized design principle of the infosphere. Being influenced by environmental and human factors, the experience of serendipity encompasses fundamental phases of production, distribution and consumption of information. On the one hand, design information architectures for serendipity increases the diversity of information encountered as well as users' control over information processes. On the other hand, serendipity is a capability. It helps individuals to internalize and adopt strategies that increase the chances of experiencing it. As such, the pursuit for serendipity can help to burst filter bubbles and weaken echo chambers in social media. The article reviews the literature on emerging issues surrounding serendipity in human-computer interactions. By doing so, it firstly presents the study of serendipity and the debate about its role in digital environments. Then, it introduces the main features of a preliminary architecture for serendipity. Finally, it analyzes from an interdisciplinary perspective the values that embraces and sustains. The conclusion is that serendipity can be conceived as an emerging design and ethical principle able to strengthen media pluralism and other emerging human rights in the context of online personalization. Main limitations and potential unintended consequences are also discussed.

This article is an interdisciplinary critical analysis of personalization systems and the gatekeeping role of current mainstream social media. The first section presents a literature review of data-driven personalization and its challenges in social media. The second section sheds light on increasing concerns regarding algorithms’ ability to overtly persuade—and covertly manipulate—users for the sake of engagement, introducing the emergence of the exclusive ownership of behavioral modification through hyper-nudging techniques. The third section empirically analyzes users’ expectations and behaviors regarding such data-driven personalization to frame a conceptualization of users’ agency. The fourth section introduces the concept of “algorithmic sovereignty.” Current projects that aim to grant this algorithmic sovereignty highlight some potential applications. Together this novel theoretical framework and empirical applications suggest that, to preserve trust, social media should open their personalization algorithms to a social negotiation as the first step toward a more sustainable social media landscape. To decentralize the immense power of mainstream social media, guarantee a democratic oversight, and mitigate the unintended undesirable consequences of their algorithmic curation, public institutions and civil society could help in developing and researching public algorithms, fostering a collective awareness so as to eventually ensure a fair and accountable “algorithmic sovereignty.”

The main ethical challenges that arise for Information Sciences (with the daily use in different areas of Big Data applications) are not about the reliability of its professionals to carry out tasks in the organization area in an impartial way or about the obligation to train themselves technologically in the area of Data Science. The most important problems are related to the concept of moral responsibility, especially from a metaethical perspective, in line with the reflection of the implementation of technology with respect to human autonomy. In this paper it is stated that the challenges of Big Data go beyond the individual spectrum of responsibility of a professional in Information Sciences (specifically, due to the negative social consequences), so that the changes brought about by massive data sets are essentially problems of a group ethics, so they require approaches from the theoretical postulates of these disciplines. In addition to this, the moral challenges in dealing with Big Data are usually approached from applied ethics (such as information ethics), but in this article it will be approached as a problem of metaethics and normative ethics (as a foundation for its application in professional codes), and also from some ideas of digital hermeneutics and the philosophy of technology.

In times of major crises or security attacks, governments and authorities tend to put in place certain programs and practices that would help them gain more information and hence control and authority over populations under the guise of responding to an emergency. These programs and practices often incur longer term unintended consequences. This article expands on the practices of surveillance and tracking methods that became part of our lives overnight with COVID-19 pandemic, and overlays it with the ethical Big Data and AI principles to suggest practices to protect our privacy and rights while still fighting an unprecedented fight against a pandemic.  The methods are reviewed against the principles of Purpose & Value, Accountability & Trust, Respect for Data Rights & Privacy, and Prevention of Harm and Bias.  Exigent circumstances must not lead us down the road of trading our ethics for techniques and technologies that will impact our democracy under the guise of ‘public health’. This is why this article presents a framework for an ethical AI and use of big data during a pandemic or similar public health crises.

Digital 3D modelling is increasingly common in archaeological recording, but building the models is only part of the story. Sharing and interacting with these digital representations is essential in fostering engagement and ensuring that research is relevant to the broader community. Projects and institutions understand that much of their communication and outreach now take place via digital platforms. However, archaeologists are faced with a variety of challenges when sharing 3D models of human remains online, including metadata curation, accessibility, openness, copyright as well as the ethical implications of sharing digital bioarchaeological data and long term storage requirements. In this research, metadata from a collection of 3D models of human remains were extracted from SketchFab and analysed to understand how users share 3D models of human remains via online social platforms. The results were contrasted with a critical review of current ethical and technical guidelines, indicating potentially ethically compromising practices, particularly the lack of contextualising metadata for some models. This article proposes and discusses recommendations for developing more strategic approaches to the sharing of 3D data on human remains online, such as assessing and agreeing hosting, licensing and metadata management during project design. Frameworks are provided to support these approaches and make decisions on how to share data openly.

Ulguim, P. F. 2018. Models and Metadata: The Ethics of Sharing Bioarchaeological 3D Models Online. Archaeologies 14(2):189–228. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11759-018-9346-x

We propose a formal framework for interpretable machine learning. Combining elements from statistical learning, causal interventionism, and decision theory, we design an idealised explanation game in which players collaborate to find the best explanation(s) for a given algorithmic prediction. Through an iterative procedure of questions and answers, the players establish a three-dimensional Pareto frontier that describes the optimal trade-offs between explanatory accuracy, simplicity, and relevance. Multiple rounds are played at different levels of abstraction, allowing the players to explore overlapping causal patterns of variable granularity and scope. We characterise the conditions under which such a game is almost surely guaranteed to converge on a (conditionally) optimal explanation surface in polynomial time, and highlight obstacles that will tend to prevent the players from advancing beyond certain explanatory thresholds. The game serves a descriptive and a normative function, establishing a conceptual space in which to analyse and compare existing proposals, as well as design new and improved solutions.

Cyber attacks are escalating in frequency, impact, and sophistication. For this reason, it is crucial to identify and define regulations for state behaviour and strategies to deploy countering measures that would avoid escalation and disproportionate use of cyber means, while protecting and fostering the stability of our societies. To this end, strategies to deter cyber attacks and norms regulating state behaviour in cyberspace are both necessary; unfortunately neither is available at the moment. In this chapter, I offer a theory of cyber deterrence and a set of policy recommendations to fill this vacuum.

Educational interventions on youth sexting often focus on individual sexters or would-be sexters, and are driven by the aim of encouraging young people to abstain from producing and sharing personal sexual images. This approach has been criticised for failing to engage with the complex sociocultural context to youth sexting. Drawing upon qualitative group and one-to-one interviews with 41 young people aged 14 to 18 living in a county in south-east England, I explore young people’s perceptions and practices surrounding sexting. By taking a grounded theory approach to the research, I reveal how young people’s shaming of digitally mediated sexual self-expression shaped and was shaped by a denial of rights to bodily and sexual autonomy and integrity. This denial of rights underpinned harmful sexting practices, including violations of privacy and consent, victim blaming, and bullying. I conclude that responses to youth sexting should attend to this broader youth cultural context, emphasise the roles and responsibilities of bystanders, and encourage a collectivist digital sexual ethics based upon rights to one’s body and freedom from harm (Albury, New Media and Society 19(5):713–725, 2017; Dobson and Ringrose, Sex Education 16(1):8–21, 2015).

Some companies are hoping to use AI--and the treasure trove of our social media postings--to create convincing chatbot simulations of us after we die. What are the ethical worries surrounding these "legacy chatbots" that promise to keep us close to our departed loved ones? A case study authored by Colin Frick & Scott R. Stroud. More case studies at www.mediaethicsinitiative.org