From headlines to headway: Defining data ethics and its impact on data workers

At the intersection between laws and values lives our new hot term: ethics. This word comes to light when things go awry-such as conflicts of interest or ethical violation-but its impact lies within the core of our daily personal and professional decisions.

Ethics come into play on the professional side when we act on behalf of another, either as a trusted advisor or as expert. Professionals are typically expected to focus first on the client, using our knowledge to help others. Doctors do this with patients by monitoring health, diagnosing disease, and providing the best treatment.

To understand ethics, we need to look at values since they closely interrelate. Values are what we, as humans, believe. They're intensely personal, formed by family, religion, culture, and experience.

We break up values in a few ways:

• Beneficence / non-maleficence: We often recognize this as 'do no harm'.
• Autonomy: This often gets rephrased as the right to decide or self-determination.
• Privacy: We often apply this to actions or communications occurring 'in confidence,' implying that trust is essential and discretion is required.
• Justice: Defined as 'right and wrong' or what's perceived as fair.
• Sanctity of life / physical safety: Literally, the right to exist in an environment that doesn't harm the person.
• Integrity / honesty: Ensuring that claims are represented fairly and truthfully.

Various industries may group or catalogue values in different ways. These values may overlap or run into contradictions, such as feelings about the death penalty (sanctity of life vs. justice vs. beneficence). As humans, we form our opinions through our values.