blogpost

May we recommend…some Ethics? by Jessica Hays | September 30, 2018 The internet today is awash with recommender systems. Some pop to mind quickly – like Netflix’s suggestions of shows to binge, or Amazon’s nudges towards products you may like. These tools use your personal history on their site, along with troves of data from other users, to predict… [Read more...]

Workplace monitoring by Anonymous on September 30, 2018 We never intended to build a pervasive workplace monitoring system – We just wanted to replace a clunky system of shared spreadsheets and email. Our new system was intended to track customer orders as they moved through the factory. Workers finding a problem in the production process could quickly check order history… [Read more...]

What do GDPR and the #MeToo Movement Have in Common? By Asher Sered | October 21, 2018 At first glance it might be hard to see what the #MeToo movement has in common with the General Data Protection Rule (GDPR), the new monumental European regulation that governs the collection and analysis of commercially collected data. One is a 261 page… [Read more...]

GDPR Will Transform Insurance Industry’s Business Model By Amit Tyagi | October 21, 2018 The European Union wide General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, came into force on May 25, 2018, with significant penalties for non-compliance. In one sweep, GDPR harmonizes data protection rules across the EU and gives greater rights to individuals over how their data is used. GDPR… [Read more...]

Unknown Knowns by Anonymous on 10/21/2018 Image Credit: https://www.azquotes.com/quote/254214 Donald Rumsfeld during Department of Defense News Briefing, archive.defense.gov. February 12, 2002. The taxonomy of knowledge laid out by Rumsfeld in his much quoted new briefing conspicuously omits a fourth category: unknown knowns. In his critique of Rumsfeld’s analysis, the philosopher Slavoj Žižek defines the unknown knowns as “the disavowed beliefs… [Read more...]

Ethical Issues of the Healthcare Internet of Things By Osmar Coronel  | October 21, 2018 Tracking vital signs on the fly Very likely you are already using an Internet of Things (IoTs) product for your healthcare. Our new connected world IoTs are small computing objects that are constantly collecting information and sending it to the cloud or turning on… [Read more...]

Is the GDPR’s Bark Bigger than its Bite? by Zach Day on 10/21/2018 The landmark EU regulation, formally called the General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR, took effect on May 25, 2018. Among other protections, GDPR grants “data subjects” with a bundle of new rights and placed an increased obligation on companies who collect and use the data. Firms were… [Read more...]

Healthcare’s Painful: Is HIPAA to blame? By Keith LoMurray on 9/23/2018 Working in healthcare technology, I regularly hear painful stories about people’s experiences with healthcare. People will often talk about the great care they received from an individual doctor or nurse, but then mention the challenges of navigating the impersonal healthcare bureaucracy. Coordinating care between clinics, waiting for records, signing… [Read more...]

The Doctor Will Model You Now: The Rise and Risks of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare by Dani Salah | September 23, 2018 As artificial intelligence promises to change many facets of our everyday lives, it will have perhaps no greater change than in the healthcare industry. The increase in data collected on individuals has already proven paramount in improving health… [Read more...]

Hate Speech – How far should social media censorship go, and can there be unintended consequences? By Anonymous, 10/14/2018 Today, there is a lot of harmful or false information being spread around the internet, among the most egregious of which is hate speech. It may seem a difficult task to stop hate speech from spreading over the vast expanse of… [Read more...]