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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...]

Been There, Done That: What Data Science Can Learn from Psychology by Kim Darnell on September 20, 2018 In the wake of recent revelations regarding misuses and abuses of personal data by a variety of well-known and successful companies, as well as the growing evidence that big data are being used to actively perpetuate and increase socioeconomic inequality,… [Read more...]

Alternative measures of credit risk  by Simon Hodgkinson People in developing economies can increasingly use their private information as a way to secure credit, but is this a good thing? Easy access to credit is essential to the proper functioning of many high-income economies. Governments, corporations, and individuals all rely on the ability to borrow money. Lenders offer credit based… [Read more...]

Social Credit: a Chinese experiment by Yang Yang Qian Imagine applying for a loan, but first the bank must check your Facebook profile for a credit report. As odd as it feels for consumers in the United States, for consumers in China, this is already part of an experiment with social credit. The Chinese government has had plans to implement… [Read more...]

Bad Blood: Trusting Numbers with a Grain of Salt by Amy Lai Digital health may be well on its way toward becoming the next “it” trend in technology. Over the past few years, the presence of consumer health technology companies has boomed. In 2010, digital health companies received roughly $1 billion in total investment funding, a less than hefty amount… [Read more...]

China’s Social Credit System: Using Data Science to Rebuild Trust in Chinese Society by Jason Hunsberger From 1966-1976 Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) waged an idological war on its own citizens. Seeking to purge the country of “bourgeois” and “insufficiently revolutionary” elements, Mao closed the schools and set an army of high school and university students on… [Read more...]

From Safety to Surveillance: When is it Okay to Spy on Your Kids? by Elizabeth Shulok Imagine hiding a webcam in your teenager’s bedroom and recording them unaware. Most of us would recognize this as an invasion of privacy, and potentially child pornography if the camera records the child in a state of undress. But install a webcam in your… [Read more...]