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The Ethics of Analytics

As more and more data is being collected, concerns are constantly being raised about what data is appropriate to collect and how (or if) it should be analyzed. There are many ethical, privacy, and legal issues to consider and no clear standards exist in many cases as to what is fair and what is foul. This means that organizations must consider their own principles and risk tolerance in order to implement the right policies.

With the increasing use of deeply embedded and automated analytics alongside the rise of artificial intelligence, concern about ethics is now coming to the forefront. This talk will cover a range of ethical, privacy, and legal issues that surround analytics and artificial intelligence today.

  • Where in an analytics process do we need to think about ethics?
  • What are some thought-provoking examples that illustrate the challenges in deciding what is ethical?
  • How can organizations determine where to draw the line?
  • Who should be responsible for ensuring analytics are done in an ethical way?
  • What steps can be taken today to make an organization’s analytics more ethical?

The talk will frame the big questions to consider while providing some of the tradeoffs and ambiguities that must be addressed to answer those questions. The audience will come away with some tangible examples and action steps that they can take back to their organizations.

Bill Franks image

Bill Franks

Bill Franks

Chief Analytics Officer for The International Institute for Analytics (IIA)

Bill Franks is the Chief Analytics Officer for The International Institute for Analytics (IIA), where he provides perspective on trends in the analytics, AI, & big data space and helps clients understand how IIA can support their efforts to improve analytics performance. Franks is also the author of the books Taming The Big Data Tidal Wave and The Analytics Revolution. He is a sought-after speaker and frequent blogger who has been ranked a top global big data influencera top global artificial intelligence and big data influencera top AI influencer, and was an inaugural inductee into the Analytics Hall of Fame. His work, including several years as Chief Analytics Officer for Teradata (NYSE: TDC), has spanned clients in a variety of industries for companies ranging in size from Fortune 100 companies to small nonprofit organizations. You can learn more at http://www.bill-franks.com.