Solving problems with evidence and data – the safe way

Kim Plowright: Working with data means you need to understand the laws around data protection
and how they apply to you. Depending on where you work, you may also need to consider other
regulations, or even take into account the ethical implications of working with data. Listen to our
experts as they share their tips for working safely and ethically with data.

Privacy
Alexandra Mitchell: Everything in your data set relates to a person who, just like you, has needs and
has rights. And one of those rights and one of those needs, I believe, is privacy. When you've got a
data set, it's not just a collection of data points. It's a collection of data points about people, about
individuals. And it's absolutely crucial that those individuals are respected.

Benedicta Benga: The new GDPR law requires that we keep people's data safely. So when I'm
working on projects, I'm always trying to find out whether that project is going to be collecting
people's personal information.

If it is, then I flag that project. And that allows us to safeguard the data by making sure the databases
are encrypted in the correct way, and that we do not allow people that aren't supposed to have
access to that data to have that data.

Ian Betteridge: Quite a bit of the data that we deal with isn't actually held by us, it's held by third
parties. For example, with our websites, we have what's called programmatic advertising on them,
which means that it's personalised to the individual. That's done by Google. Literally, all we know
about the advertising that you'll see is if it's something you want to complain about or don't like when
you email us.

Security and consent

Kim: Benedicta also considers security and privacy for her Blaqbase community.

Benedicta: When people come to the app, I want them to know that their data is safe. So you first
log in, you request a PIN. That PIN is sent to your email. And you go into that email, and you retrieve

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the PIN. And that gives you access to the app. I also ask for consent, according to GDPR. So I don't
store anybody's details that doesn't want their details stored. And I also do not market to people who
do not want me to market to them.

I make sure that I'm the only one who has access to the database with people's personal details. And
I also ask for people not to share information publicly within the app, that is, that they wouldn't want
other people to find out.

Ian: A lot of the typical ethical considerations around data that I work with on a day-to-day basis are
actually now covered by the legal frameworks we have around data protection. So there are specific
rules about how you have to handle data, who gets access to it, and so on. We have, as with all UK
businesses, we have a data protection officer, whose job it is to make sure that any personal data
that we hold is kept securely, and that only the people who absolutely need access to it can ever get
access to it.

Transparency
Alexandra: Something that's really crucial to ethical data collection is transparency. Customers need
to know what it is that they're opting into when they share their data with a company. They need to
know that they can opt out just as easily as they can opt in.

For companies who are using data for AI and machine learning, for any kind of statistical modelling,
the people who are doing that work don't need access to data with identified individuals in it.

Kim: It's important to respect the privacy of individuals, be transparent about your use of data, and
use the minimum amount of data for your purpose. But what can happen if data collection goes
wrong?

Alexandra: There have been a few high-profile cases of sensitive data being used for harm. I think
the most obvious of those is Cambridge Analytica. There is an example recently where someone
found they had access to their ex-girlfriends bank account details and new home address through
their job. And they showed up at her house. You don't need to have a disgruntled ex to hate that
idea. So it's paramount that companies think about, do they need to collect this piece of data?

Kim: Working safely with data is often about balancing the needs of the business with the privacy
and security of people. As well as your legal requirements around privacy and consent, it's important
to store data securely.

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Ethics in data use
Ian: It's really important to balance the tension between business needs and ethical decisions. And
we take ethics pretty seriously. A good example of that is from the recent election in the UK, where
we decided that on our websites we weren't going to take political advertising, even though there was
plenty of money out there that we could have taken. We decided to do that because we didn't think it
was right for our brands, but also we felt that it might be something that might offend some of our
audiences, or they might just simply be bored of seeing constant wall-to-wall politics. So we decided
that, at the end of the day, that the ethical decision was not to take it.

Kim: Handling data both ethically and legally is a complex subject. You have to understand the law,
but by thinking through the way that you use data, and asking yourself if you'd be comfortable with
someone using your data in the same situation, you can start to develop your own sense of the ethics
of data use.

If you'd like to explore more, there are links on the FutureLearn site to the organisations that work to
help people use data more ethically and responsibly.

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