Unit 1: Big data, consent and Privacy

Question 1

As a discipline, ethics involves (5)

Answer 1

• a way of looking at what we should and should not do.
• a method of evaluating and assessing our actions and choices for how they impact others.
• trying to reach consistent, sound principles for action.
• considering how to uphold people’s dignity (or: moral rights - distinct from legal) and people’s
  wellbeing (welfare, happiness, quality of life).
• making sure we have good reasons to justify actions, and where either of these are at issue.

Question 2

2 Main goals of ethics

Answer 2

1. Working out what the right thing to do is (or, what is ok or permissible to do).
2. Working out why this is right.

Question 3

Consent

Answer 3

Consent is the power to determine who can access, use, and affect something we have a right of control over.

Question 4

3 Conditions of valid consent

Answer 4

• Informed
• Autonomous
• Ongoing

Question 5

Informed Consent

Answer 5

The individual must understand what they are agreeing to, and must be given an opportunity to understand what they are agreeing to.

Question 6

Autonomous consent

Answer 6

Valid consent requires that individuals make an autonomous choice.

I.e. they must be the authority behind their own decision, making it freely, such that the choice was in their control.

Question 7

Ongoing consent

Answer 7

Having the power to withdraw consent once given is also crucial for its validity.

I.e. consent is something continually granted, until it is withdrawn, or until whatever was consented to has been carried out.

Question 8

Panopticon model

Answer 8

Suggested by Jeremy Bentham

An institution designed so that those in charge can see everything, observing the behaviour of those under supervision.

Bentham thought that it would mean that people would feel observed, and thus behave themselves. This would be good for society and the individuals.

Question 9

3 Ethical issues raised by surveillance

Answer 9

• Privacy
• Trust
• Autonomy

Question 10

Privacy as a right

Answer 10

Privacy is recognised as a human right by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and the European Convention on Human Rights (1950).

Question 11

3 Reasons why we value privacy

Answer 11

• It allows us to experiment with new ideas or actions without fear of them being publicly known.
• Privacy allows us to have freedom or autonomy, the capacity to think, speak, and act as we like without being subject to control by others. If we value freedom and autonomy, we are likely to value privacy.
• Intimacy with others means that we select who we allow into our private lives. Without privacy, many doubt that we can have true intimacy.