This week we got the first assignment in IT (yay?), essentially it is a research task on ethical data. The task gives us some case studies, and we need to choose one of them. We also got given a task (before the assignment was given) about the Centrelink’s Robodebt. This is computerized way to find payments that didn’t need to occur. Ethical data is also a moral question, as it is about the people that are doing the work, not the data itself.

The task was relatively easy, for starters it had a reduced word limit compared to the assignment (250 vs 1200 words), its ethical topic was chosen (Robodebt). I completed the task quite quickly, and that is why I haven't put the From Tasks tag, as it wasn’t significant enough work, and that task was just meant to be help for the assignment. I said that it was both immoral and somewhat moral depending on the person, as some of the top people probably didn't know how bad it was, the developers probably should have enplanes the issues, but I think it was a good way to learn about ethical data.

Likewise, I have chosen the Cambridge Analytica data scandal (Social Influence) option for research assignment. This in short was a group of people in a company that was paid to do things, this included the election rigging, done by showing ads to people (using data collected) to change their mind.

I like the option I have chosen as it sounds interesting, and I also watched The Great Hack some time ago. While it does sound exiting the annoying part still exists, writing, and lots of it, I mean it's not too annoying but when you have a few of research reports/essays, it can start getting confusing (and maybe start writing about the wrong thing 😖)

I haven’t yet started the assignment really, but the task and background knowledge that I did make me mostly happy for this week. I have a lot of research to do, and I have a lot of work to do, but it is IT, so I am happy to be doing this. Also, I will probably watch the movie again and research more as it is the best way to learn about ethical data (or just things in general).

To answer my question of what is ethics in data, it is simply what is ethics (put don't get psychological) and data. There are lots of examples of the bad use (as mentioned earlier) of data, but there are organizations that handle the data responsibly, and that is what is ethics in data (comes down to what is done with the data). I think it is important to understand the ways that it can be exploited, and how it is affecting you (because Google isn't that good).

Things that I did well (in my opinion) was, reading the case studies, and choosing the one that I liked. I also did a lot of research on the Cambridge Analytica data scandal because it was my option for research assignment (still need to talk to teacher about my choice though). If I could do the week differently I would have started the assignment earlier and the task earlier, because then I would have had a longer time to other assignments. But I am happy with the work that I have done in IT so far. I believe we are looking about data scandals and ethical data, is because if we are to have our own database we need to be ethical about it. To help others I can talk to them about the topic in class (probably ethical data), I could also talk to the robotic people about their task because robotics sounds interesting. The ideas that make sense are ethical data is important, data shouldn't be the biggest asset, and people should be more control of their data.