Philosophy
The Ethics of Big Data Research with Marginalized Communities
Quick fact
Historically, big data research has sometimes bypassed traditional informed consent, yet data can be re-identified even after anonymization. For example, in 2014, the Facebook emotional contagion experiment manipulated users' news feeds without explicit consent, affecting nearly 700,000 users—a practice that sparked major ethical outcry.
Why this is interesting
A seemingly harmless digital footprint—a few location pings or health app logs—can reveal someone’s race, income, health status, and even sexual orientation. What happens when that data is collected from the very communities most vulnerable to exploitation?