Introduction
Data ethics is a branch of ethics that evaluates data practices—collecting, generating, analyzing and disseminating data, both structured and unstructured—that have the potential to adversely impact people and society. However, the use of social media data raises several crucial ethical issues around the areas of informed consent, anonymity and profiling of individuals. Social networking platforms, mobile phone technology, and ubiquitous data-gathering software have become enmeshed with daily life for most people in developed, western nations (HASTAC.orgLinks to an external site., 2013). Because of this, we have seemingly grown comfortable to the point of sharing our personal identities, habits, and attitudes with companies in exchange for “free” or customized services and benefits (Carey and Burkell, 2009). However, with recent news events about the National Security Agency’s position on collecting data from Internet companies, along with the events surrounding NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden (and the subsequent media frenzy), the problematic nature of “dataveillance,” or the surveillance of the aforementioned archives of data, becomes apparent. Use the Internet to further research the terms data ethics and dataveillance.
