Discuss about the Data Collection for Harvesting Personalities Online.
This paper is a review of the case-study by the same title (Raicu, 2016). A political candidate in America hired the services of a private company to help classify registered voters above and beyond the static demographics. The statistics included a personality analysis of the individual, to help the candidates better target (micro-target) specialised advertisements to people, both online and offline (Talbot, 2016) totalling 5,000 data points per person (“About Us”, 2017). The company understandably keeps the techniques and the exhaustive list of the data providers confidential. They distilled individuals and all of their idiosyncrasies into one of conscientious, neurotic, or agreeable. Interestingly, the candidate had three different advertisement campaigns (an architect, a soldier, and a family man) each appealing to the three mentioned personality types, complete with the matching subliminal messages. These suggestions hold importance not only in advertising but also politics (Herskovits, 2010) (“Subliminals in Politics”, n.d.). This paper focuses on the ethical concerns on how the company ‘harvested’ the people’s personality. Specifically, this report will ask if the harvesting method is ethical, should the people taking the questionnaire have been advised explicitly, and is extrapolating the classification to individuals who did not take the survey moral? This paper uses four classical ethical theories – Utilitarianism, Deontology, Virtue Ethics and Contractarianism for evaluation.
Utilitarianism is a version of Consequentialism, and the latter identifies the end-result as the sole criteria for judging an action. Utilitarianism stands for the greater good. Thus, the action has to be considered with its good consequences, and deduct the negative impact and see how many entities will or have received the benefit. It has its roots in the 19th in helping legislators judge which laws were morally the best (“Thinking Ethically”, 2017).
In the context of Utilitarianism, was the company’s method of harvesting ethical? This method of harvesting using data from unsuspecting individuals hugely benefited the company for sure with no harm to the enterprise. There was no harm to people, but no advantage either. Thus, this method had enormous benefits but for a smaller number of individuals, but no harm to others. Thus, this is ethical. Next, should the people have been informed explicitly about the company’s intent to use their responses to profile them? If the individual was informed, there are good chances that the responses may have been different (Craighead & Nemeroff, 2001), or they may not have taken up the questionnaire at all. Not informing them resulted in significant gains for the company and marginal gains to the individual in his satisfaction of exploration of his personality. Informing them would have led to likewise losses to both. Thus, this is ethical. Finally, was the company ethical in extrapolating the data? Not extrapolating the data would have resulted in a loss to the enterprise by lowering the quality and quantity of data. Not extrapolating would have led to no gains or loss to the people. Thus, this extrapolation is ethical.
Deontology is concerned with duty. This school of thought assigns intrinsic values to actions and these values are be-all and end-all. The consequences, circumstances, motivations, internal or external pressure, and other such things do not matter. The two pillars of this theory are categorical (absolute) and imperative (duty to perform) (University, 2013).
In the context of Deontology, was the company’s method of harvesting ethical? In and of itself, when a user is filling up the questionnaire, their transaction is limited to honestly answering the questions asked to the best of their ability and the company’s duty is to process these responses, inform the individual of his appraisal and be done with the data. However, the business went sideways from its duty. Thus, this is ethically immoral. Next, should the people have been informed explicitly about the company’s intent to use their responses to profile them? The duty of a service provider (and the user too) is to tell upfront of any and all intentions of their interaction. The company failed in its duty by willfully misrepresenting its intentions. Thus, this was not ethical. Finally, was the company ethical in extrapolating the data? The company had some data at its disposal and extrapolated it for people who had not participated in its questionnaires. Any organisation (commercial or government) is stepping outside its bounds when it tries to profile an individual without his express permission, and the company did that. Thus, this is unethical.
Virtue ethics encompass a way of living which results in the right thing, at the right time, in the right amount, with the right person. This right is not the same as moderation, though moderation is a part of it. The right way is effortless (Athanassoulis, n.d.). As an illustration, it is okay to gorge sometimes, and it is fine to fast sometimes. However, unlike the other schools of thought considered, Virtue ethics do not codify a set a categorical imperative or consider the utility of an action as everything. Virtue ethics aim to achieve a deep happiness for self and others (eudaimonia) and leave the application to the individual. It consists of qualities like Honesty, courage, compassion, generosity, fidelity, integrity, fairness, self-control, and prudence (“Thinking Ethically”, 2017).
In the context of Virtue Ethics, was the company’s method of harvesting ethical? This method of harvesting using data from unsuspecting individuals which rates low on honesty and fidelity. This technique was also unfair to the people who thought they were merely participating in a fun personality test. Thus, this is immoral. Next, should the people have been informed explicitly about the company’s intent to use their responses to profile them? No matter the consequences for the company, by not updating the participants explicitly about its scheme to use the data (gathered on the pretext of a simple personality test), the enterprise failed in honesty and integrity. Actions like these do not lead to welfare of all. Thus, this is unethical. Finally, was the company ethical in extrapolating the data? The company used some data to estimate the tendencies of some other people, and those other people were not made aware of this. This action is somewhere in the middle of absolute honesty and absolute dishonesty. Such extrapolation’s data may have helped the company provide better services to the client, which may have assisted in improving the world, even if in a small way. Thus, this extrapolation is ethical.
In the contract school of thought, there is no morality per se (“Contractarianism: Crash Course Philosophy #37”, 2016), but it emerges as a necessity whenever free, rational and self-interested entities come together. The people (being rational) realise that there are more gains in cooperating rather than not working together and thus morality appears. This arrangement does away with the constant threat in exchange for the endless opportunity (e.g. if I can steal from your plate, then you too can take from my plate). When someone defects and takes away more than their fair share, and the morality is all-around to encourage the contract’s upholding by all parties concerned.
In the context of Contractarianism, was the company’s method of harvesting ethical? The agreement between the user and the website was to provide a questionnaire for personality assessment. By underhandedly using this information for some other purpose, the enterprise failed in keeping its end of the bargain. Thus, this is immoral. Next, should the people have been informed explicitly about the company’s intent to use their responses to profile them? The company provides a (vague) privacy policy which, among other things, includes this sort of use. The user, by continuing to use the website agrees to the privacy policy. So, the company did not break any contract by using the data collected for political purposes. Thus, this is ethical. Finally, was the company ethical in extrapolating the data? The company used some data to estimate the tendencies of some other people. Those other people were not made aware of this and thus did not make any contract i.e. this agreement with the individual who did not take part in the questionnaire was not free (as in speech), and the company failed on it. Thus, this extrapolation is not ethical.
Conclusion
This paper looked into three specific questions in the action of a private company collecting user personality data under the guise of a character appraisal from the point-of-view of four classical ethics theories. As per the context, the questions came out ethical or unethical, as the foundations of the theory coloured the action. All in all, not being explicit about the intended use of the data and underhandedly collecting the data seems to be unethical by the most schools of thought. The ethics theories were divided on whether the extrapolation on unsuspecting registered voters was ethical or not.
References
About Us. (2017). Cambridge Analytica. Retrieved 6 January 2017, from https://cambridgeanalytica.org/about
Athanassoulis, N. Virtue Ethics | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Iep.utm.edu. Retrieved 6 January 2017, from https://www.iep.utm.edu/virtue/
Contractarianism: Crash Course Philosophy #37. (2016). YouTube. Retrieved 6 January 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Co6pNvd9mc Craighead, W. & Nemeroff, C. (2001). The Corsini encyclopedia of psychology and behavioral science (1st ed., p. 668). New York: Wiley.
Craighead, W. & Nemeroff, C. (2001). The Corsini encyclopedia of psychology and behavioral science (1st ed., p. 668). New York: Wiley.
Herskovits, A. (2010). Subliminal Messages in Politics. Political Persuasion. Retrieved 6 January 2017, from https://ahersko.wordpress.com/2010/11/20/subliminal-messages-in-politics/
Raicu, I. (2016). Data Collection: “Harvesting” Personalities Online. Santa Clara University. Retrieved 6 January 2017, from https://www.scu.edu/ethics/focus-areas/internet-ethics/resources/data-collection-harvesting-personalities-online/
Subliminals in Politics. Subliminalmanipulation.blogspot.in. Retrieved 6 January 2017, from https://subliminalmanipulation.blogspot.in/2010/09/sex-in-politics-word-sex-is-frequently.html
Talbot, D. (2016). Political campaigns now guess your personality type before showing you customised ads. MIT Technology Review. Retrieved 6 January 2017, from https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601214/how-political-candidates-know-if-youre-neurotic/
Thinking Ethically. (2017). Santa Clara University. Retrieved 6 January 2017, from https://www.scu.edu/ethics/ethics-resources/ethical-decision-making/thinking-ethically/
University, B. (2013). What is Deontology?. YouTube. Retrieved 6 January 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bMpwxhL8Sw
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