There are many great guidelines and principles on doing data and AI ethics, and now we have yet another, the Digital Ethics Compass from The Danish Design Center, DDC. It is a beautifully designed and useful tool with only a few flaws and 22 questions around data ethics.
The Danish company Holo works with self-driving buses, which are currently driving around Copenhagen, Aalborg and Oslo. The buses can only get up to a speed of 15 km/h and have never been in any accidents, but Holo has still chosen to place a living person in all their buses, ready to intervene if the bus fails or if any other problems occur in the bus.
This is one of the 22 good examples from The Digital Ethics Compass, a tool to help companies make the right decisions from a design ethical standpoint. There are also 22 bad examples. Here is one related to the question: Do you deliberately make it difficult for users to find or understand information or functionality?
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The Compass consists of a wheel with 22 questions. 6 on data. 10 on automation. 6 on behavioral design. All related to data ethics. You go though them and are guided not only with questions to ask yourself, but also what is right and wrong and then two examples of good and bad.
Apart from the fact that the compass also include questions relating to GDPR and fundamental human rights (living up to the law and human rights are a prerequisite to start working with data ethics) and the fact that it actually credits Facebook for at least three good practises (and just as many unethical), the tool is highly recommended.
Disclosuse: DataEthics’ Birgitte Kofod Olsen has advised the group behind the compass on data ethics
