Abstract
The aim of this research is to identify the ethical standards and practice that exists for big data and what the gaps are, through reviewing academic literature about various industries such as health, research, and social media. The aim is to provide a roadmap for future research on this topic within academia, policy makers and law makers. Big data is a relatively new concept and has been used by many different types of organisations on a large scale over the last decade, which has impacted individuals as consumers, citizens, and employees. Big data has provided insights into consumers and the public, at an unprecedented scale but standards of managing this data have not been implemented at the same speed. Through a Systematic Literature Review (SLR), an analysis of existing academic research into big data and ethics, and how it has been applied within industries will be critically analysed. By utilising academic databases and applying an exclusion and inclusion criteria, this will locate relevant good quality papers for the SLR. The SLR was narrowed down to 14 papers, which focused on different industries and elements of big data ethics. By using this broad approach, reoccurring themes that exist universally when managing big data and ethical issues appear, such as privacy concerns, accountability, and definitions regardless of data type and purpose. Big data has proved controversial with how it has been used by some organisations, while simultaneously positive in other areas. The topic of using big data ethically has arisen socially, politically, and academically, and the purpose of this SLR is to determine how far this conversation has progressed and what existing practice is. Areas for further research include the impact of new technologies and concepts such as IoT, Smart Cities and their relationship to big data and ethics. Law makers should lead the way of progressing this topic and introducing frameworks and best practice and soon policy makers will follow.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Richterich A (2018) The big data agenda: data ethics and critical data studies. University of Westminster Press, London
Zwitter A (2014) Big data ethics. Big Data Soc 1(2)
Chen W, Quan-Haase A (2018) Big data ethics and politics: toward new understandings. Soc Sci Comput Rev 38(1), 3–9
BBC (2020) BBC NEWS, technology [Online]. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-53836453. Accessed 13 Sept 2020
EU (2020) General data protection regulation [Online]. https://gdpr-info.eu/. Accessed 28 Sept 2020
LA Times (2019) Shadowy data brokers make the most of their invisibility cloak [Online]. https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2019-11-05/column-data-brokers#:~:text=The%20data%20broker%20industry%20is,files%20on%20millions%20of%20Americans. Accessed 28 Sept 2020
Rantanen MM, Hyrynsalmi S, Hyrynsalmi SM (2019) Towards ethical data ecosystems: a literature study. In: 2019 IEEE international conference on engineering, technology and innovation, Valbonne
Kitchenham B (2007) Guidelines for performing systematic literature reviews in software engineering. Software Engineering Group, Durham
Denyer D, Tranfield D (2011) The Sage handbook of organizational research methods. Sage Publications Ltd., London
Spina A (2017) A regulatory Mariage de Figaro: risk regulation, data protection, and data ethics. Eur J Risk Regulat 8(1):88–94
Richards NM, King JH (2014) Big data ethics. Wake Forest Law Rev
Wylie C (2020) Who should do data ethics? Patterns 1(1)
Herschel R, Miori VM (2017) Ethics & big data. Technol Soc 49:31–36
Yallop AC, Aliasghar O (2020) No business as usual: a case for data ethics and data governance in the age of coronavirus. Online Inf Rev
Markham AN, Tiidenberg K, Herman A (2018) Ethics as methods: doing ethics in the era of big data research. Social Media+Society 4(3)
Ibiricu B, van der Made ML (2020) Ethics by design: a code of ethics for the digital age. Records Manage J
O’Leary DE (2016) Ethics for big data and analytics. IEEE Intell Syst 31(4):81–84
Mittelstadt BD, Allo P, Taddeo M, Wachter S, Floridi L (2016) The ethics of algorithms: mapping the debate. Big Data Soc 3(2)
Information Commissioner’s Office (2020) Lawful basis for processing [Online]. https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/lawful-basis-for-processing/. Accessed 9 Sept 2020
Information Commissioner’s Office (2020) Rights related to automated decision making including profiling [Online]. https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/individual-rights/rights-related-to-automated-decision-making-including-profiling/. Accessed 7 Sept 2020
Information Commissioner’s Office (2020) What is personal data? [Online]. https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/key-definitions/what-is-personal-data/. Accessed 29 Aug 2020
Mahieu R, van Eck NJ, van Putten D, van den Hoven J (2018) From dignity to security protocols: a scientometric analysis of digital ethics. Ethics Inf Technol 20(3), 175–187
Health Research Authority (2020) Applying to a research ethics committee [Online]. https://www.hra.nhs.uk/approvals-amendments/what-approvals-do-i-need/research-ethics-committee-review/applying-research-ethics-committee/. Accessed 2020 Sept 13
Vayena E, Salathé M, Madoff LC, Brownstein JS (2015) Ethical challenges of big data in public health. PLoS Comput Biol 11(2)
Davies CLJ (2018) GDPR: implementing the regulations. Bus Inf Rev 35(2)
Gov.UK (2018). Data ethics framework [Online]. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/data-ethics-framework/data-ethics-framework. Accessed 29 Aug 2020
International Organization for Standardization (2020) BSOL online [Online]. https://bsol.bsigroup.com/Bibliographic/BibliographicInfoData/000000000030341487. Accessed 10 Sept 2020
Hagmann J (2013) Information governance—beyond the buzz. Records Manage J 23(3):228–240
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Roche, J., Jamal, A. (2021). A Systematic Literature Review of the Role of Ethics in Big Data. In: Jahankhani, H., Jamal, A., Lawson, S. (eds) Cybersecurity, Privacy and Freedom Protection in the Connected World. Advanced Sciences and Technologies for Security Applications. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68534-8_20
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68534-8_20
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-68533-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-68534-8
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)