ETC5512
Case Study: Data Ethics
Lecturer: Kate Saunders
Department of Econometrics and Business Statistics
- ETC5512.Clayton-x@monash.edu
- April 28th 2026
- wcd.numbat.space
Trolley problem
Do you pull the lever? How did you decide what to do?
Learning Objectives
Today you will:
- Learn about different schools of ethical thought
- Examine case studies and examples in data ethics
- Understand our responsibility as ethical analysts
Ethical Perspectives
3 common perspectives
Ethical Perspectives
1. Deontological Ethics (Immanuel Kant)
An ethical philosophy that says actions are good or bad according to a clear set of rules
- Focus on rights, principles, and duties
- Preserve human autonomy and dignity, justice, fairness, transparency and many more. (However rules can conflict with each other sometimes!)
- This dignity creates an ethic that prevents us from acting in certain ways either toward other people or toward ourselves
- Rules should apply to everyone (universal ethical rules)
Deontogological Ethics
“Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.” — Immanuel Kant
Deon what?
Its name comes from the Greek word deon, meaning duty.
Actions that align with these rules are ethical, while actions that don’t aren’t.
Ask yourself
In your project:
How might the dignity and fairness of each stakeholder be impacted by your project?
Are there any issues of trust and justice relevant to your project?
Does your project involve any conflicting moral duties to the participants or stakeholder rights?
Deontology: ✅ Differential Privacy
What is differential privacy?
Usage data is scrambled on-device before it ever leaves your phone. Google/apple’s servers never see raw personal data. Sharing aggregated level data is opt-in only.
Privacy is treated as a duty owed to the user — not a trade-off.
Differential Privacy \(\cdot\) Apple ML Research
Deontology — ❌ Clearview AI
What did Clearview AI do?
Scraped 3+ billion photos from social media without consent to build a facial recognition database sold to law enforcement.
Clearview violated their ethical duty and biometric privacy acts. Countries around the globe have been fined Clearview AI millions of dollars.
ACLU Illinois \(\cdot\) Clearview in Australia
Ethical Perspectives ctd.
2. Consequentialist ethics
An ethical philosophy that considers the outcomes rather than the intentions.
Two main examples of consequentialism:
Utilitarianism judges consequences by a greatest good for the greatest number standard.
Hedonism considers something is “good” if the consequence produces pleasure or avoids pain.
Ask yourself
In your project:
- Which option will produce the most good and do the least harm?
- Which option best serves the community as a whole?
- Are you willing to accept difficult trade-offs?
Utilitarianism — ✅ Population Breast Cancer Screening (Voluntary)
Greater good
Early detection means reduced mortality.
Mass screening programs knowingly produce false positives (overdiagnosis).
Programs continue because of the population-level benefit.
Benefit outweighs the cost to individuals who receive incorrect results.
This is a transparent, accepted trade-off.
Utilitarianism — ❌ Health Insurer AI Claim Denials
AI and Health
Active lawsuit alleging UnitedHealth illegally denied care by using an AI model to override determinations made by the patients’ physicians.
There are also allegations about an unacceptably high false-positive rate.
UnitedHealth has maximised an outcome related to greatest financial benefit, while also accepting a high false-positive rate that causes harm their customers.
Ethical Perspectives ctd.
3. Virtue Based Ethics (Plato, Aristotle, Confucius, Mencius)
An ethical philosophy centred on the study of what behavior is morally right versus what people ought to do.
- Virtue ethics is a philosophy developed by Aristotle and other ancient Greeks
- It is the quest to understand and live a life of moral character
- Act in a way that makes you a better person (culturally based)
- Careful: The same aim can lead to conflicting actions
Ask yourself
In your project:
Am I honest about my findings accurately, even when they don’t support the desired conclusion?
Do I acknowledge uncertainty and the limitations of my model?
Will I raise concerns even when it’s uncomfortable ?
Am I handling people’s data with care and dignity?
Virtue Ethics — ✅ Māori Data Sovereignty
Data sovereignty
Te Mana Raraunga asserts that Māori data should be governed by Māori — built on whanaungatanga (trust), rangatiratanga (self-determination), and kotahitanga (collective benefit).
Data governance as an expression of identity, not compliance. Important for culturally sensitive data management.
Quick Question
Indigenous Data Sovereignty
Does this work the same way in Australia?
Virtue Ethics — ❌ Australia’s COVIDSafe App
COVIDSafe Data tracking
COVIDSafe was designed to track people who may have come into contact with an active COVID case. Large-scale act of genuine civic care and collective responsibility at a moment of national crisis.
While COVIDSafe was made with good intentions, one must consider whether governments have earned the trust for this type of large-scale data-tracing?
Ethical Perspectives
Summary so far:
Differences between these school of ethics
- Deontologist emphasizes duties or rules;
- Consequentialist emphasizes the consequences of actions;
- Virtue ethics emphasizes the moral character.
No single school of ethical thought is perfect!
The different forms of ethical philosophy provide a guide for living life!
Still need more examples? Here is an video explainer using Batman
O’Keefe, K., & Brien, D. O. (2018). Ethical data and information management: concepts, tools and methods. Kogan Page Publishers, chapter 2
The Avengers
Iron Man
- Utilitarian
- Bring the most happiness or well-being for the greatest number of people.
Captain America
- Deontology
- Focus on right or wrong rather than better or worse.
Thor