Open data, data protection, and group privacy

Luciano Floridi

pp. 1-3

in: David J. Gunkel, Joanna J. Bryson (eds), Machine morality, Philosophy & Technology 27 (1), 2014.

Abstract

The debate on Open Data and Data Protection focuses on individual privacy. How can the latter be protected while taking advantage of the enormous potentialities offered by ever-bigger Open Data and ever-smarter algorithms and applications? The tension is sometimes presented as being asymmetric: between the ethics of privacy and the politics of security. In fact, it is ultimately ethical. Two moral duties need to be reconciled: fostering human rights and improving human welfare. The tension is obvious if one considers medical contexts and biomedical Big Data, for example, where protection of patients’ records and cure or prevention of diseases need to go hand in hand (Howe et al. 2008; Groves et al. 2013).