Digital Ethics

Amidst the Corona crisis, the video communications service Zoom gained enormous popularity. The rate of daily Zoom users skyrocketed from 10 Mio in December 2019 to 200 Mio in March 2020. As it outshined many of its competitors, Zoom labels itself as “the leader in modern enterprise video communications”. However, the company has been facing […]

From protecting privacy to saving the free press, it may be the single best way to fix the internet.

Hundreds of researchers attempted to predict children’s and families’ outcomes, using 15 years of data. None were able to do so with meaningful accuracy.

This article explains the ethical situation societies face in the context of a transition from user-centric to self-sovereign identity.

Zoom's privacy policy isn't explicit about the data transfer to Facebook at all.

How we went from B.F. Skinner to China's social credit system.

Amazon pushes Ring as a crime-fighting tool. Data from three of Ring's earliest police partnerships doesn't back up that claim.

This is why UX writing matters! @PichinteKevin fixed the original message from @seattletimes so it wouldn’t ask its users if they “wanted coronavirus” 🙄🤦🏻‍♀️#UXwriting #microcopy #UX pic.twitter.com/8L9xgFv0rg— Mar (@brightspaceux) March 7, 2020

Guy uses RunKeeper to track his workouts. He passes 1 house often. RunKeeper sends info to Google. House gets burglarized. 👮issue geofence warrant. Google tells guy unless he blocks warrant, in 7 days they will give all his info to 👮. 🤯🤯🤯https://t.co/oa2LmY9QEh— One Ring (doorbell) to surveil them all... (@hypervisible) March 7, 2020

The World Economic Forum’s Framework for the Responsible use of facial recognition technology seeks to address the need for a set of concrete guidelines to ensure the trustworthy and safe use of this technology. This framework enables Governments to protect citizens from various harms potentially caused by facial recognition technology while supporting beneficial applications. It also enables industry actors to demonstrate that they have implemented robust risk mitigation processes through an independent audit of their systems.

The 5 Principles of #AI Weirdness, from the Intro of @JanelleCShane “You Look Like a Thing and I Love You.” #yllataily #sketchnotes pic.twitter.com/3m5IBYqVca— Chris Noessel 🏳️‍🌈🤖 (@chrisnoessel) March 5, 2020

We follow faulty automated instructions because ‘the computer can’t be wrong’

Baby tracking app design is really... something. pic.twitter.com/aYE21ES2R6— Gillian Smith (@gillianmsmith) February 28, 2020

How designers are using UX for evil

😂😂😂😂😂😂 British passport system violated man said my mouth is open the digital system can’t process my these lips pic.twitter.com/Ozcwi9jEgr— E (@elainebabey) February 25, 2020

Changing a single word can alter the way an AI program judges a job applicant or assesses a medical claim.

New Mexico’s attorney general sued the company, claiming its school tools continue to track kids after the final bell.

In this episode of the Smashing Podcast, we’re talking about Ethical Design. What does it mean for a design to be ethical, and how do we make improvements in our own projects? Drew McLellan speaks to Trine Falbe and Martin Michael Frederiksen to find out.

Report warns that technology, uptake of which has largely been driven by cuts, could lead to discrimination

amazon might be at risk of supporting a 'dystopian future' where doorbell cameras and delivery drones create surveillance networks across entire neighborhoods.

Human centred design is anthropocentric design. By focusing on humans only, we frame out the rest of the living planet, and ignore its ongoing destruction.

After the ACLU said a community college in Michigan was violating its students’ First Amendment rights, the school partially relented.

Some of its employees tried to stop their company from doing work they saw as unethical. It blew up in their faces.

When I'm bored I go around putting these stickers on paper towel dispensers pic.twitter.com/WUwHDPm1nS— Sofia Paredes (@SofiaParedes79) November 4, 2019

Lydell Grant was supposed to be in prison for murder. But an emerging form of DNA technology, which has also come under scrutiny, is helping to free him in an unprecedented case.

In a follow up to PI's initial research on sharing of personal data by mental health websites, a second analysis illustrates how change is possible and yet most webpages analysed still share your data with third-parties for marketing purposes.

Given how front and center design is these days, I am still shocked that there is no “code of conduct” or guide to ethical design principles. I had my students write the Designers “Hippocratic Oath” and am sort of in love with what they came up with! pic.twitter.com/cc6wpIgq5d— Minnie Bredouw (@mbredouw) February 4, 2020