BIG DATA: BEHAVIOR IN BEHAVIOR OUT

(1)

BIG DATA: BEHAVIOR IN  BEHAVIOR OUT

Summerschool - Big Data In Clinical Medicine Grolsch Veste, June 30, 2014

(2)

Big Data affects us as individuals, both before and

after the actual processing of the data. It primarily

affects our freedom to decide our own behavior,

and our freedom to construct our own identities.

June 30, 2014

Summerschool - Big Data In Clinical Medicine - [email protected] 2

BEHAVIOR IN



BEHAVIOR OUT

THE REAL ETHICAL PROBLEMS COME BEFORE AND AFTER BIG DATA

INDIVIDUAL  GROUP  INDIVIDUAL

Behavior determining data Data determining profile Profile determining behavior

(3)

INDIVIDUAL  GROUP  INDIVIDUAL

Ethical problem: How to make private companies and

governments use big

TARGETING PREGNANCY

(4)

Ethical problem: How to make private companies and

governments use big data responsibly?

Ethical problem:

Do decisions based on big data affect us in undesirable ways?

June 30, 2014

TARGETING PREGNANCY

(5)

Ethical problem:

Do big data algorithms change our behavior in undesirable ways?

Ethical problem: How to make private companies and

governments use big

Ethical problem:

Do decisions based on big data affect us in undesirable ways?

TARGETING PREGNANCY

(6)

Jeremy Bentham

June 30, 2014

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE…

- JEREMY AND SAMUEL BENTHAM’S INSPECTION HOUSE

Samuel Bentham

(7)

THE INVISIBLE GAZE

MICHEL FOUCAULT ON THE PANOPTICON

The major effect of the Panopticon: to induce in the inmate a state of conscious and permanent visibility that assures

the automatic functioning of power [so] that the perfection of

power should tend to render its actual exercise unnecessary [...]

To achieve this, it is at once too much and too little that the prisoner should be constantly observed by an inspector: too little, for what matters is that he

knows himself to be observed; too much, because he has no

(8)

The Panopticon effect: The mere belief that you are being watched changes

behavior dramatically, towards that

which is considered socially acceptable.

Big data is increasingly used for consumer recommendations based on behavior of you and your

network, which can give rise to…

Group polarization: When not subjected to opposite views and tastes, your existing views and tastes become more entrenched and less nuanced.

June 30, 2014

WHY PRIVACY?

(9)

Algorithms

determine

what you listen to,

what you read,

what you watch,

whom you connect with,

what you purchase,

what you should vote, …

what you read,

what you watch,

what you purchase,

June 30, 2014

(11)

Algorithms

determine

what you listen to,

what you read,

what you watch,

what you purchase,

(12)

Politicians

determine

what you listen to,

what you read,

what you watch,

what you purchase,

June 30, 2014

(13)

The Panopticon effect: The mere belief that you are being watched changes

behavior dramatically, towards that

which is considered socially acceptable.

Big data is increasingly used for recommendations (“you may also like this…”) based on behavior of you and your network,

which can give rise to Group polarization: When not

subjected to opposite views and tastes, your existing views and tastes become more entrenched and less nuanced.

 _Diversity_depends_{on freedom of choice and behavior.}  Diversity is necessary for innovation, democracy, and

flourishing relationships  We need the freaks and geeks!

WHY PRIVACY?

(14)

Name: Johnny Hartz Søraker Address: Mooienhof 14, 7511EC Occupation: Philosopher

Education: MA and PhD, philosophy Born: 7/11/1987

Ethnicity: Norwegian

Loan purpose: Company startup, sector 134-9 Prior bankruptcies: [none]

Databases used: ✓ Bankruptcies in sector 134-9, 2005-2012

✓ Bankruptcies by age, education and gender

✓ Income statistics: gender and ethnicity

✓ Education and Income, 2001-2006

Recommendation: Score: 0.78 – Loan ACCEPTED

June 30, 2014

(15)

✓ Facebook connect (music likes)

(16)

✓ Purchase history

Recommendation: Score: 0.84 – Loan ACCEPTED

June 30, 2014

(17)

Ethnicity: Norwegian African-American

(18)

 Decisions can be made on basis of which big data pattern you belong to, created from merging separately (and voluntarily) collected

information, often combined with statistical population data and other big data.

 There may be several biases against "your" group:

- Spurious, outdated correlations (e.g. mobile vs. home phone) - Dubious inferences (e.g. several jobs=lack of dedication)

- Discrimination fed into data (e.g. workplace discrimination) - Complete unknowns (second hand orange cars less defective)

 Many of these biases would be discriminatory, even outright racist, if performed by human, making it an advantage for the company that the algorithms are not transparent.

June 30, 2014

A FUTURE OF “COMPUTER SAYS NO”

(19)

“COMPUTER SAYS NO” IN CLINICAL MEDICINE

(20)

June 30, 2014

CAPITALIZING ON BIG DATA…

(21)

Patients may become obsessive in conforming to expected behaviour. This may very well improve their physical health, but what about their mental well-being?

Subjective perception of own health determines well-being

more than objective state of health. Big data may exacerbate problems related to pre-diagnostics, geneticism (“genes

for…”), and DIY healthcare…

In the future, we may not only be scared by

our own symptom searches, but also by automated reports, made worse by poor

“COMPUTER SAYS NO” IN CLINICAL MEDICINE

(22)

Under certain regimes (e.g. Obamacare) and health

insurances, prediction record is valued far beyond treatment record; re-admittance needs to be avoided.

Big data may increasingly replace causation with correlation

in medical research. As with all complex data/neural

networking, the better we get at predicting, the worse we may get at understanding.

Existing practices entrenched in big data may uphold

discrimination, e.g. black Americans receiving less health care

than white Americans  on basis of correlation alone, black

spending habits become associated with unhealthy lifestyle.

June 30, 2014

“COMPUTER SAYS NO” IN CLINICAL MEDICINE

(23)

1. Social Scientists, statisticians etc:

Do more research on algorithms that can find and adjust biases in big data.

2. Individuals:

We are the 99%, our behavior is the 99% (cf. ING)

3. Big data harvesters (researchers):

Be very careful, especially when releasing open data.

Safeguard privacy through architecture rather than

policies.

(24)

June 30, 2014

WHAT CAN WE DO?

ANONYMIZE YOUR RESEARCH DATA

Privacy

stages identifiability Approach Linkability System Characteristics

0 identified _privacy by policy (notice and

choice)

linked  unique identifiers across databases

 contact information stored with profile information

1 pseudonymous linkable with reasonable & automatable effort

 no unique identifiers across databases

 common attributes across databases

 contact information stored separately from profile

 or transaction information 2 privacy by architecture not linkable with reasonable effort

 no unique identifiers across databases

 no common attributes across databases

 random identifiers

 contact information stored separately from profile or transaction information

 collection of long term person characteristics on a low level of granularity

 technically enforced deletion of profile details at regular intervals

3 anonymous unlinkable

 no collection of contact information

 no collection of long term person characteristics

(25)

1. Social Scientists, statisticians etc:

Do more research on algorithms that can find and adjust biases in big data.

2. Individuals:

We are the 99%, our behavior is the 99% (cf. ING)

3. Big data harvesters: Be very careful, especially when releasing open data. Safeguard privacy

with architecture rather than policies.

4. Researchers: Use big data correlations as starting point for causation studies:

5. Clinical Practitioners:

Understand the psychological effects on patients.

June 30, 2014

(26)

COMMENTS, QUESTIONS?

[email protected] TWITTER.COM/METUS

Johnny Hartz Søraker Assistant Professor Dept. of Philosophy University of Twente [email protected]