Codes of Ethics

Learning goals

After completing this assignment, students should be able to:

Name at least two different written set of ethical principles
Critique codes of ethics

Content

Read (mandatory):
- Data Values and Principles
- Data Science for Undergraduates: Opportunities and Options, Ch. 13
- Washington and Kuo (2020)
Supplementary reading (optional):
- Hippocratic Oath
- Data for Good Exchange
- Commentary by Tom Simonite
- Commentary by Virgina Eubanks
- Comparison by Lori Sherer
- Interview with Cathy O’Neil
- Elliott, Stokes, and Cao (2018)

In-class activity

Place each of the 12 ethical principles from the Data Value and Principles manifesto into one of the three themes identified by Washington and Kuo (2020).

Jamboard 1

Assignment

Respond to the following prompts in writing, following these procedures. Submit your assignment to Moodle.

In one paragraph, compare and contrast the Data Values and Principles manifesto and the Hippocratic Oath for Data Science. What do they have in common? How are they different? What is present in one but not the other?
In one paragraph, summarize the basic argument that Washington and Kuo make. What shortcomings to they see in codes of data ethics?

Rubric

Ethics codes rubric
Criteria	Zero	One
Overall Quality	Incomplete or missing submission. Student did not make an earnest effort to complete the assignment. Formatting errors make the submission unreadable.	Student accurately summarizes the content of the reading. Student’s reflection is thoughtful and genuine.

References

Elliott, Alan C, S Lynne Stokes, and Jing Cao. 2018. “Teaching Ethics in a Statistics Curriculum with a Cross-Cultural Emphasis.” The American Statistician 72 (4): 359–67. https://doi.org/10.1080/00031305.2017.1307140.

Washington, Anne L, and Rachel Kuo. 2020. “Whose Side Are Ethics Codes on? Power, Responsibility and the Social Good.” In Proceedings of the 2020 Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency, 230–40. https://doi.org/10.1145/3351095.3372844.