Lab 1 - Introduction to Ethics

Data mining carries with it several ethical dimensions that we will explore in the first two labs in the class. Today's lab will focus on historical background, particularly with respects to scientific/medical research that involves data from humans (human subjects research).

There will be a brief lecture at the start of lab. Here are some reading assignments that will give background on the lecture:

• National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects - This commission was formed in the 1970s in response to some egregious breaches of ethics in biomedical research in the preceeding decades.
• The Belmont Report - This report was the product of the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects. It is considered the foundation of ethical human subjects research today, even when that research is not biomedical in nature.
• National Institute of Health FAQ on public vs private information - One of the key phrases that makes human subject research actually be considered human subject research in a research environment is if the research gathers "identifiable private information". This FAQ answers questions around this definition.
• Considerations and Recommendations Concerning Internet Research - This is a report from HHS specifically addressing human subject research on the Internet, including when data mining is considered human subject research or when it is just processing existing public information.

1. Alice is a medical research at a major public university. Alice goes to a nationally recognized data center and downloads a public, anonymous database to train neural networks to detect warnings signs for heart disease. The original database creator has obtained informed consent from all the people whose data is in the database.
2. Bob is a master's student in science education who is studying the causes of dropping out of college. Bob uses Facebook to gather information about college-aged people in order to determine if social media postings have any predictive value in determing who graduates college and who drops out. Bob anonymizes this data and posts it online.
3. Carol is a programmer for a major retailer. Carol uses transaction data from the retailer's loyalty program to tailor marketing campaigns to specific customers' shopping habits.

Each group should choose one group member to upload their report to Moodle. Make sure every group member's name is on the report.