Data science has become a huge part of modern-day business. However, it’s important that you understand data science ethics and governance so that you can stay compliant within your industry. To learn more, check out this article.
What Is Data Science?
Data science is the process of studying data to gain meaningful insights for businesses. The general goal here is to then take action from these insights and ultimately make improvements to the business.
For example, a business might identify a specific trend in its data that shows customers want cheaper products. In response to this, the business can lower the cost of its product lineup. This is called data science.
Because data science is growing in size and popularity, many businesses around the world have now started to use a data science agency, such as Edit. The reason for this is because it enables businesses to get an excellent ROI (return on investment). Rather than do the data collection and analysis themselves, businesses can get help from the experts and understand the trends appearing in their data. Really, it’s quite simple.
Naturally, data science comes with a lot of benefits. There’s a small catch, though, which is that you need to follow ethics and proper governance when it comes to data collection and analysis. As a result, you can respect the rights and well-being of the customers whom you collect the data from.
Data Science Ethics and Governance: What You Need to Know
So, before you start your data science journey, here’s what you need to know about the ethics and governance side of things.
Seek Value
Firstly, your data science should seek genuine value that not only benefits your business but also benefits the wider society. In other words, the reason for your data collection should be legitimate and fall in line with human ethics.
Be Transparent
Next, you need to be transparent with everyone involved in the data collection and analysis. Usually, businesses collect data from:
Whichever party you collect data from, you must legally inform them why you’re collecting the data and what the purpose of the data collection is. Remember, a company can’t just collect personal data without a defined purpose or informing the people that the data is being collected from. If a business was to do this, they’d be breaking data privacy laws.
These days, most data is collected from people online. Therefore, you can provide them with online data forms that they can either accept or decline prior to the data collection. If a person accepts your request, you’ll then be able to collect their data.
Ensure That Data Is Safe and Secure
The data you collect must be stored safely and securely. This includes everything, from street addresses to phone numbers. Normally, businesses will store data either locally or in the cloud where only designated employees can access it, so you should do this, too. And if your data was to get lost or stolen, it would lead to your brand reputation being harmed, which you obviously don’t want to happen. Throughout history, there have been many cases where businesses collect data for analysis only for the data to get stolen, which is always a PR nightmare.