Questions

Joshua Blumenstock states that a humbler data science could transform international development while also limiting the number of alleged silver bullets that have missed their mark in recent years. Describe the promise, pitfalls and ways forward Blumenstock uses as the foundation for his thesis.

The age of big data has transformed the approach to many issues around the globe. As Blumenstock memtioned, big data has helped aid organizations to identify people of need and target specific groups of people for financial packages. This is not only limited to people that suffer from poverty, but also include public health challanges. Furthermore humanitarian crisis such as natual disasters could be tracked in real time and processed for relief plans. However, big data has brought unanticpated effects such as lack of education on borrowed money, lack of validation leading to manipulation of the data, and lack of privacy for the individual. Blumenstock proposed several methods to counter act these negatives. They are validation of personal info, using data as a complement to other methods, and customization of the type of data released and used.

Additionally, consider the following statements from three of your classmates regarding this article.

“Good intent is not enough in data science when dealing with the problems which determine people’s experiences” Anna Raymond

“Transparency is the underlying issue to many of these problems, so an increase in this on both ends (data based issues & human based issues) could lead to better results. Nira Nair

“In lieu of such drastic potential for promoting applications yet demoralizing hinderances, the balancing act can become difficult.” Kayla Seggelke

How do you response to these ideas regarding “good intent”, “transparency” and the difficult “balancing act” when consdiering the intersection of human development with data science?

The cumulating of big data are used to develop many algorithms that control many hidden aspects of daily life. However, just like the checks and balances of the government systems, who checks these auto generated number of data that could potentrailly decide the fate of one’s life.

Here are three approaches

1. Enforce the rule that any data used are solely for the benefit of improving individual lives and the welfare of society. The issue is that technology coorperations have the ability to control and hide the data they collect for their benefits. In today’s world, transparency in everything is slowly becoming the norm. Transparency promtes trust, strengthens accountability, which are all valuable to both the consumer and company.

2. Individual promission with the access of any sensitive information. An example, on the surface Apple has made a committement to be transparent and respectful when accessing information on one’s phone, such as the frequent pop-ups asking for promission to access things like photo, location, etc. These gestures could reinforce the idea that big data is used for “good intents”. Meaning that the privicy of individual’s is protected, and information is used not to harm but to benefit the collective.

3. Inform more regarding what data are extracted, more education on what does it mean to share your location, access to photos from apps… Often times bias is created by the diversity of technological development and level of integration in to the society. To be educated in the proper use of technology will benefit the society in economy, soical interactions, and the simplicity of daily life.