CS Nov-Dec 2022

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WHY DATA ETHICS MATTER
Data ethics is no longer an academic or niche geek issue, as it has been since the
inception of the internet and the world wide web. It has never been more
urgent.
That is the timely warning from Annie Machon in her newly released book, ‘The
Privacy Mission: Achieving Ethical Data for Our Lives Online’. And Machon should know.
After all, she began her career working as an intelligence officer for MI5, has extensive
experience as an international public speaker, writer, media commentator and political
campaigner, and is now the director of the World Ethical Data Foundation.
As she points out: "Data ethics is an issue that affects all of us now, as
our personal and professional lives increasingly take place online. Who controls access
to the hardware, who runs the software, who can spy on us, hack us, data farm us?
What are the threats that we need to mitigate against democratically, societally and
personally? How can corporations protect us and how can that help their bottom line?"
'The Privacy Mission' aims to answer these questions, and summarise both the
overarching concepts and principles about why data ethics is important. It offers
practical solutions for companies, policy makers and individuals to push back against
known threats and future proof themselves, going forward. This book is not only timely,
though - it's necessary. In an age when data has gone way beyond abundant and data
ethics are constantly being eroded, making sure we protect ourselves, our businesses
and those with whom we interact is something that falls to us all.
See page 15 for an extract from Annie Machon's book.
Brian Wall
Editor
Computing Security
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www.computingsecurity.co.uk Nov/Dec 2022 computing security
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