Data mining: Consumer privacy, ethical policy, and systems development practices

Abstract

The growing application of data mining to boost corporate profits is raising many ethical concerns especially with regards to privacy. The volume and type of personal information that is accessible to corporations these days is far greater than in the past. This causes many consumers to be greatly concerned about potential violations of their privacy by current data collection and data mining techniques and practices. The purpose of this study is to identify the ethical issues associated with data mining and the potential risks to a corporation that is believed to be operating in an unethical manner. The paper reviewed the relevant ethical policies and proposed ten data mining systems development practices that can be incorporated into a software development lifecycle to prevent these risks from materializing.