Week 7 - Data science ethics

Misrepresentation of findings, data privacy, and algorithmic bias 👩‍💻

A painting on a wall warning visitors about video surveillance in Nicaragua. Photo by Tobias Tullius on Unsplash

Tasks

Videos

You can access the course videos on YouTube. You can also find a playlists for all course videos on YouTube here.

Some of the videos for this week are by “guest lecturers”, they’re labeled with a 🎤. The total length of the videos add up to more than the usual amount, so I recommend watching as much as of them as you’re interested – they cover highly important topics without being highly technical. You’re welcomed to skip the Q&A parts of these videos.

No.
Title
YouTube
Slides
Length
01 Misrepresentation 22:15
🎤 Alberto Cairo - How charts lie 57:23
02 Data privacy 10:01
🎤 The Guardian - Cambridge Analytica whistleblower 13:03
03 Algorithmic bias 23:29
🎤 Joy Buolamwini - How I’m fighting bias in algorithms 8:44
🎤 Safiya Umoja Noble - Imagining a Future Free from the Algorithms of Oppression 33:22
🎤 Kristian Lum - What’s An Algorithm Got To Do With It 12:12

Class Activities

Activity
Title
Date
Viewing and Discussion Cathy O’Neil - Weapons of Math Destruction Tue, 8 Mar
Leaflet Tutorial Introduction to Spatial Data with R and Leaflet Thu, 10 Mar

Assignments

Assignment
Title
Due
Due this week
Lab 04 UoE Art Collection Wed, 9 Mar, 23:59 EST
HW 05 Legos Sat, 12 Mar, 23:59 EST
Q 06 Review Sun, 13 Mar, 23:59 EST
Due next week
R 03 Data Ethics Write up Mon, 14 Mar, 23:59 EST
HW 06 Money in politics Fri, 18 Mar, 23:59 EST
R 04 Project Data Ethics Fri, 19 Mar, 23:59 EST

Readings

📖 MDSR: Chp 6 - Professional Ethics Required
📄 Ethical challenges in online research: Public/private perceptions Optional
🖋 Algorithmic Unfairness Without Any Bias Baked In Optional

Interactive R tutorials

No new interactive R tutorials this week. If you haven’t completed last week’s, this is your chance to catch up!