Monique Morrow - When Ethics Counts: Whose Data?

Automatic Summary

Intersecting Ethics, Data, and Digital Identity

In today's hyperconnected world, finding the intersectionality between ethics, data, and digital identity has never been more critical. I am proud to be a senior distinguished architect in emerging technologies at CSE, where my role allows me to explore technologies impacting our business directly. In essence, this write-up will discuss what we mean by ethics, the implications of data, and the concept of digital identity –a tripartite intersection of technical and conversational topics which are especially vital considering the weaponization of data.

Why Data Matters

In the last two years, approximately 90% of the world's data was generated, leaving a digital trail or "digital dust" that exists indefinitely. Data continues to be mined and massaged with machine learning algorithms, creating a rich tapestry of insights. It's why the management and mismanagement of data become issues of paramount importance – after all, trust takes years to build, seconds to break, and forever to repair.

Trust in Data Management

Trust goes beyond just consistency and authenticity. There's a vital relationship between trust and the management of data, especially when mishaps occur. For instance, in 2017, my personal data was accidentally leaked by my service provider, affecting around 800,000 other customers. No data was hacked, but the experience left me feeling helpless - a testament to trust's fragile nature and its pertinence to how data is managed.

The Importance of Metadata

Apart from basic data, there's a significant focus on metadata – data about data. With machine learning formulating vital aspects about data, every single piece of metadata leaves a forensic trail of information, often known as "data dust."

Accountability and Digital Justice

In this hyperconnected era, a crucial question emerges - who is accountable? This question fuels the ongoing discussions with my colleagues in the World Economic Forum. Who manages the vast amounts of data, and where does digital justice fit into the broader picture?

Data and Privacy versus Data and Security

There's a heated intersection between data and privacy, as well as data and security. It's important for everyone to consider these components as we strive towards a world where fair and ethical data management is the norm. A world where trust is valued, rather than neglected – because, shockingly, a survey revealed that 75% of consumers believe companies do not take their data's security and protection seriously.

Self-Sovereign Identity: The Future of Digital Identity

Zooming into the technical sphere, a new concept known as the next-generation identity is gaining traction. This model, also known as self-sovereign identity (SSI), is a decentralized way of managing identity in a peer-to-peer manner. Inspired by blockchain technologies, self-sovereign identity emphasizes selective disclosure where individuals decide what information they wish to share.

In Conclusion: Act Now

The future is in our hands, and it's our responsibility to fight for ethical data handling and enhanced digital identities in today's globalized, hyperconnected world. Emphasizing trust, ethics, and data fairness in our businesses, and more critically, our life, can only benefit us in the long term.

Understanding and implementing these principles may pave the way for a Digital Hippocratic Oath – an ethics guide for the digital age. Let's work together to create the world we desire, not one we dread.

Getting involved is the key. Let's familiarize ourselves with data policies, strive to understand technologies better, and remember the triple-A mantra: Live by the digit, die by the digit, but it doesn't have to be dystopian. On that note, let's take a step forward and start making a difference. More information awaits here.


Video Transcription

Really excited to be uh in this conference and uh listen to such stellar speakers as Martin, I, I should say say that my uh career started out in the business. So I'm very familiar with that business.But um let me tell you a little bit uh about why this stop topic is so important for me. But before I do, you know, being a senior distinguished architect in emerging technologies at CSE allows me to actually technologies which are, you know, affect and impact our business. But it's all about if I were to distill this presentation, one of the things we are three points, it's what do we mean by ethics. Uh What about data and its implications and also the whole notion of identity in the form of digital identity. So you're going to have uh an intersectionality between um what I will call various topics here. One will be technical and one will be uh uh conversational. But if anything, it should actually spur all of you to an action because my thesis is that data is being weaponized and it has been for some time. I should also say that I do represent center uh in the World Economic Forum on Data policy. And also I'm a chair in the um I Triple E uh and um and extended reality ethics. And whose data? What do you think about? What are you thinking? Let me just take a step back.

And I think it's very, very important for all of us to take a step back because we are living in a hyper hyper connected world over the, over uh the last two years, circa 90% of the data in the world was generated. And this, this particular pictorial uh attribution to R on tour tells you what we're doing every time we live on the internet. This is for, this is digital dust that lives forever. So it's about the data and what's happening, what are we doing with that data and how that data is actually being mined. But more importantly, in the day and data, if you look at the top uh right where we uh where it's predicted we could be thinking about 463 exabytes of data by 2025. Soon upon us, we can now say that data is here. Uh But it's more importantly, it's a day in data. So what I'm thinking about and what am I, what I'm thinking about when I work with my colleagues um at the World Economic Forum. And when I work with my colleagues on the whole topic of ethics and data, is that what's happening with this data. How is this data?

And so we as state before that there is this notion of hyper connectivity you that there is a notion of trust and trust is very, very important, particularly in this discussion because it, as the old adage goes, it takes years, years to build seconds, uh uh you know, to break and forever to repair.

Think about trust. When you think about trust, what do you, what do you think about, you think about trust perhaps that it has to work, there has to be a consistency you think about also trust in the way data or in the way your um, data is being managed or mismanaged perhaps. And I think this is uh a very important topic because there is that uh relationship between ethics and trust in this discussion as I've highlighted before, but trust also is very, very key. Now, I mean, it's, it's key to anything we do as a business, it's key to anything we do in, in. And I make a personal example because I believe in, you know, personalizing the experience that, that I have had. For example, um, a couple of years ago about 2017, uh my data was accidentally leaked by my service provider. And so happens about 800,000 customers were affected and that was leaked. Um, a third party, it was enough, for example, that the CEO of the company came back and said, oh yeah. I, I was affected also, it was who was accountable.

At the end of the day, it wasn't also a fact that, you know, the the the feedback was, it'll be OK. Nothing, nothing was hacked. But the fact of the matter is I felt helpless in that whole experience. I was one of 800,000 people feeling that helplessness. And so here you can imagine that trust and how that trust was broken. But it's more pivotal in this discussion when we talk about the importance of data and how data is managed or in this particular case mismanaged, let me just say a few things here because some people talk about data as me metadata. But I will argue metadata is metadata is metadata and somehow that data is being very algorithms. There are this machine learning behavior that is actually formulating some aspects about the data itself. And if you recall um there was a film years ago um which was the Min Minority report with Tom Cruise. And we could see that there was prep profiling of behavior which is already here by the way. So somehow the data that gets extra you in data form and metadata and data data. So is leaving all of this forensic what I call data, dust and footprint out there. And so we have to look at where the responsibility lies, uh who is accountable.

Um What happens when we're talking about this notion if you will about digital justice and where does digital justice go? And this is another discussion that I'm having with my colleagues on in the World Economic Forum because it is also a uh a hot uh topic about who's managing whom. And so when I say when ethics counts whose data, and so this formulation that's happening becomes uh an area that uh we have to think about where that accountability lies, concern that I will say here because there is, as I stated before, this intersectionality between data management, fair data handling, how data is uh is uh handled in itself and where you lie in this, in this whole discussion.

And so the notion there is also the intersectionality if you will uh with data and privacy, data and security. So I want you to think about this topic because it is going to be a call for action at the end of this presentation and recall what I said, security and privacy. And I say, do you believe trust is important here? It is, there is indeed a trust deficit. So if 75% of consumers believe that companies do not take their pro uh protection and security of the data very seriously. And this is from a Gemalto uh survey several years ago. What does that say? What does that say about the brand uh about data and what does it say about the digital management itself? And so this whole area is, is is of concern to me and I will argue that com perhaps coins was wrong, that the sun was is not or was not the center of the un uh the universe. Perhaps the consumer is perhaps you as a citizen are. And so I bring this to a little more of a techie discussion here because this has an intersectional to also with next generation identity that what we call next generation identity using Blockchain where there was a sort of siloed uh you versus an org versus you and the third party, an identity management platform versus zero knowledge proofs in this whole discussion uh where it's more uh public vari viability if you will with privacy or privacy.

And then of course, self sovereign identity, which is now becoming a very hot topic where it's peer to peer, in fact, self sovereign identity or S SI is really uh kind of key especially in, in what's happening in the European Union. I heard I was actually, you know, listening to a digital eu event this uh last week and uh the EU Commissioner Von de Leyen was talking about this, this whole notion of digital identity in this form of uh S SI but also in the notion of um what we will call safe artificial intelligence, which is a separate topic, but it uh somewhat related.

So in this car. So identity, what we think about, as I said before you, you're in the middle, you do you have selective disclosure in the whole discussion, you decide what you want to disclose, you decide uh what that persistence looks like and so on for our, our industry and for our colleagues here to watch and self sovereign identity has a decentralization value.

Uh Kalia Young uh who's been very much uh uh involved in this space, basically said, you know, I can put something somewhere and no, nobody can take away uh away from me because it is about that notion of decentralization overall. And so this is the sort of the notion of the technologies of choice here. But you know, I also believe that digital identity sets should be persistent to you. So remember I take you, I'm taking you through a journey from data to ethics. I mean, ethics and data governance to digital identity sets that are persistent, you know, persistent to you. And I think of these terms in terms of uh lock boxes and I've had um computer science discussions and uh I think the closest um person in the industry is doing this kind of work or trying to do this kind of work is Sir Tim Berners Lee. And of course, there and there was an article that came out a couple of years ago, not a couple of years about a couple of months ago. And basically said that's a hard problem. Well, of course, it's a hard problem. Uh why would we not be discussing it? And so we have to think about what that persistent storage, it looks like that it is not centralized that it's um you know, there is this the of steel and I think this is the the opportunity for our industry.

So as I conclude, I want you all to get involved because it is about identity and trust. It's about proper digital data handling. When I say proper, let's talk about fair data handling and understanding what that means in the industry. The train is basically taken off on self sovereign identity. You should be watching the space and ethics makes good business sense. We're talking about inclusion, making good business sense, but ethics makes absolute good business sense, especially for us who create uh this type, these technologies to understand what the red line boundaries look like and what is the potential of abuse looks like? We probably need a digital Hippocratic Oath.

I think this is something that is uh been uh called out for for some time. But I will say this, let's create place the world we wish to have together and not the one we want to avoid. I'm proud to be a member of the world's most connected com company at CRS and I invite you uh and enjoy the rest of the conference because it's been awesome so far and also to visit our booth or expo booth because we are hiring. Thank you very much.

Thank you so much Monique. That was a fantastic presentation. I totally agree with the point you mentioned that ethics made good business side. And I think we shouldn't, we shouldn't forget about that and we should help understand those who not able to understand that. And uh so we're not able to understand that because as you mentioned, we want to create the world that we want to live in and we want to be part of not the one that you want to avoid. That was a fantastic one. I need to call that. Thanks Monique. I see many people are sharing in the chat. Uh We still have some time for questions

though. I

share your questions, share, share questions in the Q and A field or in the chat and let us know any questions for Monique and also make sure to draw by the booth cr booth and say hi the hiring and thanks so much also cr for supporting conference. Uh Yeah, people want to connect already.

I see. And I think, and I think like I said before, it's an awesome event you put together fantastic speakers. But as I, you know, this being the inspirational section um is about inspire, inspired to act, right? Inspiring to act in the direction as we were talking about as just in terms of how we, you know, create these technologies and what are what are the potentials for use uh misuse if you will specific to data and data policy,

it's not just perceiving all the inspiring and information or content that you're receiving. But what can you do about it? What can you, how can you dive deeper? Maybe do uh take an action at your work? Take an action as a, as a, as a human being or support someone who needs the support?

So part in part, this is fantastic. I know that we have time to, I want to make sure we have time for the dialogue too. Well, I think some of it is to understand technologies as well. So, you know, it's about sending the technologies itself, right? So go and understand what, what, what's happening in terms of data policy or um you know, it's not, not any wonder that we have some of the major companies are saying, look, we there, nobody understands the laws in place here, right? And the potential for the abuse we're talking about is now uh non there there, it's borderless. Uh I mean, I could have gotten into more uh uh examples here but quite borderless. You know, there's a AAA mantra that I which is live by the digit die by the digit, but it's not, it shouldn't be dystopian. So it's to understand self sovereign identity, understand what's happening when we look at data and data policy and data handling because I think that's really, really important and when you're out on the internet, understand that you're leaving forensic dust forever. Um So how do you handle you know, the, the social, social management or uh or your social, um you know, media because it is becoming weaponized very fast. So we just want to have what we understand what it is with response, responsible handling. So that's the whole notion.

And of course, you know, the, the the space is uh really, really interesting, especially when we're talking about the notion of uh self sovereign identity and what governments are trying to do with it. But also what uh what uh uh companies are doing with in terms of creating services. And so this is a definitely a space that we as CS are looking at.

OK. And I see Zana sharing in the comments, such a great insight on data policy. Thanks Monique. And that's what I love about also uh having amazing speakers like you, because everyone brings also the diversity of thought experiences and what we are having right now, the life experience where as you said, I wanted to make, make sure that we have time to talk. And I think that the beauty of it that people can interact with us and that we can talk to you and that everything is happening in life because nowadays, there are so many events that like prerecords and I think people are overwhelmed with the whole bunch of things that they can watch later and people are missing real events where they can connect with people.

But right now, that's the opportunity, the safe opportunity to connect and still listen to the amazing canals that we have here today and the

sessions awesome do reach out to me if you want to know more and, and thank you, Anna team. You, you are just rocketing it with this uh conference, really, really impressive.