Do I need a new license? Creative Commons, Cambridge Analytica and Ethics | Lawrie Phipps – lawrie : converged

"...“What would open analytics look like?” We brainstormed many possibilities of what an environment where students had open access to their data would look like. Not just the data, but also the system itself, the algorithms it used to nudge student behaviour, and what pitfalls any of this would have.

In the last month the Cambridge Analytica story got the issue of data and analytics across all the major news sites. The data that they had stolen “harvested” had been (probably) used unethically. They were nudging the behaviour of users in Facebook. Underpinning this issue is our data, how/where it is collected, how it is accessed, and who can access it. In the case of Cambridge Analytica and Facebook a simple app and quiz pretty much gave them access to everything you posted and read, and all of your friends.

So what has this got to do with Creative Commons?...

If I create an open object, whether it is an educational resource, a blog post or a photo. I want to know that if it is going into a VLE / LMS or other educational tool, it will only appear in tools that have open and transparent analytics and algorithms, or opt in data for students and staff, that they can also access. But by current definitions, that would mean my work is not longer open. Creative Commons is also something I believe in, and I want my work to be seen, used and adapted, but I want it done in a way that ethically aligns with my values. I do not mind if it is used commercially, but I do want to hold people to an ethical standard. Do I want an ethics rider for my Creative Commons license?

Currently the license states my moral rights for the work are not affected. But that is not clear language. “The preserving of the integrity of the work allows the author to object to alteration, distortion, or mutilation of the work that is “prejudicial to the author’s honor or reputation”. Arguably the work could still be used for “evil” if the people adapting it make it clear that they are the ones changing the context and I had nothing to do with it.

I’m looking for an answer, and probably there isn’t one. It’s possible there isn’t even a problem? If there is one good thing that as come out of the Cambridge Analytica and Facebook story, it is that we are talking about these issues, and that people are realising that data and algorithms are not neutral, that they have political bias, either unconscious to deliberately placed there. I do believe that the Open Movement needs to look at analytics and algorithms and decide how open objects can be used in these closed systems, and what the implications are."