Mind your analytics, or you could soon be in ethical hot water
It's no secret that the implications of big data extend far beyond organizational benefits into the societal and ethical realm, but market researcher Gartner predicts that the improper use of big data analytics will cause half of all business ethics violations by 2018.
Organizations could suffer loss of reputation, wasted resources, competitive weakness and even legal sanctions as a result, Gartner said.
The best-known example in this area may be the oft-told case of Target's pregnancy-prediction algorithm, which led the retail giant to deduce that a 15-year-old girl in Minnesota was expecting a baby. It wasn't until the girl began receiving coupons for baby-related items that her family caught on.
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