Andalibi: Reconsidering “profit” and ethics in data practices

The Crisis Text Line (CTL), a non-profit that provides free, 24-hour, text-based mental health support, came under fire recently. CTL planned on sharing data from users' text messages with a for-profit spinoff company, Loris.ai. After intense backlash from privacy experts and users, CTL stopped sharing data. 

The possibility of a non-profit organization sharing personal information has kickstarted conversations about data sharing ethics, both in industry and academia.

In a new piece on Medium, Nazanin Andalibi, assistant professor at University of Michigan School of Information, dives into the ethics of sharing and using deeply personal data. In light of the recent news about CTL’s actions to share data with a private company, Andalibi says “there is something deeply unsettling about gaining something from others’ pain.”

However, Andalibi says that academic research also needs to think carefully about how they may “profit” from sensitive data. She urges researchers and industry professionals to think in nuanced ways about how personal data can be used to create profit for businesses, organizations, or academia. 

Read “What the Crisis Text Line discourse tells us about the notion of “profit” in data practices and ethics” on www.medium.com.

Learn more about Assistant Professor Nazanin Andalibi.