SWK 540 Discussion 3

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SWK 540 Discussion 3
Please read this excerpt from an article posted on Forbes.com, titled “Are Research Ethics Obsolete In The Era Of Big Data?”. Based on what you have read, what are
your thoughts on this article? Does it violate the research ethics or not? Please explain your reasoning.
“This story began simply enough as I was writing this past May about the OkCupid data release. The researchers involved in the study had mass downloaded the profiles
of more than 70,000 OkCupid users, (https://fortune.com/2016/05/18/okcupid-data-research/) for the world the most intimate details of these users right down to their
wildest sexual fantasies. In their now-unavailable paper the authors had argued that “Some may object to the ethics of gathering and releasing this data. However, all
the data found in the dataset are or were already publicly available, so releasing this dataset merely presents it in a more useful form.” In a now-famous,
(https://twitter.com/KirkegaardEmil/status/730449904909324289), the lead author said that no effort had been put into anonymizing the data because “[The] Data is
already public.””

For the Full article, (https://www.forbes.com/forbes/welcome/?toURL=https://www.forbes.com/sites/kalevleetaru/2016/06/17/are-research-ethics-obsolete-in-the-era-of-
big-data/&refURL=&referrer=#6ef0681d1cb9) Please read this article ONLY AFTER you’ve posted your thoughts and remember that the opinion of the contributor is their
own.