Involved disciplines Philosophy in PAnalytics

The ethical consideration of handling sensitive personal data, the aspects of data protection and privacy, as well as discussions about possibilities and limits of health-support-systems

It is a scientific challenge to repeatedly pose and re-answer ethical questions in the course of the changing information age. On the one hand, emerging technical innovations have to be evaluated ethically from the perspective of self-determination, data protection and privacy. On the other hand ethical frameworks can define possibilities and limitations of technical achievements.

In this context questions like the following should be answered:

•          Does the responsibility for the own data lie exclusively with the (possibly uninformed) user?
•          Is it sufficient to inform users once? Should it be expected that they underestimate the potential dangers?
•          Which significance does the privacy of the involved people have in comparison to the underlying monetary processes?
•          What comprises the security of entrusted data?
•          Can an appropriate relation between functionality and use for provider and user be created in terms of data security and data protection?

Here, it is also necessary to take a critical look on ethical aspects of Persuasive Computing. How to deal with the situation if the users cannot judge for themselves if the behaviour proposed by the computer is correct? Another critic point of persuasive technologies to address is the problem from which point on and via which mechanisms the computer “takes on a life of its own” and develops the power of decision over the user.