Consent

Category: Social and Cultural Issues

What is consent? "Broadly, 'consent' principles reference the notion that a person's data should not be used without their knowledge and permission." (Fjeld, et.al., 2020) Related to 'consent' is 'informed consent', "which requires individuals be informed of risks, benefits, and alternatives." (Ibid). Consent is viewed as foundational for other rights, including not only the right to refuse access to one's data, but also the right to correct that data, erase that data, or control the use of that data.

The principle of consent has been violated in some well-known cases. In one such, researchers manipulated Facebook users' emotions by covertly varying their news feeds (Kramer, et.al., 2014). Google revealed its 'Project Nightingale' after being accused of secretly gathering personal health records (Griggs, 2019); Google also offers a 'Classroom' application and questions have been raised about its data collection practices on that platform (Singer, 2017). In yet another case, a Georgia Tech professor built a robot tutor that students believed was a human (Eicher, Polepeddi & Goel, 2018). Each of these touches the issue of consent in different ways, varying from malicious uses of technology to benign and even helpful.

Numerous ethical statements enshrine a principle of consent, as we shall see below. However, the refusal to consent to the use of analytics might also be unethical. For example, when an AI scores higher than humans on a test on diagnostics used to certify physicians (Bresnick, 2018), the refusal to use analytics may be indefensible. Similarly, by 2053 "surgical jobs could be the exclusive purview of AI tools" (Bresnick, 2017). This again makes withholding consent questionable.

There is precedent. The refusal of vaccines today may be viewed as unethical and even illegal (Horan and DePetro, 2019). It may be unethical, because "those who refuse vaccination yet benefit from herd immunity can be considered free-riders who are acting against the principle of fairness and, therefore, acting unethically." And personal autonomy is not absolute. "Autonomy is just one value and it is not the only one that should be considered. Nor does it necessarily outweigh every other important value."

Consent applies not only to the recipient of services, it also applies to the provider. We see this in other disciplines. For example, health care providers, for reasons of conscience, may wish to refuse to perform abortions, or to offer blood transfusions (Kemp, 2013). In some cases this may be acceptable, but in other cases it may seem obviously wrong, as for example should a person withhold consent because the recipient is an ethic minority or a member of the LGBTQ community (McMurtree, 2000). Would it be unethical for an educator to refuse to use analytics? Would it be unethical for an educator to use the results of analytics to refuse to offer services?

Examples and Articles

AI, big data, and the future of consent
"discuss three of the main types of problem that can impede informed consent with respect to Big data. These are: the transparency (or explanation) problem, the re-repurposed data problem, and the meaningful alternatives problem." Direct Link

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