VIRT-EU: The ethical challenge of IoT
Google’s infamous “Don’t be evil” motto laid out the core values of its founders in the simplest terms (whether or not you think they have stuck to their promise is another conversation). But is being tech-ethical as simple as just stating your values, or does it require further introspection throughout the process of development? The imminent rollout of the 5G network has been described as the herald of the fourth industrial revolution, bringing unprecedented connectivity between devices which will transform the way we live. But as more devices in our homes become connected and join the growing Internet of Things (IoT), developers need to start asking themselves more questions about the ethical implications of their creations. It’s become a familiar story lately. A popular “smart” device is found to be embarrassingly insecure or easily hackable, leading to a leak of highly sensitive data. IoT developers are learning fast that security cannot be overlooked, and privacy issues regarding the protection of user identity are equally important. When we buy products like Amazon’s Alexa which are intimately involved in our everyday lives – seeing and hearing everything we do – we need to know that the personal data they collect about us is not being misused. The VIRT-EU project The VIRT-EU project, coordinated by Irina Shklovski of the IT University of Copenhagen, is creating tools and activities that help IoT developers bring ethics into their own conversations. The project’s approach rests on the assumption that when designers of technologies talk to each other, debate and disagree about what tools to use and how to manage and respond to data, they negotiate and enact ethics. In this process, they (as do we all) have the capacity to develop ethically from who they are to who they might ideally become. VIRT-EU seeks to identify and intervene in the ethical processes enmeshed in technological innovation, particularly addressing sensing technologies that collect and algorithmically process personal data. To achieve this, VIRT-EU is analysing and mapping the ethical practices of European hardware and software entrepreneurs, maker and hacker spaces, and community innovators. Leveraging state of the art social science, humanities and ICT methodologies, the project partners have developed new ways of collaborating across different methods and fields. The project goals are to identify and understand from a perspective of multiple complimentary ethical theories the ethical and social values of IoT innovators as they consider data and human behaviour, to trace how these values manifest in design decisions, and to generate tools that enable ethical and social self-assessment in practice. To achieve this, the project has developed a Privacy, Ethical and Social Impact Assessment (PESIA) framework and co-designed tools with and for IoT developers that also draw on existing legal and rights frameworks. The main objective of VIRT-EU is to affect the design and development processes of technological innovation by integrating PESIA tools with developer practices, resulting in better alignment with the ethical and social values of EU citizens. This article was written for Projects. To read the full article, head over to Projects Magazine: http://www.projectsmagazine.eu.com/current_issue