back to article The only way is ethics: UK.gov emphasises moral compass amid deluge of data plans

The UK government has released a guide to help civil servants figure out how to use and procure data science tools ethically as public opinion on slurping continues to circle the drain. Amid the Facebook data harvesting scandal and news of yet another high-profile data breach, the government made a raft of announcements aimed …

  1. Crisp

    The government promoting ethics?

    Talk about the blind leading the blind.

    1. Bill M

      Blind leading the deaf

      More like the blind leading the deaf.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Black Helicopters

        Blind keeping the public in the dark

        It concerns me that there are questions in the workbook like:

        Have you spoken to your organisation to find out if you can speak about your project openly?

        The question seems framed by the assumption that everything should be secret unless there is some reason for it not to be. Why isn't the question the other way round, e.g. any reason why your project should not be spoken about openly?

        1. msknight

          Re: Blind keeping the public in the dark

          The blind, leading the deaf, who then turn mute when asked how they were found in a dark alley, in yet another compromising position.

        2. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

          Re: Blind keeping the public in the dark

          "Why isn't the question the other way round, e.g. any reason why your project should not be spoken about openly?"

          Because it doesn't work the other way round. If you speak about it openly and then discover you shouldn't have it's too late and you might find yourself having to dob yourself into the ICO for having led to half a million people's PII turning up on haveibeenpwned.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: The government promoting ethics?

      Theresa May, from the top down. {facepalm}.

      Good luck with that. Here is Theresa May talking about Grenfell, acting like a passive member of the public, as though she isn't part of the problem.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBgty_zePgc

  2. Voland's right hand Silver badge

    El reg - you owe me a keyboard

    I am now having to deal with the results of "moral compass" and "uk government" combined in one sentence all over my keyboard. It is full of coffee...

  3. SVV

    Ethical procurement policy for AI systems

    From now on, we will only be buying organic, fairtrade snake oil, harvested in sustainable forests.

    Oh, and £350,000 funding for Internet of Things research!! The fruits of this new "industrial strategy" will surely see the UK at the forefront of tech innovation with such an ambitios funding drive. The new attitude will simply be "Whatever it costs! Divided by 100. Or maybe a bit less".

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    algorithmic bias

    What are they going to do when they start using immigration data as I'm pretty sure it will only target foreigners?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      WTF?

      The Department for Bad Grammar

      The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport's (DCMS). So "digital" is now a noun?

      i.e.

      Some culture

      Some media

      Some sport

      Some digital?!!???

      1. tiggity Silver badge

        Re: The Department for Bad Grammar

        My response to DCMS is normally digital ... a single raised digit

  5. lglethal Silver badge
    Joke

    Ethics? That's that place north east off sussex, right? The one with the reputation for loose women?

    1. Alister

      and white handbags

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    A win for Ethics?

    Hardly! Its a firm win though for Lawyered-Answers... As Politician's self-interest and their own favorite Lobbyists get to win every time:

    https://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/1/2018/06/13/royal_free_deepmind_deal_audit/

  7. EnviableOne

    not a county east of london

    The Data reveloution is a minefield

    Loads of people are asking can we

    very few ask Should we

    from a Data Security point of view, and in light of GDPR, its the most important question.

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