Every company must establish its own best practices for managing its data. McKinsey experts discuss five traps to avoid when leaders begin to address the operational aspects of data management at their business, and, specifically, consider data ethics. Fewer companies have considered and started to address the ethical aspects of data management, which could have broad ramifications and responsibilities.
By Alex Edquist, Liz Grennan, Sian Griffiths, and Kayvaun Rowshankish, based on conversations with experts and early adopters.
What is data ethics?
The authors spoke with about a dozen business leaders and data ethics experts. In their eyes, these are some characteristics of ethical data use:
It preserves data security and protects customer information. They tend to view cybersecurity and data privacy as part and parcel of data ethics. They believe companies have an ethical responsibility (as well as legal obligations) to protect customers’ data, defend against breaches, and ensure that personal data are not compromised.
