New York school district halts plan to use humanoid robot amid backlash; The New York Times, July 27, 2026

 Maya Yang, The New York Times ; New York school district halts plan to use humanoid robot amid backlash

"A New York school district has walked back plans to introduce a humanoid robot at its high school after the proposal sparked backlash from educators and community members.

The Salamanca City Central school district announced on 24 July in a social media post that its pilot project with Toronto-based tech company Realbotix had been put on hold “while we work through enhanced student data privacy agreements with the New York State Education Department and continue engaging with our community and stakeholders”."

Getting campaign text messages ahead of midterms? There could be an AI bot behind it; NPR, July 12, 2026

 Maham Javaid, NPR; Getting campaign text messages ahead of midterms? There could be an AI bot behind it

"AI-powered platforms are training bots to sound like political candidates in text messages, holding personalized conversations with thousands of potential voters simultaneously. The bots are also gathering data, learning what each voter wants from their representatives and using that information to shape future campaign messaging."

Ethical and Responsible AI: A Governance Framework for Boards; Directors & Boards, August 27, 2024

 Sonita Lontoh, Directors & Boards; Ethical and Responsible AI: A Governance Framework for Boards 

"Boards must understand what gen AI is being used for and its potential business value supercharging both efficiencies and growth. They must also recognize the risks that gen AI may present. As we have already seen, these risks may include data inaccuracy, bias, privacy issues and security. To address some of these risks, boards and companies should ensure that their organizations' data and security protocols are AI-ready. Several criteria must be met:

• Data must be ethically governed. Companies' data must align with their organization's guiding principles. The different groups inside the organization must also be aligned on the outcome objectives, responsibilities, risks and opportunities around the company's data and analytics.
• Data must be secure. Companies must protect their data to ensure that intruders don't get access to it and that their data doesn't go into someone else's training model.
• Data must be free of bias to the greatest extent possible. Companies should gather data from diverse sources, not from a narrow set of people of the same age, gender, race or backgrounds. Additionally, companies must ensure that their algorithms do not inadvertently perpetuate bias.
• AI-ready data must mirror real-world conditions. For example, robots in a warehouse need more than data; they also need to be taught the laws of physics so they can move around safely.
• AI-ready data must be accurate. In some cases, companies may need people to double-check data for inaccuracy.

It's important to understand that all these attributes build on one another. The more ethically governed, secure, free of bias and enriched a company's data is, the more accurate its AI outcomes will be."

Does the data industry need a code of ethics?; The Scotsman, August 29, 2019

David Lee, The Scotsman; Does the data industry need a code of ethics?

"Docherty says the whole area of data ethics is still emerging: “It’s where all the hype is now – it used to be big data that everyone talked about, now it’s data ethics. It’s fundamental, and embedding it across an organisation will give competitive advantage.”

So what is The Data Lab, set up in 2015, doing itself in this ethical space? “We’re ensuring data ethics training is baked in to the core technology training of all Masters students, so they are asking all the right questions,” says Docherty."

Are big tech’s efforts to show it cares about data ethics another diversion?; The Guardian, April 7, 2019

John Naughton, The Guardian; Are big tech’s efforts to show it cares about data ethics another diversion?

"No less a source than Gartner, the technology analysis company, for example, has also sussed it and indeed has logged “data ethics” as one of its top 10 strategic trends for 2019...

Google’s half-baked “ethical” initiative is par for the tech course at the moment. Which is only to be expected, given that it’s not really about morality at all. What’s going on here is ethics theatre modelled on airport-security theatre – ie security measures that make people feel more secure without doing anything to actually improve their security.

The tech companies see their newfound piety about ethics as a way of persuading governments that they don’t really need the legal regulation that is coming their way. Nice try, boys (and they’re still mostly boys), but it won’t wash. 

Postscript: Since this column was written, Google has announced that it is disbanding its ethics advisory council – the likely explanation is that the body collapsed under the weight of its own manifest absurdity."

What are tech companies doing about ethical use of data? Not much; The Conversation, November 27, 2018

James Arvanitakis , The Conversation; What are tech companies doing about ethical use of data? Not much

"Our relationship with tech companies has changed significantly over the past 18 months. Ongoing data breaches, and the revelations surrounding the Cambridge Analytica scandal, have raised concerns about who owns our data, and how it is being used and shared.

Tech companies have vowed to do better. Following his grilling by both the US Congress and the EU Parliament, Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, said Facebook will change the way it shares data with third party suppliers. There is some evidence that this is occurring, particularly with advertisers.

But have tech companies really changed their ways? After all, data is now a primary asset in the modern economy.

To find whether there’s been a significant realignment between community expectations and corporate behaviour, we analysed the data ethics principles and initiatives that various global organisations have committed since the various scandals broke.

What we found is concerning. Some of the largest organisations have not demonstrably altered practices, instead signing up to ethics initiatives that are neither enforced nor enforceable."

A Rising Crescendo Demands Data Ethics and Data Responsibility; Forbes, October 29, 2018

Randy Bean, Forbes; A Rising Crescendo Demands Data Ethics and Data Responsibility

"It is against this backdrop that data ethics has rapidly moved to the forefront of any meaningful discussion about data. A spate of recent articles -- Never Heard of Data Ethics? You Will Soon, It’s Time to Talk About Data Ethics, Data Ethics: The New Competitive Advantage, Will Democracy Survive Big Data and Artificial Intelligence – underscore the increasing urgency and highlight the ethical considerations that organizations must address when managing data as an asset, and considering its impact on individual rights and privacy.

I recently convened two thought-leadership roundtables of Chief Data Officers and executives with responsibility for data initiatives within their organizations. The increased focus and concern for the ethical use of data is born out of widespread reaction to recent and highly publicized misuses of data that represent breaches of public trust -- whether this be unauthorized data sharing by social media platforms, reselling of customer information by businesses, or biased algorithms that reinforce social inequalities.

It is within this context that we are now witnessing increased corporate attention to data for good initiatives. Companies are increasingly recognizing and acknowledging that ethical action and doing well can be synonymous with doing good. A few corporations, notably Mastercard through their Center for Inclusive Growth, Bloomberg through Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Data for Good Exchange, and JP Morgan through the JP Morgan Institute have been among those corporations at the forefront of ethical data use for public good...

Increasingly, corporations are focusing on issues of data ethics, data privacy, and data philanthropy. An executive representing one of the nation’s largest insurance companies noted, “We are spending more hours on legal and ethical review of data than we are on data management”."

Emily Douglas, Human Resources Director New Zealand; The problem with ethics in data

"The problem of ‘ethics in data’ has become entrenched in HR. A recent paper published in Philosophical Transactions A by Luciano Floridi and Mariarosaria Taddeo, questioned the nature of ‘data ethics’ and what it means in a corporate setting.

“While the data ethics landscape is complex, we are confident that these ethical challenges can be addressed successfully,” commented Floridi.

“Striking a robust balance between enabling innovation in data science technology, and respecting privacy and human rights will not be an easy or simple task. But the alternative, failing to advance both the ethics and the science of data, would have regrettable consequences.”

It serves as both a scary reminder of what exactly is at stake here, and a rousing challenge for HR practitioners. HR should take on the role of a gatekeeper to employee data – rather than procurer."