Exploring Big Data Footprints and Ethics

Abstract

Big Data is collected via engagement in online activity and undergraduate students tend to be particularly heavy users of digital media. This article explores their online activity to assess their participation and usage patterns as well as their ethical perspectives. The research finds that these students have a somewhat substantial Big Data footprint since they actively engage in social media, use smart devices, shop online, use streaming services, and employ digital tools. Social connectedness necessitates the potential for their privacy being compromised and the findings suggest that introverts are more concerned about this issue then extroverts are. However, people of both types are concerned about conveying a positive image online. The majority of those surveyed primarily identified with the values expressed by the Utilitarian and Kantian ethical perspectives and less so with those expressed by Social Contract Theory and Virtue Ethics. However, study participants did not consistently ground their moral values in any one of these ethical theories.