Unit 5: Essay

Prompt

Hoolie is a (fictional) big data company which profits from novel insights gained from user’s personal data. Suppose that Hoolie is (magically) able to ensure that all user data is completely anonymized.

Set out the best argument you can that Hoolie has a right to profit from these insights because it owns the anonymized data.* Then set out and evaluate the objection based on Floridi’s account of personal data which Sax raises for this argument (i.e., the objection in the ‘Divisibility of personal data’ section pp. 29-30 of his article).

* You should use either the finders-keepers picture Sax sets out (pp.27-29 of his article) or the Lockean picture from the written lectures. Technically you could make up your own argument, but why make the task harder / riskier than it needs to be?

Unit 5: Essay Answer

The best part of Hoolie would be its business model. This would include the following considerations to ensure not only its financial success but also its status as an ethical organization as challenged by Sax. First, Hoolie would become profitable because larger market share would be won over by Hoolie’s progressive big data business tenets — which would include reinforcing users’ data privacy and expected utility.