Ethics and Privacy for Learning analytics

Tore HoelOslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences

@tore

Presentation at the opening of Centre for the Science of Learning & Technology (SLATE)Bergen 9th June 2016

Ethics & Privacy a Show-stopper?

Uten at disse spørsmålene er avklart og tilfredsstillende besvart, er det sannsynlig at anvendelsen av læringsanalyse både vil være lovstridig og at skoleeier ikke greier å ivareta det mest sentrale personvernprinsippet: at den som personopplysningene gjelder skal sikres kontroll med og medbestemmelse over bruken av egne opplysninger. (IKT-senteret)

http://iktsenteret.no/ressurser/notat-laeringsanalyse

Lawfulness, Purpose limitation, Data minimisation, Consent, etc.

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How ethical?

– Knowing– Not knowing– Refusing to know– Acting upon what you know– Not acting upon what you know– What responsibility is it to know?– Can we un-know knowing…?– And even if we knew and understood our students, do we have the will

and the resources to do something about what we (think we) know?

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IS ETHICS & PRIVACY

A CONCERN?

Results of LACE community exchange

– Vision of the Future study– Data Sharing Requirements– EP4LA workshop series

We didn’t foresee that Ethics & Privacy would come up on top of the list of concerns in all stakeholder segments!

www.dataversity.net/machine-learning-learning-read-lips

But we didn't know that we should cover our mouth in class either…

Vision of the Future

1. There is a lot of enthusiasm for Learning Analytics, but concern that its

potential will not be fulfilled

2. Policies and infrastructure are necessary to strengthen the rights of the

data subject. Interoperability specifications and open infrastructures are an

enabling technology.

3. Learning analytics should not imply automation of teaching and learning.

4. Issues of social and political power, ethics, and ownership are central

factors to the future of learning analytics

5. There is some disagreement between educational sectors, raising the

possibility should be considered that a socio-technical elite is proposing

systems and methods that are not entirely welcomed by practitioners in

the field.

6. The necessary underlying technology is already available, and will

continue to develop.

Question Priority

Proximity

Feasibility

Emerging Problem Space

The ability for the user to withdraw consent at any time 6 3 3 Q4 Individual vs Collective. Q5 Risk handling.

Do students have the right to withdraw from data collection and analysis after previously giving their consent?

7 2 3 Q4 Individual vs Collective. Q5 Risk handling.

Can all data regarding an individual (expect that necessary for statutory purposes) be deleted?

6 3 2 Q5 Risks. Q4 Individual vs. Collective. Q11 Anonymisation.

To what extent should students be able to access the analytics performed on their data?

7 2 2 Q1 Defining benefits. Q14 Ownership

What are the concerns when outsourcing the collection and analysis of data? Who owns the data?

7 3 1 Q1 Defining benefits and boundaries. Q14 Ownership

To what extent do we provide students the option to update their data and provide extra (possibly qualitative) data?

6 3 1 Q14 Ownership. Q1

What data should students be able to view, i.e. what and how much information should be provided to the student?

6 2 1 Q14 Ownership Q22 Implementation. Transparency. Codes of Practice

Are interconnected datasets a threat to personal and democratic principles?

6 1 1 Q5 Risks. Q4 Individual vs. Collective.

What should students be told about the potential consequences of opting out of data collection and analysis of their learning?

6 1 1 Q5 Risks. Q4 Individual vs. Collective.

Can students be identified from metadata even if personal data has been deleted?

6 1 1 Q5 Risks. Q4 Individual vs. Collective.

Summary of LACE EP4LA workshops• Significant boundaries to combine different data

sources• Trade-off between LA benefits and privacy protection• Concern about effectiveness of / limitations to privacy

protection methods• Transparency, accountability, and control are key• Is the binary opt in/opt out model realistic?

HOW DO WE ADDRESS

THESE CONCERNS?DO WE HAVE THE TOOLS WE NEED?

There are many principles – but few tools

What is the problem with Privacy?

Medical Privacy

Various methods have been used to protect patient's privacy. This 1822 drawing by Jacques-Pierre Maygnier shows a "compromise" procedure, in which the physician is kneeling before the woman but cannot see her genitalia. (Wikipedia)

Is Privacy about Limitation and Control?

“debate regarding privacy has swung between arguments for and against a particular approach with the limitation theory and control theory dominating” (Heath, 2014)

Context Integrity: Framework to provide guidance to solve privacy related conflicts

Appropriateness

Distribution

• What is collected?• What is revealed?• Valid in one context,

invalid in another

• Who sees the data?• When?• For what purpose

It is about Contextual Integrity – respected or violated

Contextual Integrity, is respected when norms of appropriateness and distribution are respected; it is violated when any of the norms are infringed. (Nissenbaum, Helen. Privacy in context: Technology, policy, and the integrity

of social life. Stanford University Press, 2009.)

From principles to design

• Privacy by design• Data protection by design• Data protection by default

Policy on Ethical use of Student Data for Learning Analytics

Published by Open University, UK, 2014

Build a Research Agenda

• Ethics – the big questions, e.g., How do we understand and critically engage with the ethics surrounding the increasing surveillance of students in higher education?

• Data sharing & learner agency and modalities• GDPR – implications of EU’s new data

protection regulations (Norwegian law 2018)

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Develop Codes of Practice

• A national project under Standard Norway will be launched after the summer break

• Two directions– Guildelines for handling data protection issues– Code of conduct for organisations

Hoel, T. (2016) Ethics & Privacy for Learning AnalyticsPresentation at the Kick-off meeting,Bergen 9 June 2016

tore.hoel@hioa.no @tore

These slides are provided under the Creative Commons Attribution Licence: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Some images used may have different licence terms.