Managing the risks of big data at MyTelco: taking ethics seriously

In 2014, MyTelco established an independent Business Analytics (MyBA) organization that provided data analytics services to both MyTelco and third party customers. It was expected that this organization would be able to fund itself through the revenues generated from the commercialization of insights derived from MyTelco’s data. To address the ethical risks associated with mining and commercializing big data, MyBA relied on an Ethics and Compliance Committee (ECC) to review project proposals that involved customer data. Situated in November 2016, a week after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) passed new legislation to increase consumer’s choice over their personal information, the case describes three proposals that the ECC needed to evaluate. Students deliberate each proposal’s legality and ethicality from the point of view of MyTelco’s Ethics and Compliance Committee.