There was a recent furore with facebook experimenting on their users to see if they could alter user's emotions and now okcupid.Whilst I am not a professional data scientist I read about data science ethics from Cathy O'Neill's book 'Doing Data Science' and would like to know if this is something that professionals are taught at academic level (I would expect so) or something that is ignored or is lightly applied in the professional world. Particularly for those who ended up doing data science accidentally.Whilst the linked article touched on data integrity, the book also discussed the moral ethics behind understanding the impact of the data models that are created and the impact of those models which can have adverse effects when used inappropriately (sometimes unwittingly) or when the models are inaccurate, again producing adverse results.The article discusses a code of practice and mentions the Data Science Association's Code of conduct, is this something that is in use? Rule 7 is of particular interest (quoted from their website):(a) A person who consults with a data scientist about the possibility  of forming a client-data scientist relationship with respect to a  matter is a prospective client.(b) Even when no client-data scientist relationship ensues, a data  scientist who has learned information from a prospective client shall  not use or reveal that information.(c) A data scientist subject to paragraph (b) shall not provide  professional data science services for a client with interests  materially adverse to those of a prospective client in the same or a  substantially related industry if the data scientist received  information from the prospective client that could be significantly  harmful to that person in the matterIs this something that is practiced professionally? Many users blindly accept that we get some free service (mail, social network, image hosting, blog platform etc..) and agree to an EULA in order to have ads pushed at us. Finally how is this regulated, I often read about users being up in arms when the terms of a service change but it seems that it requires some liberty organisation, class action or a senator to react to such things before something happens.By the way I am not making any judgements here or saying that all data scientists behave like this, I'm interested in what is taught academically and practiced professionally.
How should ethics be applied in data science
social network analysis
I think ethics in Data Science is important. There is a fundamental difference in using user data to better their experience and show relevant ads and using user data to trick people into clicking on ads for the sake of monetary profit. Personally I like ads that give me relevant information like deals on things I would buy anyway. However, showing me weight loss ads because I got dumped is creepy and unethical. As my friend Peter always says, don't be creepy with data. 