# Big data ethics, machine ethics or information ethics? Navigating the maze of applied ethics in IT

**Authors:** Niina Zuber, Severin Kacianka, Jan Gogoll  
**arXiv:** [2203.13494](https://arxiv.org/abs/2203.13494)  
**Date:** 2022-03-25  
**Summary page:** https://www.summarizepaper.com/en/paper/2203.13494v1/

## Key points

- Ethical issues arising from technological development are becoming increasingly important as digitalization efforts continue to spread across societies.
- Software developers, designers, and managerial decision-makers are expected to consider ethical values and conduct normative evaluations when building digital products.
- The academic literature offers a plethora of branches of applied ethics that can be overwhelming for those seeking guidance.
- To assist members of development teams in navigating this maze of applied ethics in IT, this paper provides a clear and brief introduction into two fields of ethical endeavor: normative ethics and applied ethics.
- The article discusses four forms of normative ethics: deontology, consequentialism, virtue ethics or contractualist principles which actively influence the branches of applied ethics such as machine ethics and AI Ethics.
- The authors provide an example in the domain of facial recognition software in medicine to illustrate how this process of normative analysis might be conducted.
- This paper aims to offer assistance by providing clarity on two fields of ethical endeavor (normative and applied) while also offering an ordering system for different branches within applied ethics.

## Summary

As digitalization efforts continue to spread across societies, ethical issues arising from technological development are becoming increasingly important. Software developers, designers, and managerial decision-makers are expected to consider ethical values and conduct normative evaluations when building digital products. However, the academic literature offers a plethora of branches of applied ethics that can be overwhelming for those seeking guidance. Depending on the context of the system being developed, subfields like big data ethics, machine ethics, information ethics, AI ethics or computer ethics may present themselves. To assist members of development teams in navigating this maze of applied ethics in IT, this paper provides a clear and brief introduction into two fields of ethical endeavor: normative ethics and applied ethics. It describes how they are related to each other and provides an ordering of different branches of applied ethics that have gained traction over the last years. The goal is to give developers a starting point to orient themselves regarding what kind of literature should be consulted if they want to inform themselves in their specific context as well as how these branches of applied ethics are related to normative support. The article discusses four forms of normative ethics: deontology, consequentialism, virtue ethics or contractualist principles which actively influence the branches of applied ethics such as machine ethics and AI Ethics. The authors provide an example in the domain of facial recognition software in medicine to illustrate how this process of normative analysis might be conducted. In summary, this paper aims to offer assistance by providing clarity on two fields of ethical endeavor (normative and applied) while also offering an ordering system for different branches within applied ethics. This will help members of development teams navigate through various subfields like big data or machine learning with ease while keeping ethical considerations at the forefront.