VVZ API is not affiliated with ETH Zurich. Data might be outdated or incorrect. Please view the official ETHZ Vorlesungsverzeichnis for binding information.
Data Science and Ethics
Last Updated: 2026-02-05 16:21:53
Abstract
In this course, students will be introduced to the ethical aspects (From the Perspective of consequentialism (utilitarianism), non-consequentialism (Kantianism), contractualism and virtue ethics) of cryptography (the relationship between security and privacy), data markets ("Surveillance Capitalism"), and decisions based on algorithms.
Objective
After successful completion of the course, students will be able to identify different ethical positions (From the perspective of consequentialism (utilitarianism), non-consequentialism (Kantianism), contractualism and virtue ethics) and areas of ethical tension in the context of algorithmic decision systems and data markets, and to reflect on their own role.
Content
Technological optimists see the advancing digitalization and the corresponding availability of enormous amounts of data as an opportunity to achieve the promise of transparency, objectivity and efficiency in the public domain and the private sector with the help of algorithmic decision-making systems. To achieve the promise of transparency, objectivity and efficiency in administration and the private sector, algorithms are intended to function as ideology-free, fair instruments of order and control in a digital society. However, the decision-making processes behind them are always embedded in a sociocultural system - whose presuppositions and stereotypes factor into the construction of algorithms. The course examines the ethical, ideological, political, and social tensions that are reflected in supposedly neutral algorithms and may even reinforce them. It also addresses the ethical problems that can arise from the generation and trading of data. Particular attention is paid to the concept of privacy and the influence of market mechanisms on the goods being traded.
Resources
Literature
Rogaway, Phillip. "The moral character of cryptographic work." Cryptology ePrint Archive (2015). Satz, Debra. Why some things should not be for sale: The moral limits of markets. Oxford University Press, 2010. Schoeman, Ferdinand David, ed. Philosophical dimensions of privacy: An anthology. Cambridge University Press, 1984. Warren, Samuel, and Louis Brandeis. "The right to privacy." Killing the Messenger. Columbia University Press, 1989. 1-21. Zuboff, Shoshana. "Big other: surveillance capitalism and the prospects of an information civilization." Journal of information technology 30.1 (2015): 75-89. Zuboff, Shoshana. The age of surveillance capitalism: The fight for a human future at the new frontier of power: Barack Obama's books of 2019. Profile books, 2019.
General Information
- Language
- English
- Levels
- DS , DR
Examination
- Type
- graded semester performance
Registration & Places
- Max Places
- 40
Course Components
| Type | Title | Time & Place | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| seminar | Data Science and Ethics |
|
2 h weekly |
Offered In
-
Science in Perspective (In “Science in Perspective”-courses students learn to reflect on ETH’s STEM subjects from the perspective of humanities, political and social sciences. Only the courses listed below will be recognized as "Science in Perspective" courses.)
-
Type A: Enhancement of Reflection Competence (SiP courses are recommended for bachelor students after their first-year examination and for all master- or doctoral students. All SiP courses are listed in Type A. Courses listed under Type B are only recommendations for enrollment for specific departments.)
-
-
Doctorate Humanities, Social and Political Sciences (More Information at: )