Ethical data use is important to me.

It’s better for everyone – your clients and customers, your team, your business, and you.

Let’s use data for good, in the spirit with which it was given.

Every day, I’m waking up to more horrifying news from the ongoing coup in my homeland, the US. Lots of it is being done through unethical and illegal use of data.

This Mastadon post caught my eye:

You know why we Germans are so pedantic about data protection? Someone around 90 years ago went through all records available, selected people with certain criteria, with the help of IBM, and then killed them all.

We don’t want to be on any list.

And now the US Gov and Musk are trying to get access to all data they have about every person and put them into a big fat DB [database] and run AI over it.

I am afraid what they will do with that.

– Bodo Tasche, @bitboxer@mastadon.social

Data is a tool, and many large entities use it unethically, for disastrous results. This could make you hesitate to use data.

But data is a tool, and you get to decide how you use it when you’re the one wielding it, like any tool.

Once upon a time, a dentist – the first one I’d been to in many, many years – gleefully laughed and took pleasure in my discomfort whilst he was using his tools. (Thankfully, it was just an exam, not work; I never went back.) That man is simply a sadistic monster.

My current dentist uses the same tools, but he’s helping me instead. He’s compassionate – and very good at not inflicting pain.

Same tools. Same skillset. Entirely different goals, way of doing business, and outcomes.

More than simply complying with the letter of the law, you can choose to comply with the spirit in which the data was provided.

Want to use weather data to help drive sales, like Red Roof Inn did? Let’s do it.

Want to nail your product recommendations by asking the right questions so your customers spend less time frustratedly searching for the thing they’re after, and you get a sales boost, like The North Face? Sounds good.

Want to analyse your own company’s bookkeeping records to work out which costs incur benefits, whether obvious or subtle, and which are fat to be trimmed? Let’s get started.

There are probably infinite key business questions you could ask and answer whilst using data ethically.

How do you know if you’re using data ethically?

Would you be happy to tell your clients and team members exactly how you’ve gathered the data and how you’re using it?

If not, the answer is probably that you should find another way.

What do I mean by unethical use of data? There are many ways this crops up; here are just a few examples:

Perhaps you installed trackers in every vehicle in your fleet to enable easier recovery in case of breakdown.

If you start using that data to monitor your drivers, and the first they know of it is when you call them into the office to complain that they had a 33-minute break instead of a 30-minute break, how much more staff turnover do you think you’ll have?

Perhaps you collect clients’ phone numbers when they book an appointment, so that you can confirm it, or reschedule if necessary.

If you start ringing them to sell other services, too, how much uptake do you think you’ll have?

Perhaps you collect only what information you need from clients, and only use it in the ways they expect. Perhaps you even have a dedicated page on your website outlining exactly how you’ll use each piece of client data – and you stick to it.

If you don’t take the trouble to store it securely, and your client database gets hacked every other week, how many clients (current and future) will you lose?

Many have long painted acting ethically as sacrificing something.

It’s simply not true.

They have their own hidden motives for pushing that narrative.

Let’s not give them any more power for another moment.

Let us choose – every day in every way – to act ethically AND grow our businesses.

PS – In case you missed it, the Copyright & AI consultation (Gov . uk) CLOSES TODAY. I shared some of my thoughts on it here. This is really important, so please do have your say.

Links & Inspiration

Defense Against Dishonest Charts is a brilliant tutorial on critically reading charts by Nathan Yau at flowing Data.

If you’ve ever struggled even a little bit with understanding charts, Nathan’s quick primer walks you through it, step by step, together with what to watch out for when people may be trying to push their agenda instead of fairly presenting the data.

I recommend it heartily as required reading for your entire team – as Miro said (above), the more data-literate people, the better for your company.

Are you making B2C creative products?

Then focus your limited resources on making the products more creative, not the marketing or packaging.

That’s the takeaway from the latest Science Says post.

One highlight for me was:

 “In advertising and marketing campaigns, an industry analysis by the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising found that award-winning creative campaigns were no more effective than campaigns that didn’t win any awards, and often had little or no effective impact.”

Data-driven organisations out-perform their competition (Keboola):

This post shares several statistics plus stories, like:

Data-driven organisations are 19x more likely to be profitable.

Red Roof Inn used flight cancellation and weather data to drive its marketing, resulting in a 10% increase in turnover!

Insight-driven businesses grow an average of 30% per year.

There are no affiliate links in this or any of my emails or blog posts. I simply enjoy sharing resources that could help move your business forward.

Using your numbers to help make your business better

Do you wish you understood how to use your data to make decisions more confidently?

That's what I'm here to help with.