Social-Behavioral Modeling for Complex Systems

3 Ethical and Privacy Issues in Social‐Behavioral Research

Rebecca Balebako¹, Angela O'Mahony², Paul K. Davis² and Osonde Osoba²

¹ RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, CA, 90401, USA

² RAND Corporation and Pardee RAND Graduate School, Santa Monica, CA, 90407, USA

In today's environment, personal data collection and exploitation is pervasive. Government, industry, researchers, and society grapple with dilemmas about how to make use of data to provide benefits to individuals and society while safeguarding individuals' privacy and following ethical procedures. Another puzzle for public policy is how and when the government should collect or use data (and protect them), particularly when those data are already being collected by industry, researchers, criminal networks, and even foreign adversaries. It is difficult to develop guidelines on such matters, and it is also likely that what makes sense will change over time, suggesting the need for adaptive policies. However, as we contemplate increasing the effectiveness of social‐behavioral modeling and populating these models with data drawn from our everyday lives, how to balance privacy and efficacy is of paramount importance. The social‐behavioral modeling community needs to be informed by a deep appreciation of current privacy and ethical issues and be prepared for new challenges that will emerge in the future.

This chapter is the result of a small workshop held at the RAND Corporation in December 2016 to understand what ...