A recent article in the New York Times raises the question: do algorithms discriminate?  The question is legitimate, but the emphasis is wrong.  Instead of thinking of data analytics as a problem, we need to welcome the new opportunities for improved decisionmaking that they enable.  And we need to cooperate to identify and address any disparate impacts data-driven decisionmaking might have.

As the world celebrates Data Privacy Day today, we should collectively explore how to enhance privacy in an era where sharing is abundant and increasingly necessary to provide customers with the many cutting edge innovations they desire.

A new Congress and a reinvigorated Administration mean legislation of interest to SIIA’s members is likely to pass in 2015.  We intend to be pro-active and vigilant to ensure that this legislation responds to the broad public interest, including preserving and advancing the business interests and opportunities of SIIA’s member companies.

DDI, FDASIA, HEALTH IT, SOFTWARE more

The recent FTC workshop “Big Data: A Tool for Inclusion or Exclusion?” posed important questions on whether and how analytics could be used to restrict life chances for people rather than create economic and social opportunity.  The answer lies in the hands of the user of the technology, not in the technology itself.  The critical question is how people use, implement or otherwise act on the discoveries – the indicators, insights and evidence – that data analytics can uncover or reveal.