'Do no harm' in the age of Big Data: Data, ethics, and the refugees

Abstract

Leveraging call detail records for humanitarian analysis involves the collection and sharing of a large set of behavioral data, from hundreds of thousands of people. There is a risk that such data could be misused for surveillance and suppression, and there are strong criticisms that have been leveled at efforts involving call detail records. The D4R Challenge is not immune to these criticisms, and during the design and implementation of the Challenge, these issues were discussed at length. This chapter outlines these issues and how they were (imperfectly) addressed.