Data Analytics in Financial Accounting

Establishing Ethical Standards for Data Used by an Organization

You have been hired as a consultant for the University to assist them with developing fair and ethical standards for the collection, retention and use of data collected by the University. For phase I of this project, your focus is data collected on students. As discussed in the article for this class discussion, J. Chalcraft points out:

The insights obtained from analyzing data can help organizations manage risk, maximize profitability, optimize resources, and identify and pursue new opportunities. Add to this the knowledge that the predictive power of analysis improves as the volume of available data expands (because the sample size gets closer to equaling the population size)

It is tempting to collect and save every bit of data just in case its needed, but you know it is better to carefully determine what types of data should be collected and retained, while protecting the privacy of personally identifiable information (PII) of students.

Your task is to discuss how to address the following issues with regard to student data (with some questions to consider):

Data collection: what data will be collected? Think about the types of 
data that a university would collect on students.
Data retention: how long will the data be saved? How will the data be protected while the University retains it? How/when will data be disposed offor example, after someone leaves the organization. graduates from the university, stops attending the university?
Data use: who will own and maintain the data? Where will it be housed? Who will have access to that data? Who will be able to change/add/delete data? How will individuals know which of their data are being used? What are some ways student data might be used internally?
Data re-use: what if administrators want to use the data again, say for predictive analytics, marketing purposes, or scenario analysis? How will the reuse be determined or allowed?
Analytics dissemination: who will see the results of the analyses of the data? Will there be limitations on the use of the results? Think of ways the university could use student data. Will they be aggregated or otherwise anonymized so that individual responses/data cannot be tracked to a specific person?
While developing a set of suggested guidelines for the above, consider the privacy laws (such as the recently passed California Consumer Protection Act) that address individuals rights to privacy (e.g., personal and health information, right to be forgotten), and who owns/is responsible for the data, who should be able to access/use the data. Include information in your guidelines about how to clearly disclose the data collection process and the use of data to relevant parties.

Organize your response as follows and include response as listed below

1. Data collection: Describe five data elements you would collect
2. Data retention: answer one of the three questions above related to 
data retention

3. Data use: answer two of the questions above related to data use
4. Data re-use: give one suggestion on when reuse should be allowed
5. Analytics dissemination: answer one of the three questions above related to analytics dissemination