Practical Ethics
Laura Thomson
laura@mozilla.com
@lxt
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–Anonymous commenter
“Do you think other browser makers collect this type of data?”
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Not an ethicist
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How To Be Perfect
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How To Be Perfect
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Practical Ethics
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Standard Disclaimers
This is what we do. It’s not perfect.
This approach is open source so you can steal it and make it better.
Give us your feedback so we can make it better too.
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Lean Data
Collect only what you need
Keep it for the minimum amount of time
Don’t violate user expectations
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Classes of Data
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Category 1: Technical Data
Examples: OS, available memory, version number
Generally okay to collect, opt-out
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Category 2: Interaction Data
Examples: # of tabs, session length, config settings, feature use
Generally okay to collect, opt-out.
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Category 3: Web Activity Data
Example: browsing history
Stickier. Usually no, but may be possible with mitigation.
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Category 4: Highly Sensitive Data
Examples: email, username, identifiers
Assume no. Maybe opt-in with advance notice, user consent, and secondary opt-out.
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Collecting data is simple
1. Request for collection
2. Review by data steward
https://github.com/mozilla/data-review
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What is a Data Steward?
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“Case Law”
Precedent
Allows reasoning about data collection
Suggests alternatives
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Privacy Preserving Data Collection
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Experiments
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–Rebecca Weiss, Director of Data Science
‘By not performing A/B tests before we release new features and
products, we are guilty of administering massive uncontrolled
experiments upon our users.
The only outcome measure that we can observe as a result of
these experiments is “how many users have we driven away
since we released that feature?”’
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Case Studies
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How’d that happen?
Good intentions, road to hell, etc
No data collected
No one felt empowered to say no
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What did we learn?
More formal process
Definition of red flags
Deeper engineering review
Documented escalation paths
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“Burn it all. Burn it to the ground.”
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Fin
We can all do better.
Learn from your mistakes.
Steal these ideas.
Steward your users’ data wisely.
Come ask questions.