In pursuit of valuable solutions for our clients, we operate in a global context where commercial interests may ramify into technical, social, and environmental issues. To take responsibility for the role we play, we keep to the following principles.

1 Consequences of data

Data is not neutral, but can have beneficial and detrimental effects. Detrimental effects typically hit hardest on those who are in the least powerful situations. We will therefore never contribute to solutions that, directly or indirectly, have detrimental effects for disenfranchised individuals or groups. Specifically, we will not contribute to any solutions that classify groups or individuals in ways that amount to discrimination, exclusion or incapacitation.

2 Value and ownership of data

Data is valuable, and ownership of data is a non-trivial matter. We therefore only work with data where our clients have an unequivocal and certifiable right to use this data. Also, we require that data is used in ways that comply with general principles of privacy and data protection, and specific regulations such as the GDPR.

3 Transparency of data operations

Operations on data may be such that the outcomes do not clearly reflect the ingoing data. We are committed to always being able to explain our operations, how results come about, and what the consequences of acting upon these results will be. Thus, we keep both ourselves and our clients able to give account of the meaning of the data, its possible uses, and the legitimacy of both.

4 Continued responsible deployment

Human beings are creative and technologies are always in development. Also, the context in which technologies are used, is subject to permanent change. In consequence, our solutions may eventually be used for purposes that they were not initially designed for. We are committed to scoping and monitoring the uses of our solutions, and together with our clients ensure that future and emerging uses meet our principles.

5 Sustainable development

We are committed to the UN’s Sustainable development goals. We will therefore not contribute to solutions that compromise democracy, human rights, and the deterioration of the environment at global and local scales.

6 Modest expertise

We are specialists and good at our work. Yet we acknowledge that we are not necessarily able to assess issues outside our core competencies. We will therefore maintain a low threshold to enroll specialists in ethical, legal and social aspects (ELSA) in relation to our solutions.

Our commitment

In practice, these principles might not always be satisfiable at the same time, and they may at times not be reconcilable with the technically or commercially optimal solution. In practice, solutions will be compromises between principles and design criteria. What will never be compromised, though, is our commitment to raising these concerns with our clients, and jointly discuss whether any social or environmental costs are proportionate to both commercial and societal benefits.

Authors

This ethical code was written in collaboration with Dr. Govert Valkenburg, Research Professor of Science and Technology Studies, Norwegian University of Science and Technology NTNU.

Last updated: 7 November 2022.