Targeting vulnerable populations: The ethical implications of data mining, automated prediction, and focused marketing

• Published date: 01 June 2021
• Author: Gerard A. Callanan,David F. Perri,Sandra M. Tomkowicz
• Date: 01 June 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/basr.12233

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Targeting vulnerable populations: The ethical

implications of data mining, automated

prediction, and focused marketing

Gerard A. Callanan | David F. Perri | Sandra M. Tomkowicz

Department of Management, West

Chester University, West Chester,

Pennsylvania, USA

Correspondence

David F. Perri, Department of

Management, West Chester University,

Business Center (BPMC), Office

446, West Chester, PA 19383, USA.

Email: dperri@wcupa.edu

Abstract

This article presents an overview of the ethically

questionable business strategies of data mining and

automated prediction with respect to vulnerable

populations of consumers. It first provides a summary

of the privacy and ethical issues that arise when

high-tech internet-based organizations collect and

analyze large quantities of personal data from the users

of their systems and how these data are analyzed to

make assumptions and projections on individual

behaviors. It then discusses how these actions might

be technically legal but violate established moral

and ethical standards. The paper also highlights the

role that governments can play in limiting the ability

of large tech-based companies to mine personal

information for commercial application. The article

closes with suggestions for future research.

KEYWORDS

automated prediction, business ethics, computational

inference, data mining

1|INTRODUCTION

Unless one were in a Rip Van Winkle-like state, it would be nearly impossible to be unaware of

the ethical and legal controversies surrounding the privacy-challenging practices of high-tech

organizations. The questionable business practices of Google, Facebook, Apple, and Amazon,

Received: 21 January 2020 Accepted: 23 February 2021

DOI: 10.1111/basr.12233

© 2021 W. Michael Hoffman Center for Business Ethics at Bentley University

Bus Soc Rev. 2021;126:155–167. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/basr 155