Notes and Applied Theory Small Data Ethics

By Laini Byfield

Small Data Ethics is not Small Data Privacy

Privacy is a core concern in small data. Small Data Ethics is the wider frame — it includes privacy and also fairness, power, incentive, explainability, and repair.

PrivacyFairnessAccountabilityRepair
The core distinction

The distinction in one sentence

Small Data Ethics is a lens for how human-scale data should be collected and used. A Small Data Privacy Committee is one governance mechanism focused on privacy risk and appropriate information flows.

Concentric circle diagram. Outer navy ring labeled Small Data Ethics contains: Fairness, Power, Explainability, Incentive, and Repair. Inner brick circle labeled Privacy contains: Purpose limitation, Minimisation, and Disclosure. Privacy is contained within Small Data Ethics, not equivalent to it.

Privacy is one element of Small Data Ethics — not a substitute for it

Compliance with privacy law is the floor. Small Data Ethics asks what belongs above it.
Side by side

Comparison

Small Data Ethics — the lens
  • Privacy plus fairness, incentive, and power
  • Assumes relational exposure — not anonymity
  • Treats errors as moral events — not technical bugs
  • Requires contestability, traceability, and repair
Privacy Committee — one mechanism
  • Reviews privacy risk, disclosure, and access
  • Ensures purpose limitation and minimisation
  • Defines reporting suppression for small-n
  • Approves retention rules and sharing boundaries
How they connect

How they work together

A privacy committee can be one part of Small Data Ethics governance. ETHICMAP can serve as the committee’s standing agenda and documentation structure:

  • Environment and Timing surface where privacy risk spikes
  • Harmony tests who is disproportionately exposed in small-n reporting
  • Measurement requires error rates and uncertainty, not just point outcomes
  • Publish becomes the feedback loop — decisions and changes documented for the next cycle