By Laini Byfield
Ethics boards
High-trust governance for high-stakes data systems — built to ask the hard questions before harm occurs.
ScopeAuthorityRisk review
Responsibilities
What an ethics board should do
Responsibilities
- Approve new data sources and new uses of existing data
- Review re-identification and subgroup risk
- Set standards for transparency and appealability
- Require documentation of known error modes
Practical design
- Clear charter with explicit decision rights
- Regular cadence aligned to program cycles
- Escalation path for harm and critical errors
- Records of decisions and the rationale behind them
The fit
How it fits Small Data Ethics
A board that can only advise is not governance. Boards must be able to say “no,” require changes, and demand repair plans when systems fail.
Small Data Ethics treats governance as operational — not ceremonial. Boards must be able to say “no,” require changes, and demand repair plans when systems fail. A board that can only advise is not governance.