By Laini Byfield
Notes
Short essays on small data, governance, operational ethics, and how to build systems that respect people.
Coming May 2026
The Small Data Ethics newsletter launches on Substack in May 2026. Written for the analyst, the program manager, and the governance lead who have to live with the consequences of data decisions.
What to expect
- Case studies in small data failure — and what they teach
- Contestability and appeals in operational systems
- Designing incentive structures without coercion
- Documentation as ethics — how to publish learning across cycles
Applied examples and extended notes will be developed in long-form writing on Substack. Want to be notified at launch? Email hello@lainibyfield.com with “newsletter” in the subject line.
Published notes
“Just As Long As It’s Legal”
The HealthEC breach cost four client organizations $2.15 million combined. They never had a breach. They had a vendor who did — and no governance posture to change the cost curve.
Everyone Saw the Fine. Nobody Saw the Framework.
Yale paid $1.29 million to settle a wellness program lawsuit. Through ETHICMAP, the coercive penalty was the least of it — the costly failures were Calibration, Application, and Publish.
When the Benefit Becomes the Evidence
In Kamrass v. AdventHealth, a sponsored therapy benefit was subpoenaed and read in court — lawfully. The same discovery chain runs in reverse. A governance analysis through ETHICMAP.
The Definition of Outcome Done Has a Stakeholder Problem
The Scrum Expansion Pack asks whether value landed. ETHICMAP asks for whom — and provides the governance layer to answer that question in programs where data subjects are never in the room.