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Ethical issues in tracking cellular telephones at an event

Author

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  • Cooper, Antony K.
  • Ittmann, Hans W.
  • Stylianides, Theo
  • Schmitz, Peter M.U.

Abstract

Early in 2007, the CSIR conducted an experiment to track the cellular telephones of a small group of people as they moved to and from an event, to test the viability of using such tracking to provide the participants with useful traffic information. This project raised a number of ethical issues, which prompted this paper and which we discuss here. These include: - the ethics of modelling data, including the treatment of research participants; - privacy and surveillance issues related to tracking the movement of people; - the risks inherent in being tracked vs the benefits of being tracked; and - the ethics related to sending messages to drivers. We have reviewed the literature on ethics and used the results to assemble a check list of relevant ethical issues, adding a few of our own (i.e. a deontological ethics approach), against which the conduct of this research project was assessed. We also provide an overview of the experiment and the results obtained.

Suggested Citation

  • Cooper, Antony K. & Ittmann, Hans W. & Stylianides, Theo & Schmitz, Peter M.U., 2009. "Ethical issues in tracking cellular telephones at an event," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 37(6), pages 1063-1072, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jomega:v:37:y:2009:i:6:p:1063-1072
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Brans, J. Pierre, 2002. "OR, Ethics and Decisions: the OATH of PROMETHEUS," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 140(2), pages 191-196, July.
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    2. Ormerod, Richard J. & Ulrich, Werner, 2013. "Operational research and ethics: A literature review," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 228(2), pages 291-307.

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