Do you have any questions about #EthicsInSearch?
Who is conducting the project #EthicsInSearch?
#EthicsInSearch is a project of the Open Search Foundation, a non-profit organisation based in Starnberg, Germany.
The Open Search Foundation’s ethics working group, with members from research and practice, is playing a key role in the discussions on the ethical aspects of internet search and the development of the project results.
The #EthicsInSearch – Ethics of Internet Search project is funded by the Mercator Foundation.
Why does web search need ethical guidelines?
It is hard to imagine life today without web search. At the same time, web search has become so ingrained in our daily lives, both at work and at home, that we can no longer do without it. On the one hand, this is a great achievement of the internet age. However, we are currently paying a high ethical price for this instant access to information. These include potential surveillance and tracking, discrimination, algorithmic bias or possible manipulation of search results and human behaviour.
High market concentration
In addition, the search engine market is concentrated among just four providers worldwide: Google is by far the most widely used search engine in the world. Around 90 per cent of all searches worldwide are carried out via Google. Search engines such as Bing, Yandex, Baidu, Ecosia and DuckDuckGo follow with small shares. This means that one search engine dominates how and under what conditions we search the web. This concentration of power and data in the hands of a single company in a largely unregulated market can pose a threat to our democratic society. The underlying data pools, so-called ‘web indexes’ – directories of the WWW – are also owned by the four companies Google, Bing, Yandex and Baidu.
What does ethics have to do with it?
The problem is an overarching one, and as such needs to be addressed in an interdisciplinary way. It is not enough to ‘only’ regulate the market, or ‘only’ create laws, or ‘only’ develop an independent search index, as the Open Search Foundation calls for and promotes. We need all of these together, plus a solid ethical foundation rooted in democratic values.
It may seem that the advantage of platform monopolies is insurmountable and that ethical values have so far been left by the wayside. However, with new EU regulations, the emergence of an open search index and new search engine concepts entering the market, there is now an opportunity to embed human-centred values in internet search.
We say ‘ethics by design’ is needed – ethical standards should be built in from the start. The #ethicsinsearch project aims to provide an ethical foundation and framework for research and discussion of ethical issues in internet search.
What exactly is #ethicsinsearch about?
Together with experts and researchers from academia, organisations and civil society, we want to develop a value-based approach to internet search. We want to ask questions, identify ethical hot spots, develop concrete solutions and initiate their implementation.
As part of the #ethicsinsearch project, we want to identify relevant ethical questions such as Which ethical values are relevant for internet searches? Which ethical questions and conflicts of goals can be identified? At which interfaces can and must ethics intervene in internet research? Which ethical problems can be solved by open search approaches? Who may benefit and how? Who owns the data? How do we get the values into the open search index? Where are the “no go’s” – the non-negotiable ethical principles that define what must not be done with search engines?
Based on this, we will develop recommendations for the use and operation of search engines and for the development of an open web index.
Another digital ethics project? Is it really necessary?
And now the ethics of web search? We say yes. We are delighted that digital ethics has made it onto the agenda. However:
… The ethics of Internet searches usually play no role there. It is often forgotten that internet searches are also algorithm-based, and that they have long been operating unhindered and unchecked against many European basic values. That democratic values, which are researched and propagated at great expense elsewhere, are trampled underfoot in Internet searches. It is also high time that the subject was put on the agenda of ethics researchers and experts.
… Ethicists are in the minority in many digital commissions. Instead, they are often dominated by industry representatives and lobbyists.* We are sure that a diverse #ethicsinsearch community can do this better.
In principle, #ethicsinsearch does not necessarily want to “invent” new ethical standards, but rather translate and apply existing ethical principles for internet research. It can be assumed that the ethics of Internet research sometimes requires specific questions and answers. These need to be explored. And specific solutions must be found for them.
*For example, the High-Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence (HLEG AI), the group of experts that drew up the ethical guidelines for dealing with artificial intelligence for the EU, consisted of four ethicists and 48 non-ethicists. Most of the non-ethicists were industry representatives.
US market leader Google is the biggest lobbyist in Brussels, spending €5.75 million a year on lobbying, followed by Facebook (€5.5 million) and Microsoft (€5.25 million).
Can I get involved?
Yes, researchers and practitioners from different fields can join the Open Search Foundation’s six working groups, including the Ethics Working Group. Together with experts from science, business and civil society, we want to develop ethical framework conditions for web search. Important aspects are the stimulation of research projects around #ethicsinsearch, the publication of expert contributions and the stimulation of a public discussion.
Topics could be, for example:
Ethics including digital ethics, data ethics, ethics of KI …
Philosophy/sociology (of technology)
Digital humanities, humanistic digital innovations
Theology
Pedagogy
Digital corporate responsibility
Technology Impact Assessment
Technological Sustainability
Algorithmic Bias
Digital public services
…
To get in contact, please send an email to ethics@opensearchfoundation.org
A project of the Open Search Foundation e.V.
