Ethical challenges in collecting and analysing biometric data

Abstract

This paper is a theoretical discussion of the technical, ethical, legal and social implications of the biotechnological (e.g., using AI and robotics) to neuroscience research and neuroethics. In particular, reflection will be made on the responsible use of neurotechnological devices directed to the consumer as well as on the advanced machine learning and brain imaging techniques which involve the recording, testing and analysis of biometric data. According to recent theories, the architecture of our brains determines our social behaviour and our inclusive moral dispositions, influencing the type of society we create, and vice versa. (cf., Damasio, 2017). It is now accepted that both reason and emotion influence moral judgment, as the degree of automaticity in decision-making process (analytic vs. heuristic) influence human choices and actions (cf. Greene et al., 2001; Ferreira et al., 2016). Thus, ethical challenges in collecting and analysing biometric data involve the discussion of the benefits of working with this type of data, but also, of the risks involved in their uses and applications. Such risks display levels of vulnerability related to the privacy of the mental and physical states of the users (as some technologies are used directly by consumers), and raise questions of whether biometric data has suitable treatment, as well as on the existence of legislative frameworks against which their uses can be displayed. To what extent is risk management capacity – considering risk as a constitutive condition of modernity (Beck, 1992) –, important to the implementation and results of programs when dealing with such a sensitive type of data, and what is the role of advance technologies and neuroscience research in this process? Questions of access and literacy, the use of technological tools in civil society, and regulatory issues on how to protect the privacy of biometric data collection and analysis will be addressed. The main contribution of such discussion is to point out how emergent changes caused by the biotechnological uses in society are affecting the formation of contemporary culture and humans as beings, for some of these objects can also be seen as technological extensions of the human body biological process.