Ethical Dilemmas in Data Mining and Warehousing

Information has become a commodity, moving from place to place with little thought given to the ultimate value provided to consumers, business, and society. With advanced innovations in e-business, data warehousing, and data mining, it is becoming increasingly important to look at the impact of information use on individuals. This free flow of information within an organization and between different organizations can be both an asset and liability for consumers, businesses, and society. As we have increasing privacy and risk concerns in the world today with identity theft, questionable marketing, data mining, and profiling, it is becoming increasingly important to explore how consumers feel and react to the use of their data. This study makes an important contribution to the literature by presenting common positive and negative myths surrounding these issues and exploring how ethical or unethical consumers believe these practices are by looking at the myths and their reaction to them. We focus on consumers’ perceptions because at the end of the day it is what the consumers perceive to be happing that will determine their reaction. An ethical data practice is one that is believed to increase consumer, business, or societal value, and an unethical data practice is one which causes harm to these groups. bACKGROUND