Young, Smith, Zheng / Call Me BIG PAPA
Journal of the Midwest Association for Information Systems | Vol. 2020, Issue 2, July 2020 17
Journal of the Midwest Association for Information Systems
Volume2020
|
Issue 2 Article 3
Date: 07-31-2020
Call Me BIG PAPA: An Extension of Mason’s
Information Ethics Framework to Big Data
Jacob A. Young
Bradley University, jayoung@fsmail.bradley.edu
Tyler J. Smith
Bradley University, tjsmith3@fsmail.bradley.edu
Shawn H. Zheng
Bradley University, hzheng@fsmail.bradley.edu
Abstract
In 1986, Richard Mason proposed the PAPA framework to address four ethical issues society would likely face in the
information age: privacy, accuracy, property, and accessibility. In this paper, we propose an extension to the PAPA
framework by appending three additional issues relevant to information ethics in the big data era. First, we outline the four
components of Mason’s original PAPA. Second, we briefly review the major technological changes that have occurred since
Mason proposed his framework. Third, we outline concepts relevant to the big data context. Fourth, we propose and discuss
our extension by appending three ethical issues related to behavioral surveillance, interpretation, and governance to Mason’s
original PAPA framework, forming BIG PAPA. Lastly, we discuss how these issues impact practice and how they can
inform future research.
Keywords: big data, ethics, privacy, security
DOI: 10.17705/3jmwa.000059
Copyright © 2020 by Jacob A. Young, Tyler J. Smith, and Shawn H. Zheng