CAP Professional Ethics & Standards 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A client provides a CAP analyst with a dataset containing customer records that include personal identifiers not needed for the analysis. Best ethical practice is to:
- Keep all fields in case they become useful later
- Minimize the data by removing or de-identifying fields unnecessary to the analytical purpose (Correct answer)
- Sell the identifiers to a data broker since the client transferred the data
- Store the identifiers in a personal backup for portfolio purposes
Correct answer: Minimize the data by removing or de-identifying fields unnecessary to the analytical purpose
Data minimization and de-identification limit privacy risk by ensuring only data necessary for the stated purpose is retained and used.
Question 2: A CAP professional is pressured by a manager to present a model's 70% accuracy as 'over 90% reliable' in a sales pitch. Complying would primarily violate which ethical principle?
- Confidentiality of client data
- Truthfulness and avoidance of misrepresentation of results (Correct answer)
- Fair competition among vendors
- Continuing professional education requirements
Correct answer: Truthfulness and avoidance of misrepresentation of results
Overstating model performance misrepresents analytical results, breaching the core duty of honesty in professional claims.
Question 3: After completing an engagement, a CAP analyst wants to publish a conference case study using the client's project details. Ethically, the analyst must first:
- Publish freely since the work is finished
- Obtain the client's consent and anonymize proprietary or confidential details as agreed (Correct answer)
- Wait one year, after which confidentiality automatically expires
- Change the client's industry in the write-up and publish without asking
Correct answer: Obtain the client's consent and anonymize proprietary or confidential details as agreed
Confidentiality obligations survive the engagement, so publication requires client consent and appropriate anonymization.
Question 4: A government agency hires a CAP analyst whose model will determine benefit eligibility. Which practice best supports accountability for this high-stakes model?
- Keeping the methodology secret to prevent gaming of the system
- Documenting the methodology, enabling audits, and providing a mechanism to contest decisions (Correct answer)
- Automating decisions fully so no human judgment introduces bias
- Updating the model silently whenever performance drifts
Correct answer: Documenting the methodology, enabling audits, and providing a mechanism to contest decisions
High-stakes automated decisions demand documentation, auditability, and recourse mechanisms so affected individuals can challenge outcomes.
Question 5: A CAP analyst inherits a legacy model with no documentation and is asked to certify its outputs for regulatory reporting. The ethical course of action is to:
- Certify the outputs since the model has run for years without complaints
- Refuse to certify until the model is validated and its methodology is understood and documented (Correct answer)
- Certify the outputs but add a private disclaimer in personal notes
- Delete the model and rebuild it without informing management
Correct answer: Refuse to certify until the model is validated and its methodology is understood and documented
Certifying results without understanding or validating the underlying model would misrepresent professional assurance the analyst cannot honestly give.
Question 6: During vendor selection, a software supplier offers a CAP analyst free conference travel while the analyst is evaluating that vendor's product. The analyst should:
- Accept the gift since travel is a common industry courtesy
- Decline or disclose the offer per organizational policy because it creates a conflict of interest (Correct answer)
- Accept but promise themselves it will not affect the evaluation
- Accept and score the vendor slightly lower to compensate
Correct answer: Decline or disclose the offer per organizational policy because it creates a conflict of interest
Gifts from parties affected by an analyst's professional judgment create conflicts of interest that must be declined or disclosed under applicable policy.
Question 7: A CAP analyst realizes a client intends to use a churn model's outputs to target vulnerable elderly customers with deceptive retention offers. The analyst's ethical duty is to:
- Proceed, since how the client uses outputs is not the analyst's concern
- Raise the concern about harmful use, and decline to support the deceptive application if it is not resolved (Correct answer)
- Sabotage the model's accuracy so the targeting fails
- Anonymously warn the customers directly
Correct answer: Raise the concern about harmful use, and decline to support the deceptive application if it is not resolved
Practitioners share responsibility for foreseeable harmful uses of their work and should object to and withdraw from applications that harm the public.
CAP Professional Ethics & Standards 3
A client provides a CAP analyst with a dataset containing customer records that include personal identifiers not needed for the analysis.
Best ethical practice is to: