CEA Privacy & Data Ethics 5

Question 1

A company retains customer purchase data indefinitely 'just in case it is useful someday.' Which data ethics principle does this most directly violate?

Accepted Answer

Storage limitation

Answer

Storage limitation requires that personal data be kept only for as long as necessary for the stated purpose, after which it should be deleted or anonymized.

Question 2

Which ethical theory most strongly supports an absolute prohibition on collecting personal data without consent, regardless of beneficial outcomes?

Accepted Answer

Deontological ethics

Answer

Deontological ethics (associated with Kant) holds that certain actions — like violating consent — are inherently wrong regardless of their consequences or benefits.

Question 3

A whistleblower discloses to a journalist that their employer is secretly selling patient data to insurers. From an ethics standpoint, the whistleblower's action is best evaluated against which principle?

Accepted Answer

Prevention of harm to vulnerable individuals

Answer

Ethical whistleblowing is justified when exposing wrongdoing prevents significant harm to vulnerable third parties, outweighing the duty of organizational loyalty.

Question 4

What is 'differential privacy' as a technical approach to data ethics?

Accepted Answer

Adding calibrated statistical noise to datasets so individual data points cannot be identified

Answer

Differential privacy is a mathematical technique that adds carefully calibrated noise to query outputs so that individual records cannot be inferred while aggregate patterns remain useful.

Question 5

An organization's ethics policy prohibits sharing employee health data with managers. A manager pressures HR to share an employee's medical leave reason. The HR professional's ethically correct response is to:

Accepted Answer

Refuse and cite the policy and applicable privacy law protecting health information

Answer

Refusing to disclose protected health information upholds both the organization's ethics policy and legal protections such as HIPAA, regardless of internal pressure.

(CEA) Certified Ethics Associate Practice Test

(CEA) Certified Ethics Associate Practice Test

CEA Privacy & Data Ethics 5