Availability, Limitations, Ethics and Societal Impact Statement
Availability
- Data will remain private and will only be shared with mentees, mentors, mentor program staff, and the eMentoring system in order to protect user privacy.
- Data is collected using the Mural API. (Accessible)
- Mentee’s Mural boards are set to restricted access.
- Data collected via the Mural API is stored on the mentoring program's internal servers.
Portability
- Individual data has a distinct ID with metadata descriptions that include user names and date/time stamps. (Findable)
- Exported Mural data are linked with provenance information. (Reusable)
- Mural data can be exported in JSON, PDF, and CSV formats or transformed to HTML. (Interoperable)
Limitations
- We rely on primary data that is user-generated.
- Potential risks of misuse of data such as linking the wrong keywords to irrelevant mentorship topics.
- Misinterpretation of mentee’s responses by the NLP tool.
- The current API relies on ChatGPT and it's limitations.
- Users may input inappropriate or hard-to-read information.
- Users who are minors may not have complete control over their private information.
- Parents may have a right to request or control how their child's information is used.
- If the mentee places a sticky note in-between category frames, the CSV export would not be able to identify its area (topic).
- The current API cannot record call session history.
Ethics
Our statements of ethics are based on Ethics of Open Data.
3 Types of Ethical Questions
- Virtue ethics: What action best exemplifies a high moral character?
- Consequential (or Teleological) ethics: What action best achieves desired consequences?
- Non-Consequential (or Deontological) ethics: What action best adheres to established rules?
Virtue
- The safety and wellbeing of mentees are our primary concern.
- Mentee data will have restricted access to protect their privacy.
- Mentees are informed about and have control over the use of their personal data.
- Inclusivity and diversity are prioritized in data collection and use.
Consequential
- The main purpose of collecting mentee data and responses is to support the mentoring relationship.
- The sharing of data will mutually benefit mentee and mentors with more efficient mentoring sessions.
- Third parties are restricted from accessing mentee and mentor communication data to minimize harm and increase trust.
Deontological
- Working with minors who are 13+ years old: Exempt from Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA)
- Requirements to collect data for reporting to state agencies such as the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI), grant funding agencies, and partner schools.
- Some information may be subject to Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) laws in partnering with educational institutions.
Societal Impact
Positive Impact
- Increase the engagement in mentoring relationships by reducing the burden of finding resources.
- Diversity of prompts, responses, and mentoring processes for different age groups to provide more personalized recommendations.
Negative Impact
- Misinterpretation of collected information based on stereotypes about mentees based on demographics.
- Ex: Age, race, gender, etc.
- Risk for perpetuating stereotypes if personal data is combined with outside data that is biased to make recommendations.
- Ex: Using Mural board information to recommend a career using datasets that perpetuate stereotypes in careers.