IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2023 - 109

object to sharing their location with authorities due
to privacy concerns. However, most people do not
object to sharing their whereabouts in emergency
situations to receive assistance and be rescued.
Given the role of context in data impact, this article
proposes a context-based approach to assess the
societal consequences of data using the five good
society values proposed by Brey [6]. We discuss five
contexts (technological, cultural, legal, political,
and situational) and then provide examples to illustrate
each context and its societal consequences.
Data and good society
Before discussing the role of data toward a good
society, it is instructive to understand the values
instrumental for the realization of a good society. A
good society is a society in which opportunities for
development and prosperity exist for its members,
individuals do not hesitate to ask difficult questions,
where they lead and participate in critical conversations
about what is important, what is valued,
what works and what does not, and where citizens
contribute freely, with integrity and responsibly, to
its construction [3]. In fact, the United Nations has
proposed 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs)
that are designed to achieve a good society including
no poverty, good health and well-being, and
sustainable cities and communities [8]. Recently,
Cowls et al. [9] have advocated using these SDGs to
evaluate the societal impact of data.
Brey's [6] framework for a good society consists
of five key values: well-being, justice, freedom,
democracy, and sustainability. Brey [6] emphasizes
that the impact of technology must be assessed considering
these five values of a good society. That is,
a technology promoting some or all these values
carries positive societal consequences, whereas if
it violates the principles enshrined in one or more
of these values, then the technology is considered
to have negative societal impacts. Brey [6] further
notes that technology shapes society by influencing
the way people behave, the social roles people play,
how relations and institutions are constructed, and
the way culture manifests itself. The argument for
this symbiotic relationship between technology and
societal values and how these values tend to change
over time is further supported by Coeckelbergh [10].
Data is like a double-edged sword-on the positive
side, novel applications of data have the potential
to provide substantial societal benefits and thus
September 2023
contribute toward forming a good society. Positive
societal consequences of data include searching
for treatments and cures for diseases, anticipating
epidemics and diseases, and organizing large-scale
humanitarian aid. On the negative side, there are
data applications that harm societies. Many of these
applications are intentionally designed for nefarious
purposes (e.g., ransomware, hacking, and spyware),
while others unintentionally end up causing societal
harm (e.g., algorithmic biases in employee recruitment,
organ matching, and so on). An algorithm that
is meant to intentionally endanger a person or organization,
threatens to harm property, violates privacy,
or causes personal or collective harm clearly has a
negative impact on society. However, even those
algorithms that are meant to help can have negative
societal consequences. Algorithms trained using
past data carry forward the inherent biases that exist
in datasets resulting in what is referred to as algorithmic
bias [11]. For example, biases have been found
in facial recognition algorithms that discriminate
against dark-skinned individuals, and in recidivism
risk-assessment algorithms that single out minorities.
Table 1 (see the Appendix in the Supplementary
Material) provides examples of positive and negative
impacts of data applications on each of the five
good society values that were identified by Brey [6].
We utilize Brey's [6] framework as it clearly delineates
the values of a good society, and it has been
specifically designed to assess the impact of technology
on society.
As discussed, data applications have the potential
to either positively or negatively impact good
society values. However, the context in which the
data is used must be considered when assessing the
societal impacts of data [6], [7]. A data application
in a specific context may have a positive societal
consequence and yet in another context the same
application can have a negative societal impact. As
an example, drones (and the data that they generate
and use) may be used for making deliveries, searching
for missing persons, and assessing property
damage-all of which have positive impacts. However,
in a different context, the same technology may
be used for surveillance-violating personal space
and privacy, or for warfare, which are detrimental
to the realization of a good society. Thus, the context
lens through which we examine the purpose for
which data and algorithms are employed is essential
for determining whether a specific use has positive
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IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2023

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