This course delves into social and legal issues surrounding data analysis, including issues of privacy and data ownership. It equips students with an understanding of the human and social structures, formations, and practices that shape data science activity (such as data collection and analysis, data stewardship and governance, work to ensure privacy and security, deployment of data in societal or organizational settings, decision-making with data, engagements of data with justice, practices of data ethics) and to allow them to gain experience and practice with modes of critical thinking, reflection, and engagement with these experiences and the choices involved. This course provides students access to structured forms of academic inquiry in the humanities, social sciences, or related professional fields and engage them in some form of reflective inquiry, writing, analysis, project work, or practice that surfaces questions of individual or societal choices and supports making reasoned ethical choices in complex situations.

Note: To pass the course, apart from obtaining a minimum of 40% in the overall mark, a student must also obtain a minimum mark of 30% in both continuous assessment and examination components.