Towards an ethical recommendation framework

Abstract

The goal of our study is to provide a holistic view on various ethical challenges that complicate the design and use of recommender systems (RS). Our findings materialize into an ethical recommendation framework, which maps RS development stages to the corresponding ethical concerns, and further down to known solutions and the proposed user-adjustable controls. The need for such a framework is dictated by the apparent lack of research in this particular direction and the severity of consequences stemming from the neglect of the code of ethics in recommendations. The framework aims to aid RS practitioners in staying ethically alert while taking morally charged design decisions. At the same time, it would give users the desired control over the sensitive moral aspects of recommendations via the proposed “ethical toolbox”. The idea is embraced by the participants of our feasibility study.