Ethics and the governance of digital data in humanitarian action

Given limited legal and political oversight owing to the nature of humanitarian operations, the management of digital data by humanitarian organisations is largely governed through ethical self-regulation. In this paper I assess the perils and promises of such self-governance via an analysis of the IASC Operational Guidance on Data Responsibility in Humanitarian Action. By drawing on empirical literatures on the problems and practices that this guidance seeks to address, I argue that adopting its principles and procedures is no guarantee of ethical conduct. The reason is that interpretation of the principles is not agreed upon, and their practical implementation is constrained by conflicting commitments and the lacking capacity of organisations. On this basis, I consider the risk of ‘ethics washing’ resulting from failure to uphold ethical standards without acknowledging it. This leads to a discussion of whether ethical self-regulation should be replaced with more legal regulation and political control to avoid this danger.