The quantity of digital data becoming available for analyses is growing exponentially. At the same time ever better techniques are available to draw sensible conclusions from all those data. In this way data science can contribute to better healthcare, more efficient companies and governments, and new scientific insights. However, there are great concerns about privacy breaches, and fear of algorithms which determine on the basis of obscure criteria whether you can get a mortgage loan or can come for a job interview.

Those objections are understandable and not unjustified, says Wil van der Aalst, scientific director of the Data Science Center Eindhoven. Moreover, the negligent or unethical application of data science constitutes a threat to his own area of expertise as well, he explains. “There is a risk that people who suffer negative experiences will turn against the use of data, which may lead to a kind of general prohibition of acting on the basis of data. On the basis of facts, then. That would be disastrous.” With some apocalyptic exaggeration, the term ‘Data Science Winter’ is occasionally used in that context.

With some apocalyptic exaggeration, people speak of a ‘Data Science Winter’

Within Europe you can already perceive a trend towards restrictive legislation, says the computer scientist. That makes it all the more important to tackle the potential drawbacks of data science in a positive manner, as Van der Aalst explains, so as to prevent rejecting the good with the bad.