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From the research conducted, what was the conclusion about governance supporting data ethics? Is it sufficient and if not what is the role of digital twin developers to bridge the gap?
Governance is essential in data ethics. There are an array of varied data ethics considerations to Digital Twins, and governance and legislation will help navigate these considerations. To name a few, we need to think about the ethical considerations behind the data, the risk of bias, de-annoymisiation and upholding data minimisation and quality principles. However, taking a step back, there needs to be an element of education on data ethics to all stakeholders. We cannot rely entirely on governance and legislation for data ethics, as sometimes it is not adequate, demonstrated by the lack of protection by GDPR to protect against inferences drawn from data (compared to the California Consumer Privacy Act). Therefore, work needs to be done to improve foundational levels of literacy and understanding of data ethics for all stakeholders in digital twins, especially for digital twin developers. Once this has been established, as a collective we can then use a blend of governance, legislation, expertise and technologies such as Privacy Enhancing Technologies to uphold data ethics fundamentals.Â