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A great concern regarding the use of data science in any field is privacy. Adequately protecting individuals from the negative effects of maliciously shared personal identifying information is essential. It is however, also important to understand the positive role that protected and shared information can play. This chapter provides a basic understanding of how the concept of privacy has developed in the United States (US) and suggests that continued development of that understanding and the protections provided will occur.

This chapter provides an integrated overview of digital implementation in smart city ecosystems, focusing on the data ecosystem, the data value chain, and the digital implementation in smart cities. It acknowledges the opportunities and challenges presented by the growth of big data and its impact on delivering public services and coordinating local ecosystems in smart cities. This chapter introduces the concept of a smart city data ecosystem and explores the implementation of digital solutions, highlighting the role of local management and internal and external providers. It examines the digitalization of processes and services, technological infrastructure, and social media in the context of the smart city, emphasizing the interaction between local and national data ecosystems. This chapter incorporates interviews with smart city managers, policymakers, and technicians involved in the digital development process, offering valuable insights into the practical implementation and usage of data management within smart cities and the potential impact on urban development.

Purpose: Blockchain technology has exploded in popularity in the social economy over the years. Because blockchain technology offers so many advantages, it was first employed for Bitcoin transactions. The interaction between blockchain technology and financial industries will grow more personal and interwoven with the introduction of Bitcoin. As the value of blockchain technology became evident, more financial companies began to test its use in monetary operations. Numerous financial companies have been experimenting with blockchain technology to reduce the transactional costs and to improve the efficiency of operations, specifically in the domain of financial notes, cross-border payments, and asset-backed securitisation. Blockchain will have a broad range of applications in the financial industry shortly.

Methodology: Through financial tools and methods, trust may result in successful businesses. In the long term, blockchain technology is generally a significant source of the finance industry revolution. It allows you to create immutable transaction histories available to everyone on the network. A blockchain system consists of a sequence of blocks connected by a connection to the block before each block. Each block comprises more than one transaction representing changes in the ownership of assets on the ledger. A consensus procedure is employed to add new blocks to the existing chain, in which members of the public blockchain confirm that transactions are accurate.

Findings: Blockchain technology is still in its infancy. The challenges of sustainability, privacy, secrecy, and latency, among others, have surfaced. Financial markets must get a deeper grasp of Blockchain to provide trustworthy alternatives.

Significance: The book chapter highlights the architecture, protocols, and applications of Blockchain Technology. The chapter will also enlighten the readers about the challenges and solutions of Blockchain Technology in the Financial Market. Moreover, the chapter also discusses the future research scope of Blockchain Technology in the Financial Market.

This chapter reflects on the use of interviews as a method of data collection with children and presents an innovative tool to encourage children and youth to express their views and opinions about different areas of their life, especially their experiences in foster care. The innovative tool presented is a gamified interview called ‘Play&Talk: The Magic Cards of Foster Care’. The interview progresses through three levels based on the complexity of the topic to be discussed, and the children or young people decide which topics to discuss and in what order to discuss them. Seventeen children in nonkinship foster care participated for the first time in the Play&Talk interviews in a research context. Based on this experience, this chapter discusses ethical issues relevant to promoting children's expression and fully realising their right to be heard and express their opinions. The age of the children (6–11 and 12–17 years old) was considered in design and data collection. It conditioned how children received the research information, how they completed informed consent, the use of language, the selection of questions and feedback regarding the results. In addition, the chapter discusses how to involve children and youth in research and their relationship with researchers. This research tool is an example of how to offer children a more participatory role in research interviews and illustrates the importance of age-appropriate designs.

This study explores how the national artificial intelligence (AI) strategies and policies in four sub-Saharan African countries – Mauritius, South Africa, Ghana and Gabon – influence the adoption of AI in journalism. In the journalistic world, AI have been mainly used for news gathering, production and distribution. Irrespective of the prospects, the pervasive nature of AI brings with it a host of challenges concerning privacy, gender, and ethnic bias. Despite its relevance to journalism, the challenges associated with using AI necessitate the need for policy frameworks that guide the development and usage of these technologies. At a global level, UNESCO has established a normative framework which lays out principles and standards regarding how member states formulate policies that ensures ethical and healthy development of AI. Using document analysis and the technological determinism theory, the study investigated how the national AI policies and strategies of these countries is impacting journalism and highlights the challenges to the adoption of the technology in the field. In lieu of the AI-specific laws, the countries seem to loosely rely on their data protection acts to govern aspects of AI use involving automated decision making. Mauritius was found to be the only country in the study with a set national AI strategy.

The attempt to establish a common European framework for core platforms' duties and responsibilities toward other actors in the digital environment is at the core of the recent scholarly debate surrounding the Digital Markets Act (DMA) proposal. In particular, the everlasting juxtaposition between the “data power” – as emerging from recent cases (Section 2) – that dominant tech companies enjoy and the concept of consumer sovereignty (Section 3) lies at the core of the proposal's attempt to identify digital core platforms as market gatekeepers. Accordingly, this chapter critically investigates the divide between power imbalance and consumer sovereignty in light of the architecture designed by the DMA, with a specific focus on its effectiveness in identifying gatekeepers' power drivers (Section 4). After highlighting the main critical aspects of the pertinent rules, opportunities for fruitful developments are then identified through the reframing of some of the notions considered in the proposal, and namely the role of “lock-in” effects and “data accumulation” (Section 5). Lastly, this chapter suggests that the DMA advancements – while desirable – are bound to be fragmentary in the absence of a wider appraisal of the nature of data power imbalance dynamics in the modern digital markets (Section 6).

The management of consumer privacy has become a critical concern for organizations in the age of artificial intelligence–powered marketing. The impact of data on the market environment has brought both benefits and challenges, with marketers gaining valuable insights but also raising privacy concerns. As artificial intelligence–powered marketing advances, consumer vulnerability increases due to the sensitivity of collected data. This vulnerability leads some consumers to resort to falsifying information, posing a significant threat to the digital economy. Privacy empowerment and customer control play a vital role in addressing these challenges. This chapter explores the influencing factors and ethical considerations surrounding data falsification. It also discusses strategies to mitigate perceived vulnerability through privacy controls and explores the consequences of data breaches and customer vulnerability. The chapter further emphasizes the need for organizations to balance benefits, risks, and customer trust while harnessing the value of customer data. An ethical framework for data privacy marketing audits is proposed to help organizations assess their data practices responsibly and competitively. By integrating personal data protection strategies within an ethical framework, organizations can protect consumer privacy, enhance customer trust, and maintain their competitive edge in the market.

The study focusses on the legal issues surrounding artificial intelligence (AI), which are being investigated and debated about several European Union initiatives to manage and regulate Information and Communication Technologies. The goal is to discuss the benefits and drawbacks of adopting AI technology and the ramifications for the articulations of law and politics in democratic constitutional countries. Thus, the study aims to identify socio-legal concerns and possible solutions to protect individuals’ interests. The exploratory study is based on statutes, rules, and committee reports. The study has used news pieces, reports issued by organisations and legal websites. The study revealed computer security vulnerabilities, unfairness, bias and discrimination, and legal personhood and intellectual property issues. Issues with privacy and data protection, liability for harm, and lack of accountability will all be discussed. The vulnerability framework is utilised in this chapter to strengthen comprehension of key areas of concern and to motivate risk and impact mitigation solutions to safeguard human welfare. Given the importance of AI’s effects on weak individuals and groups as well as their legal rights, this chapter contributes to the discourse, which is essential. The chapter advances the conversation while appreciating the legal work done in AI and the fact that this sector needs constant review and flexibility. As AI technology advances, new legal challenges, vulnerabilities, and implications for data privacy will inevitably arise, necessitating increased monitoring and research.