Ethics by design is adding ethical choices and values to a design process as non-functional requirements, that then are turned into functional specifications.
E.g. when you want to count the size of a group of people by taking a picture of them, adding the value of safeguarding privacy into the requirements might mean the picture will be intentionally made grainy by a camera. A more grainy pic still allows you to count the number of people in the photo, but you never captured and stored their actual faces.
When it comes to data governance and machine learning Europe’s stance towards safeguarding civic rights and enlightenment values is a unique perspective to take in a geopolitical context. Data is a very valuable resource. In the US large corporations and intelligence services have created enormous data lakes, without much restraints, resulting in a tremendous power asymmetry, and an objectification of the individual. This is surveillance capitalism.
China, and others like Russia, have created or are creating large national data spaces in which the individual is made fully transparent and described by connecting most if not all data sources and make them accessible to government, and where resulting data patterns have direct consequences for citizens. This is data driven authoritarian rule.
Europe cannot compete with either of those two models, but can provide a competing perspective on data usage by creating a path of responsible innovation in which all data is as much combined and connected as elsewhere in the world, yet with values and ethical boundaries designed into its core. With the GDPR the EU is already setting a new de-facto global standard, and doing more along similar lines, not just in terms of regulations, but also in terms of infrastructure (Estonia’s X-road for instance) is the opportunity Europe has.
Some pointers:
My blogpost Ethics by Design
A naive exploration of ethics around networked agency.
A paper (PDF) on Value Sensitive Design
The French report For a Meaningful Artificial Intelligence (PDF), that drive France’s 1.5 billion investment in value based AI.