Ethical issue: use of inaccurate or incomplete data

Name:

Date:

Class:

Quick Questions

Shade in the A or B circle for each question.

1. A council plans new bus routes using a survey that only asked people who already use buses. What is the main ethical problem?

A The data is too large, so the council must delete half of the responses

B The data is incomplete because non-bus users are missing, so the conclusions give an unfair picture

2. True or false: Using out-of-date records is only a technical problem and has no ethical impact on people.

A False

B True

3. A school uses last year's enrolment list to decide how many lockers to order. Many new students joined this year. Which data issue is this?

A Outdated records

B Missing encryption

4. Which action best reduces the ethical risk of using inaccurate or incomplete data?

A Check that the data is current and includes all relevant groups before making decisions

B Use the first dataset you find because it is quick and free

5. A health app is tested only on young adults, then used to give advice to people of all ages. What is the likely outcome?

A The advice will be accurate for everyone because the app uses a lot of data

B Advice may be wrong or harmful for groups missing from the data, such as older people

Match the Pairs

Draw a line connecting each item on the left to its match on the right.

Left column		Right column
1Missing groups		AThe records are outdated, so the decision may not match where people live now and could disadvantage current residents.
2Outdated records		BDecision based on faulty data
3A decision based on faulty data can harm a person, for example a loan refused because of a wrong credit record		CThe survey leaves out other year levels (missing groups), so the conclusion about all students is unfair and unsupported.
4Data that leaves out part of the population gives an unfair picture of the group being studied		DInformation that was correct once but has not been updated, such as an old address or a past enrolment, so decisions made from it can be wrong
5A school surveys only Year 12 students, then says 'all students want a later start time'.		EA dataset leaves out some people, such as a survey that never asks students who are away, so the results give an unfair picture of everyone
6A council uses 2005 population records to decide where to build a new library in 2025.		FIncomplete data

Definitions

Inaccurate or incomplete data

Fill in the Blanks

Complete each line of code by filling in the missing parts.

=__________(B2:B100)

=IF(_______(C2),"Missing","OK")

=IF(_____()-D2>365,"Outdated","Current")

=IF(COUNTIF(E:E,"Year 12")=_,"Missing","OK")

IF income = "" ____ DISPLAY "Data missing" END IF

Spot the Error

Shade in the letter of the line that contains an error.

Question 1

A ages = [15, None, 17]

B missing = 0

C for age in ages:

D if age is not None:

E missing += 1

F print("Missing:", missing)

Question 2

A record_year = 2019

B now = 2025

C gap = record_year - now

D if gap > 3:

E print("Outdated data")

Question 3

A surveyed = ['A', 'B']

B for g in surveyed:

C if g not in surveyed:

D print('No data:', g)

Question 4

A data_year = 2015

B if data_year > 2020:

C print("Update data first")

D else:

E print("Data is current")

Question 5

A records_checked == 0

B for r in [3, None, 5]:

C if r is None:

D print("Missing value")

E records_checked += 1

Answer Key

Ethical issue: use of inaccurate or incomplete data

Section A: Quick Questions

B — The data is incomplete because non-bus users are missing, so the conclusions give an unfair picture

A — False

A — Outdated records

A — Check that the data is current and includes all relevant groups before making decisions

B — Advice may be wrong or harmful for groups missing from the data, such as older people

Section B: Match the Pairs

Missing groups → A dataset leaves out some people, such as a survey that never asks students who are away, so the results give an unfair picture of everyone

Outdated records → Information that was correct once but has not been updated, such as an old address or a past enrolment, so decisions made from it can be wrong

A decision based on faulty data can harm a person, for example a loan refused because of a wrong credit record → Decision based on faulty data

Data that leaves out part of the population gives an unfair picture of the group being studied → Incomplete data

A school surveys only Year 12 students, then says 'all students want a later start time'. → The survey leaves out other year levels (missing groups), so the conclusion about all students is unfair and unsupported.

A council uses 2005 population records to decide where to build a new library in 2025. → The records are outdated, so the decision may not match where people live now and could disadvantage current residents.

Section C: Definitions

Inaccurate or incomplete data — Wrong, missing or out-of-date data can lead to false conclusions that harm people or give an unfair picture, such as leaving out groups or using old records.

Section D: Fill in the Blanks

=COUNTBLANK(B2:B100)

=IF(ISBLANK(C2),"Missing","OK")

=IF(TODAY()-D2>365,"Outdated","Current")

=IF(COUNTIF(E:E,"Year 12")=0,"Missing","OK")

IF income = "" THEN
  DISPLAY "Data missing"
END IF

Section E: Spot the Error

D — The loop should count records with a missing age, so the test must be 'age is None'. 'is not None' counts the complete records and hides how much data is missing.

C — The age of the data is the current year minus the record year (now - record_year). Reversing it gives -6, so old records would never be flagged as outdated.

B — The loop must check every group in the population. Looping over only the surveyed groups means the missing group 'C' is never found.

B — Data from before 2020 is the old data that needs updating, so the test should be '<'. With '>' the old records would be treated as current and used for decisions.

A — A single = is needed to assign the starting value. '==' only compares, so records_checked is never created and the program crashes.