This year the world has experienced unprecedented levels of global change and disruption as we adapt and respond to the current COVID-19 pandemic. Since the beginning of this global health crisis, data and advanced digital technologies have played a central role to how we respond and adapt to the virus. As a result, ethical principles such as trust, transparency, agency, accountability, and privacy have been put to the test on a global stage.

Through a series of keynote presentations and panel breakout sessions this year’s Summit will reflect on the significant challenges we’ve faced this year and discuss the role and impact of the digital ethics debate. The Summit will examine what we can learn from what has happened, including identifying best practice examples of how companies have adapted to the pandemic, discussing where digital ethics has been a help or a hinderance, and asking how we build a digitally-enabled economic and societal future that is ethical, responsible and inclusive to all of society.

The rapid acceleration in digital transformation and adoption of advanced digital technologies has already raised questions about whether the benefits of digital transformation are being felt equally by everyone in society or whether the pandemic is exacerbating a digital divide that already existed within society. At the same time, we have witnessed a seismic shift in the conversation about systemic racism and discrimination due to events in the US and here in the UK.

During the Summit in December we will confront the serious ethical issues of fairness and collective responsibility associated with tackling our global climate emergency, to ensure our post-COVID recovery is right for society and the planet.

None of these issues are UK-specific and to find the right solutions we must learn from international approaches to the ethics discussion in 2020 to form a coordinated, global response. The next decade will be defined by how we respond to the economic, social and environmental challenges we face today and the way in which digital technologies are adopted and used as we move forward into an unknown future.