Ethical Use of Urban Data

Every SPIN Unit project runs on social media, mobility, and behavioural data — which raises the obvious question of where the ethical lines are. Rather than treat this as a compliance afterthought, the team turned its own internal data-ethics practice into a paid workshop and talk for Strelka KB.

Delivered as a two-part paid workshop (a full-day review of past-project data practices and law, followed by a full-day hands-on project data audit) and an accompanying 78-slide talk, both for Strelka KB, the same Moscow consultancy SPIN Unit had worked with on several other engagements.

Built around a five-step ethics protocol SPIN Unit applies to its own work — rigorous method, public publication of findings, deliberately limited data collection, an internal ethics review before every project, and transparent funding sources — paired with practical GDPR guidance (consent, breach reporting, anonymisation limits) and real case studies drawn from SPIN Unit’s own past projects.

A thought-leadership piece as much as a delivered project — positioning SPIN Unit’s own data practices as a model worth teaching to other consultancies and clients.