Big data, algorithms and whole person education – the ethical challenges of privacy issues on using iBeacon Technology in higher education in Hong Kong

New technologies are increasingly interwoven with higher education by offering various opportunities to enhance teaching and learning experience. These new technologies, however, also challenge important ethical concepts, especially privacy. In the current generation of the concept of “Bring Your Own Device,” the iBeacon Technology can be embedded into different existing physical learning spaces (e.g., lecture rooms or libraries) with e-activities through the iBeacon transmitters and the companion mobile application developed for both Android and iOS systems such that students can become active explorers, not passive receivers, to access the e-materials. Yet this technology is also related to some ethical issues, such as the privacy of students and Big-data collection. By discussing some views on privacy from different philosophers, we examine how these contents contribute to the relationship between the ethics of technologies and whole person education. There are two directions about the relationship between the ethics of technologies and whole person education: the ethics of the application of technologies in teaching, and making technologies as a subject for the themes in whole person education courses. Both of these directions can be examined further by discussing the ethical challenges, especially the privacy issue, of iBeacon technology in the education context.