Big data analytics and social mining raises a number of ethical issues, especially as companies begin monetizing their data externally for purposes different from those for which the data was initially collected. The scale and ease with which analytics can be conducted today completely changes the ethical framework. We can now do things that were impossible a few years ago, and existing ethical and legal frameworks cannot prescribe what we should do. Data scientists, data engineers, database administrators and anyone involved in handling big data should have a voice in the ethical discussion about the way data is used. Moreover Artificial Intelligence is becoming a disruptive technology and resources for innovation are currently dominated by giant tech companies. To ensure European independence and leadership, we must invest wisely by bundling, connecting and opening our AI resources having in mind ethical priorities such as transparency and fairness.