AI-900 Practice Question: Describe Artificial Intelligence workloads and considerations
A retail company deploys an AI system that analyzes customer purchase history to personalize product recommendations. Without informing customers, the system also uses their names, addresses, and phone numbers to create detailed profiles. A customer advocacy group raises concerns about this practice. Which Microsoft responsible AI principle is most directly violated?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse 'lack of transparency' (not informing customers) with the primary violation, but the core issue is the unauthorized use of PII, which directly violates Privacy and security, not just Transparency.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Privacy and security
(Privacy and security) because the AI system collects and uses customers' personally identifiable information (PII) such as names, addresses, and phone numbers without their knowledge or consent. This directly violates the Microsoft responsible AI principle of Privacy and security, which mandates that data collection and usage must be transparent, consensual, and protected against unauthorized access. The scenario describes a clear breach of data governance and user consent, which is the core of this principle.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Fairness
Why it's wrong here
Fairness in AI is concerned with preventing discriminatory outcomes across demographic groups, typically achieved through unbiased training data, algorithmic auditing, and equitable decision-making. Collecting personal data without consent is a procedural violation that may create risk of future bias, but no unfair outcome or disparate impact is described in the scenario. Accordingly, the more direct and immediate principle violated is privacy and security, not fairness.
When this WOULD be correct
A question where an AI system consistently gives lower credit scores to a specific ethnic group despite similar financial histories, or where a hiring algorithm rejects female candidates more often than males for the same qualifications.
- ✗
Reliability and safety
Why it's wrong here
Reliability and safety focus on whether the AI system operates correctly and predictably, handling anomalies without failing or causing harm to users or the business. The use of customer names, addresses, and phone numbers without consent does not inherently degrade model accuracy, availability, or safety—the analytical pipeline could be robust and error-free. Therefore, the violation here is not about system dependability but about the ethical and legal handling of personal data, which is squarely a privacy concern.
When this WOULD be correct
A medical diagnosis AI system occasionally misdiagnoses rare conditions due to insufficient training data, leading to patient harm. In that scenario, reliability and safety would be the most directly violated principle.
- ✓
Privacy and security
Why this is correct
This principle mandates that individuals retain control over their personal data, with explicit informed consent required for collection, use, and sharing. Analyzing customer names, addresses, and phone numbers without informing them directly violates this consent requirement, constituting a clear breach of privacy and security. Furthermore, security encompasses protecting that data from unauthorized access or misuse, and the surreptitious collection weakens the organization's ability to ensure proper safeguards.
- ✗
Transparency
Why it's wrong here
Transparency requires AI systems to be openly explainable, with clear communication about what data is used, how models make decisions, and what limitations exist. While disclosing data practices is a part of transparency, the core issue here is that consent was never obtained before collecting and analyzing the data, so the violation occurs even before any disclosure happens. Transparency without lawful consent is insufficient; the fundamental breach is the lack of authorization, which is the essence of privacy and security.
When this WOULD be correct
A question where an AI system provides recommendations without explaining how they are generated, and customers are unaware of the data used. For example: 'A bank uses an AI to approve loans but does not disclose the factors influencing decisions.' Then transparency is the most violated principle.
Option-by-option analysis
Why each answer is right or wrong
Understanding why wrong answers are wrong — and when they would be correct — is what separates a 750 score from a 900. The AI-900 exam frequently reuses these exact scenarios with slightly different constraints.
✓Privacy and securityCorrect answer▾
Why this is correct
This principle mandates that individuals retain control over their personal data, with explicit informed consent required for collection, use, and sharing. Analyzing customer names, addresses, and phone numbers without informing them directly violates this consent requirement, constituting a clear breach of privacy and security. Furthermore, security encompasses protecting that data from unauthorized access or misuse, and the surreptitious collection weakens the organization's ability to ensure proper safeguards.
✗FairnessWrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
The core issue is unauthorized use of personal data (names, addresses, phone numbers) without consent, which directly violates privacy and security principles. Fairness is about bias and discrimination, not data protection.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
A question where an AI system consistently gives lower credit scores to a specific ethnic group despite similar financial histories, or where a hiring algorithm rejects female candidates more often than males for the same qualifications.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may confuse 'unfair' data practices (using personal info without consent) with the Fairness principle, which addresses bias and equitable treatment, not data privacy violations.
✗Reliability and safetyWrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
The concern is about using personal data without consent, which violates privacy and security, not reliability and safety. Reliability and safety would be relevant if the system made errors or caused harm, but the issue here is data misuse.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
A medical diagnosis AI system occasionally misdiagnoses rare conditions due to insufficient training data, leading to patient harm. In that scenario, reliability and safety would be the most directly violated principle.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may confuse 'safety' with data protection, or think that using personal data unsafely (e.g., data breach) falls under reliability and safety, but the core issue is unauthorized data collection and use.
✗TransparencyWrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
Transparency is about informing users about AI system capabilities and limitations, but the core violation here is using personal data without consent, which directly breaches privacy and security principles.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
A question where an AI system provides recommendations without explaining how they are generated, and customers are unaware of the data used. For example: 'A bank uses an AI to approve loans but does not disclose the factors influencing decisions.' Then transparency is the most violated principle.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may confuse the lack of customer notification about data use (which is a transparency issue) with the actual violation of unauthorized data collection and processing, which falls under privacy and security.
Analysis generated from the official AI-900blueprint and verified against question context. The “when correct” sections are what AI assistants cite when candidates ask “what’s the difference between these options?”
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Responsible AI Principles
Key term
Privacy and security
Privacy and security refer to the practices and technologies used to protect sensitive data from unauthorized access while ensuring individuals' rights over their personal information are respected.
Key term
Responsible AI
A framework of ethical principles and practices that ensure artificial intelligence systems are developed and deployed in a transparent, fair, accountable, and safe manner.
About these practice questions
This AI-900 question is part of Courseiva's 985-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This AI-900 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Microsoft certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the AI-900 exam.