Ethics in the Workplace
The code I’m still ashamed of
Bill Sourour
I’m not sure that this article landed in quite the way that it was intended, but it was an interesting read nonetheless. The premise of the authors story is an experience he had in 2000 as a young coder for a marketing firm when he was tasked with creating a website for a medication that was later shown to have sever side effects. Much of his discomfort lay in the shape of the advertisement, which presented as a quiz but always led to recommending the clients product. While I agree that this is a highly problematic approach, I think I have trouble remembering just how innocent we all were of online marketing tactics when they were relatively new. These days, it seems the the assumption is that if it’s an online quiz it’s either going to try to sell you something immediately, or it’s data mining for future use, and to a degree there is responsibility on the consumer to take that information with a heaping pinch of salt.
In his final lines, the author points to other markets where coding is becoming increasingly involved, suh as medical diagnosis, vehicle design, etc. There is certainly a risk for high stakes behavior should one not act ethically while working in any of those arenas - but I feel like he has glossed over one of the major differences: at the time of his story, he was working specifically for a marketing firm. To the best of my understanding, marketing as an industry is first and foremost beholden to it’s clients…often to the detriment of consumers and the world at large, unless a firm specifically positions itself to only market ethical products. So I suppose my real take away - which isn’t new information, but is worth teasing out as we all proceed with the job hunt, is to consider what industries you want to be involved with on a macro scale before drilling down into which company seems like a good fit.
Ethics in Technology
Big Data is our Generation’s Civil Rights Issue, and We Don’t Know It
Alistair
The premise of this article - published in 2012 (which seems worth mentioning, considering how quickly technology evolves) - is that our relationship with data collection has changed in meaningful ways that we need to be aware of. Essentially, because the cost of gathering and storing data has gone down dramatically, entities are now able to access large amounts of data…which could be a boon, but also has the danger of being used in unexpected and unethical ways.
The article begins with what the author calls the three V’s of data: volume, variety & velocity. Similar to the old adage about work - Fast, Good, & Cheap…pick two - in this scenario the point was that while data was expensive, you could often get two of the three qualities listed but achieving a large and varied data base without significant lag was incredibly expensive. The hidden boon of those limitations, however, was thoughtfulness in what was gathered. When those limitations were lifted, data collection ramped up significantly, and often the ‘why’ was not considered until some time after the data was already in hand.
This article is a bit frustrating only it that it raises the flag without really suggesting what the next step may look like. I’d be curious to dig deeper re: what if any changes have occurred in the 8 years since this article was published around legislation. As the author points out, legislation around spam has never been very successful because it is so hard to enforce. However, it seems like one could make a case for requiring cause in situations where companies are penalizing consumers (such as the example given of a credit card company lowering a customers credit limit because they shopped at a location frequented by shoppers with less stable repayment histories). My thought is that extrapolations from data mining are not a valid reason to negatively impact individuals, and if it can be proven that that is what is happening, the punishment to the company should be severe enough to disincentive the practice from continuing. Realistically, though, I think it is very accurate to say that big data is not going away, so it is very much something we need to pay attention to and grapple with as we move forward.