Online giants grapple with ethics on dark side of data
HIGH on leaders’ global agenda is the competitive value of data.
The 2018 Global Leadership Trends highlight the influence that data and analytics have on the human side of business and how they impact on inclusivity, agility and fairness.
These trends are calling for a conscious and intentional leadership response to manage them ethically and responsibly.
For business, big data is an attractive tool to focus resources and define the customer experience.
As a customer, it feels good to know that Amazon understands you, that your insurance company remembers your birthday and your hotel knows you like a soft pillow.
The dark side of data, however, raises issues of ethics, privacy and the need to anticipate both the value and risks related to big data.
Two recent incidents highlight the importance of ethical and pro-active leadership decision-making. The use of Facebook data by Cambridge Analytica in the American presidential race – which gave rise to the #DeleteFacebook movement – and the discovery of links to child pornography on the Bitcoin blockchain.
There is an ongoing tension between access to and protection of data.
The tension is between open-source access that encourages collaboration, balanced by the growing realisation that this openness is vulnerable to abuse.
Because the big data environment takes everything to scale – errors of judgment, words carelessly spoken and your right to privacy are placed under the spotlight.
The knee-jerk response of leadership is to regulate.
I would propose that the response is to educate.
If you are getting something for free – then you are the product.
Inbound marketing is based on the principle of providing free value-added content in exchange for data.
If you are having fun with a Facebook quiz, searching on Google, checking-in to your favourite restaurant, purchasing a product online, uploading an image or making a comment, you are contributing data to the online environment over which you have little control.
Encourage individual responsibility for online privacy and presence.
Do you actually read those terms and conditions?
Knowing that we cannot proceed without them, we click “accept” and move on.
The default settings of any platform will always favour the provider of the service – it is up to each individual to ensure that their privacy settings reflect their level of openness and comfort.
Establish clear policies and ethical frameworks that have the agility to move with technology.
The technological landscape is an emerging and complex-adaptive system.
As a result, regulation and policy frameworks tend to lag behind.
Therefore, the online environment tends to regulate itself through campaigns like #DeleteFacebook.
While this may have popular appeal, it does not speak to the root of the problem.
The report on the Bitcoin blockchain highlights the potential legal implications of simply being associated with unsavoury data as well as the fact that, for every well-meaning initiative, there will always be those who seek to exploit the system.
I am watching with interest as the giants of online data grapple with these issues – how they communicate in times of crisis and how they will resolve the growing privacy concerns.
The question is, can we learn from their mistakes and create a healthy online environment for all our stakeholders?