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This is how Facebook and tech companies should become more ethical

Is it possible to maintain business as usual, or is it time for ethics to be at least as important as profit? The report “Beyond Good Intentions” highlights the controversial forces at work.

According to a survey of technology professionals, 82 percent strongly agreed that their company is ethical. In the same survey, only 24 percent strongly agreed that the technology industry takes an ethical approach to the products and services it creates. According to another Deloitte survey of millennials and Generation Z, 70 percent of both groups believe that companies focus on their own affairs rather than their impact on society.

According to the report technology companies need to make these changes to improve their ethical position:

  • We need to change a long-established way of thinking that has historically been beneficial!
  • Trade-offs between efficiency and performance and a more ethical approach need to be discussed
  • Existing sources of revenue and the balance between strong ethical practices
  • The process of software development needs to change
  • More money and time needs to be invested in product development in order to understand the unintended consequences
  • New methods need to be developed to evaluate and improve project teams.

This list perfectly illustrates the many dilemmas that Facebook, for example, has to face when the results of internal research are made public, the legislators and they begin to understand the power and impact of social media platforms. The company needs to change the way it raises money to deal with a number of ethical allegations.

Paul Silverglate, vice president of Deloitte, co-wrote the report with Jessica Kosmowski, Hilary Horn and David Jarvis. According to Silverglate, it is possible to be both ethical and profitable as long as companies are willing to not only “Can?” But “Should?” also ask a question. He gave an example of a product that is potentially very profitable but can have a negative impact on a group of people. “Repairing a product would take time and money. Discussions at the earliest possible stage of the product development lifecycle and clear communication of the organization’s ethical principles can help everyone,” said the expert

Silverglate suggests that the first step is to defining the “ethical North Pole” to reduce the tension between business as usual and stronger ethics. The next step is to consider short- and long-term management and possible trade-offs between the two. Deloitte has identified these five areas where technology companies need to strike a better balance between ethics and existing business practices:

  1. Use of data : The minimum rules on data must be complied with or data must be collected, used and protected in a way that is more equitable for everyone.
    • Environmental sustainability : Meeting environmental standards or developing new methods for energy consumption, supply chain efficiency, industrial waste and water management in semiconductor manufacturing
    • Reliable artificial intelligence : Develop guidelines for the benefit of society and avoid problems of bias, fairness, transparency and clarity, and prioritize the introduction of products as soon as possible
    • The ig Threats to the environment : The problem of deepfake, disinformation and misinformation needs to be addressed and cooperation with governments is needed to clearly outline the responsibilities and standards needed for effective regulation.
    • Physical and mental health : We need to find out how the technology industry can better understand and measure

Silverglate said the industry was waiting for universal data protection standards to emerge. . He sees a greater market demand for data protection, as evidenced by the significant growth of the data protection technology industry. It recommends that companies take these steps to prepare for data regulations. “This includes the development of a data management framework, how to comply with current global regulations, strong data protection and cybersecurity practices, and a comprehensive, robust risk management capability,” he added.

The report is a summary of Techrepublic identifies the ethical issues that may arise at each stage of the business life cycle and suggests questions to be asked at each stage. These include defining corporate social responsibility at the beginning of the life cycle, measuring the ethical aspects of the supply chain during development and implementation, and rethinking what happens to products at the end of their life cycle.

According to Silverglate, ethical some of the issues are intellectually more challenging and some may be technically or operationally more difficult. “It’s much easier to talk and develop strategies than redesigning software or reshaping supply chains. That’s why a holistic approach is so important. We want to help the industry make ethical decisions more easily with a more structured approach,” he explained

The report recommends the following steps to develop a holistic approach to ethics in the technology industry:

  1. Integrating ethics into the business cycle.
  2. Investing in talents specializing in ethics
  3. Build and train ethical frameworks from above, below and across the organization
  4. The organization should be as ethical as possible and ethics should be disseminated as far as possible.
  5. Collaborate with partners and competitors to improve the industry.

According to Silverglate, this will hopefully encourage companies to build their measurement capabilities, define clear lines of responsibility and introduce behavioral changes.

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Sandra Loyd
Sandra Loyd
Sandra is the Reporter working for World Weekly News. She loves to learn about the latest news from all around the world and share it with our readers.

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