I'm working on a #TechPolicy paper for a class and I wanted to share a thought that I had about power dynamics in the context of technology specifically in the context of working at FAANG companies.
At large companies (or even smaller ones or non-profits), you have access to large swaths of information about personal details of people's lives. The sensitivity of that information would be something you would treat with caution were it disclosed by your friend or relative. In the times that I've worked in #privacy positions at companies, this can result in an institutional desensitization about the important nature of the #data they collect on users in a way where we may make decisions or express desires to glean insights that border on sociopathic. The manufactured mundaneness of highly sensitive interactions can potentially dull the organizational conscience and make it easier to rationalize the use of data for increasingly invasive or alarming cases.
Consider the sensitivity of smart home cameras collecting video information in a person's home, or a chat conversation about the state of someone's mental health. As an individual, you recognize how important that data is to you. We're tempted to feel that someone receiving that data would want to be cautious with it. However, organizations are receiving hundreds or thousands of these interactions and work with them in an increasingly de-emotionalized context. This raises the questions within those organizations of what they could do with such personal information in the name of bettering the organization or aligning their personal incentives for promotion or career betterment in ways that would shock the ordinary conscience. It further results in a form of groupthink that makes it difficult to counter coming from an outsider's perspective particularly if you provided this information and expected a dynamic like trusting your friend with your car.
The visualization of these power scales is often removed by the promise of frictionless interactions that move the user to quickly share such personal details of themselves with the organization. As professionals in the technology space, we have a duty and responsibility to ensure that the data we're provided with is treated in a way that deserves the trust that users give us. That means sometimes saying no to things that would benefit us for the sake of decency.
At large companies (or even smaller ones or non-profits), you have access to large swaths of information about personal details of people's lives. The sensitivity of that information would be something you would treat with caution were it disclosed by your friend or relative. In the times that I've worked in #privacy positions at companies, this can result in an institutional desensitization about the important nature of the #data they collect on users in a way where we may make decisions or express desires to glean insights that border on sociopathic. The manufactured mundaneness of highly sensitive interactions can potentially dull the organizational conscience and make it easier to rationalize the use of data for increasingly invasive or alarming cases.
Consider the sensitivity of smart home cameras collecting video information in a person's home, or a chat conversation about the state of someone's mental health. As an individual, you recognize how important that data is to you. We're tempted to feel that someone receiving that data would want to be cautious with it. However, organizations are receiving hundreds or thousands of these interactions and work with them in an increasingly de-emotionalized context. This raises the questions within those organizations of what they could do with such personal information in the name of bettering the organization or aligning their personal incentives for promotion or career betterment in ways that would shock the ordinary conscience. It further results in a form of groupthink that makes it difficult to counter coming from an outsider's perspective particularly if you provided this information and expected a dynamic like trusting your friend with your car.
The visualization of these power scales is often removed by the promise of frictionless interactions that move the user to quickly share such personal details of themselves with the organization. As professionals in the technology space, we have a duty and responsibility to ensure that the data we're provided with is treated in a way that deserves the trust that users give us. That means sometimes saying no to things that would benefit us for the sake of decency.