Where do you draw the line on TC vs ethics
Mar 5, 2019
24 Comments
For example,
If you were one of the Microsoft Hololens team and found out your company just won a US military contract to “enhance lethality” with what you created, would you consider leaving?
comments
I would leave Facebook if I worked there after seeing all of the underhanded sneaky ways they have been harvesting and misusing customer data. They aren’t serving a greater good, only their own interests.
In any case it was a question about where I’d draw the line personally and that’s it for me regarding the FANG(m?) companies.
Maybe I could make more working at Facebook but I wouldn’t be happy about it.
The point is, it’s extremely difficult to explain to the layperson how technology works, just as it’s difficult to simplify legal terms without creating loopholes.
The data collection done at FB isn’t particularly unique - it’s really how we’ve used our army of data folks to fuel our growth using it. I would agree that it fundamentally feels creepy for us to monetize people’s behaviors and preferences.
But I can confidently say I’m not aware of any instance between myself or colleagues where we’ve been instructed to outright misuse data. Most of our scandals are a result of short-term thinking focused on growth instead of platform integrity.
Flagged by the community.
le·thal·i-ty
the capacity to cause death or serious harm or damage.
Nice buzzword. Maybe I should put it on a T-shirt.
If you are safe in the US, then probably not!