Data Ethics vs Dollar Dollar Bills Y’all (from a computer science student that just found out about data ethics perspective)
A matter that is sooooo close to my heart and something that I think about all the time is ethics versus making money in computer science (what? I do think about that). In the article “Are Universities Training Socially Minded Programmers?” [1], published by The Atlantic, this matter is well-addressed by Vicki Niu, a computer science student from Stanford who also founded the CS + Social Good club there. Niu fully recognized the dilemma of joining the tech industry and working on data ethics [in computer science]. And at a big research school like Stanford, a school with tight connections, sometimes too tight, to tech giants like Facebook, Snapchat, Google, and many more, I think the matter is direr than ever. She pointed out that all her engineering peers wanted to work for brand-name tech giants, while she felt there was something there that was missing, not entirely fulfilling about joining a tech giant…
“It seemed like the holy grail in tech was to build a company like Snapchat” — Lawrence Lin Murata
“There was very little attention paid to nonprofits or other mission-driven companies… The classes were really good at teaching technical proficiency, but they often lived in an idyllic bubble. They didn’t talk about how to be a socially conscious engineer.” — Vicki Niu
Of course, as with Niu and her friends and as a kid that loves innovation and technology, it is my dream to be working for tech giants like Google, Facebook, or Snapchat (and many more). While this is a cliche, it is true in the world of Computer Science. In fact, Google is the company with the most applicants each year [2][3]. Here lies the problem, as one grows older and advances in the world of computer science, they realize that these tech giants are not all that ethical! Surprise, surprise, in the greatest anime betrayal of all time, your idols are criminals. Well, while these companies are not all THAT evil, I am sure that they have followed unethical practices before, to some extent. Again, ethics in tech is a matter that has most recently been brought to light (mostly because legislation regarding tech is a slug and tech itself is a Concorde), so it is not a surprise that big tech companies have started to try to “care” more about data ethics and whatnot. Imagine this, you spend all of your life thinking that your idol is the best person ever, then you grew up and realized that they do drugs (replace drugs with collecting user data, whattttt?) Of course, the analogy here is horrendous, but it is exactly how I feel regarding these big tech companies, and don’t even get me started on Amazon! Though I have to admit, Prime is pretty neat. Again, the dilemma presented itself, do I choose to love Amazon for Prime? Or hate it?… for everything else, basically.
The problem, then, lies in the question: Do I sell my soul to the devil for designer? Or do I try to become a data ethics hero, changing the tech conglomerates one-by-one? Alright, maybe it is not allllll that black and white, there is definitely a gray zone where making money working for tech giants while remaining ethical IS possible. While I do not know currently, how to find that gray zone, I believe it is there, somewhere between 0x000000 and 0xFFFFFF. And I am so sorry for that RGB joke.
Khoi Lam, a computer science student who just found out about data ethics.
References:
[1] Stolzoff, S., “Are Universities Training Socially Minded Programmers?”, The Atlantic, 2018. Link: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/07/socially-minded-programmers/563921/
[2] Barbagallo, J. “Google Retains Rank as World’s Most Reputable Employer in Reputation Institute’s 2019 Global Workplace 100 Study”, Bloomberg, 2019. Link: https://www.bloomberg.com/press-releases/2019-07-25/google-retains-rank-as-world-s-most-reputable-employer-in-reputation-institute-s-2019-global-workplace-100-study
[3] Maurer, R. “Despite Worker Complaints, Google Is Still World’s Most Reputable Employer”, The SHRM, 2019. Link: https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/talent-acquisition/pages/google-worlds-most-reputable-employer.aspx
