Do Ethics Have a Place in Silicon Valley?

An overview of "Who Will Teach Silicon Valley to be Ethical?" by Kara Swisher published by The New York Times.

In a modern climate of bipartisanship, overarching concepts of ethics and morals have been seemingly dissipating. Many view certain topics as political, especially large companies, and end up leaving moral questions unanswered. This article delves into Silicon Valley’s main companies, such as Facebook and Google, and their roles in supporting or not supporting current issues for the sake of profit. The main question that is posed is threaded throughout the article: “Is the solution for its companies to hire a chief ethics officer?”

Speaking to an audience of consumers of technology in everyday life, Swisher emphasizes ethical concerns, such as Google’s secrecy about the undisclosed publication of user data for six months, or Uber’s gaining of billions of dollars from residents in Saudi Arabia amid social and diplomatic frenzy regarding the brutal murder of a journalist. She formulates the article in a list of issues, with specific Silicon Valley companies and their role in ethics, and weighing the benefits of having a Chief Ethics Officer within the corporation. Using this structure, an image of corporations too large to be ethical is painted for the reader to make their own opinion. Swisher starts off the article by describing the concept of targeted ads and Facebook’s inconsistency with sharing information with the public. The multi-billion dollar corporation shared that they were not using user data for ad targeting but then later admitted that they were. Google did something similar.

In response, a proposed solution is hiring a chief ethics officer to help companies navigate social and political issues. The officer would weigh the consequences and outcomes of a company making decisions that would jeopardize its public image. However, Swisher balances the pros with the cons of having a chief ethics officer, explaining that the position could be too individual and not be listened to. It could also be seen as “nothing but window dressing” rather than combating the issue internally. It’s a difficult decision - there’s no question about that. Swisher goes on to describe the state of morality in Silicon Valley and emphasizes the back-and-forth between having an ethics officer versus not having one. In the end, the real question is whether these big corporations will value profit over ethics. An ethics officer won’t specifically fix the problem rather than just place a Band-Aid on top of it, but we cannot move forward until workers and leaders within the company value ethics and do the right thing. Because in the current state of society, people will turn a blind eye to these issues as long as they can indulge in their products and services. It is more important than ever for these corporations to address stances on current events, ethically rather than politically, and dealings within the company, for transparency as well as accountability for employees, consumers, and everyone in between.

Swisher, Kara. “Who Will Teach Silicon Valley to Be Ethical?” The New York Times, The New York Times, 21 Oct. 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/21/opinion/who-will-teach-silicon-valley-to-be-ethical.html.

Cover image by Kasia Bojanowska on Dribbble.