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Esther's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/esthertham/
In this episode, Scott interviewed Esther Tham, Experience Designer at Thoughtworks. Scott reached out to talk about data ethics based on a post Esther made on LinkedIn.
Some key takeaways/thoughts from Esther's point of view:
Esther started the conversation with her background of growing up in Singapore, one of the safest large cities in the world. But that kind of environment can also lull people into a false sense of security when transacting online. Even the government was not really thinking about misuse as birth certificates, passports, and national ID numbers were all the exact same number until 2006. And until 2016, companies could ask for your full national ID number and many people gave it out without a second thought to get access to services.
The Singapore government has pretty stringent requirements to only collect information for legitimate purposes and store it securely. The few incidents of people in their government accessing the private information of others has led to strong repercussions. Basically, it's not like many of the other countries out there with potentially strong laws but little to no enforcement. But when it comes to private companies, even in Singapore a number are still asking for a significant amount of data without giving clear justification or expected usage.
For Esther, creating a low friction user experience is a bit of a double-edged sword sometimes relative to ethical collection. Do you store someone's credit card information to make transacting easier next time? Do you try to collect as much information as possible to show them relevant ads? Let's be honest though, that second one is about selling ads not a 'better ad experience'… So, how do companies effectively balance how much information to collect in order to provide a great experience but not too much where you are getting things you don't need?
A fantastic point Esther brought up is that data ethics isn't only collection and usage, though that's often where we focus. Data protection, especially around sensitive information, is a major ethics challenge/question. If you can't protect the data, should you really be collecting it? If you are in possession of sensitive data, what level of duty do you have to protect it? Are you salting and hashing your passwords and other sensitive information?
Again, Esther believes we have to think about who is the burden on to protect information. If a company collects it, presumably the burden should be on them. But if people willingly give up very sensitive information to companies, what level of responsibility do we place on people to be informed and smart about giving their data away? Who is the 'shame on' for the second time something happens? How do consumers protect themselves from companies like the US credit bureaus that collect information without consent? Especially when they haven't been ethical in their level of data protection.
Another interesting point Esther raised is how do companies properly explain what data they will collect and how will they use it. Be honest, show of hands, how many actually read through most of the EULAs you agree to? Is that because they are insanely tedious or because we genuinely don't really care or have resigned ourselves to data being misused anyway? Is that just a friction point in the onboarding experience?
In Esther's view, most people seem to not really be all that concerned with the data they share until it seems it was used improperly, especially if a company sold their data to a partner or some scammer got ahold of it. And most don't expect a scam to happen to them. So consumers need a better way of understanding their information attack surface and to not give information as freely but that's mostly on companies to not ask for it. And if they can profit off it, can we really expect companies to stop asking? Is this a chicken and egg scenario where neither side is really going to move first?
If a company does really do a good job of disclosing potential risk of handing over data and exactly how they are going to use it, that presumably increases customer trust according to Esther. Unless people just don't want anyone to use their data but they are happier when they don't have to think about it. And then, for a company, is that increased trust worth the hassle or even the potential friction and scaring certain users? It might be the 'right' thing to do ethically, but how many companies are _really_ focused on acting ethically? So we aren't sure if this is a high cost for companies and we aren't really sure it leads to anything all that positive and we aren't sure consumers really care… so why would a company do it unless they have to or feel the need to act ethically? Are any companies brave enough to test it out?
Esther wrapped the conversation up with a call to action: understand that your data has value and consider if giving away your data is worth the value a company is providing you. And how could it be misused. That doesn't mean be paranoid but also, don't give out information quite as easily.
Data Mesh Radio is hosted by Scott Hirleman. If you want to connect with Scott, reach out to him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scotthirleman/
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All music used this episode was found on PixaBay and was created by (including slight edits by Scott Hirleman): Lesfm, MondayHopes, SergeQuadrado, ItsWatR, Lexin_Music, and/or nevesf