AMERICAN POLITICS - Employees vs Bosses on Ethics

"Ethics, Politics Pit Tech Employees Against Their Bosses" by Scharon Harding, Tom's Hardware 6/19/2018

How would you feel if you learned that your company was helping ICE make a database of immigrant children or building an autonomous killer drone for the Department of Defense?  Because of their controversial relationships with the U.S. government, big tech companies such as Microsoft, Google and Amazon are in hot water, not only with consumers but with their own employees.

A blog post by Microsoft from January has become a hot topic of discussion this week.  The post announces that Microsoft is "proud to support" work conducted by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after the government agency awarded Microsoft a contract for its Azure cloud computing services.

Meanwhile, Amazon is facing criticism for selling its Rekognition face recognition technology to law enforcement in Orlando, Florida and Oregon’s Washington County.

And in March, Google was outed for working with the Department of Defense (DoD) to create artificial intelligence (AI) that can analyze drone [eye in the sky] footage.

While companies and their employees usually celebrate big deals, both political tensions and a lack of transparency has led many workers at these tech giants to demand these contracts be thrown in the trash.

Outrage, Boycotts and Apologies

ICE has been drawing a lot of negative attention, due to its policy of separating undocumented or asylum-seeking families.  This week, numerous Microsoft workers took to social media to share their discomfort with Microsoft working with ICE.  And some people who work outside the company have gone as far as to say they will no longer do business with Microsoft.

As a result, the company was forced to release a statement on Monday stating that it’s not working with ICE or Border Patrol “on any projects related to separating children from their families at the border” and claimed it doesn’t know of Azure being used for such acts.  It added that it’s “dismayed by the forcible separation of children from their families at the border”.

In Amazon’s case, the accuracy of facial recognition in general is creating concern.  On Friday, 19 shareholders sent a letter to CEO Jeff Bezos.  Backed by activist groups like the American Civil Liberties Union, the group claims such deals with the government will hurt Amazon stock and enable discrimination.

The group cites MIT research finding that “the darker the skin, the more errors arise – up to nearly 35 percent for images of darker skinned women.”

"We are concerned the technology would be used to unfairly and disproportionately target and surveil people of color, immigrants and civil society organizations.  We are concerned sales may be expanded to foreign governments, including authoritarian regimes,” the letter says.

Andrew Guthrie Ferguson, University of District Columbia law professor and author of The Rise of Big Data Policing, told CNNMoney this week that there are currently no best practices for determining facial recognition’s accuracy.

"Accuracy is a hard issue to benchmark.  As a society, are we okay with a 50 percent false positive rate, or a 20 percent false positive rate, when it comes to stops, arrests, or police investigation?  The answer to the accuracy question will determine who gets handcuffed and who does not,” he said.  Amazon has yet to respond publicly.

On Google’s end, news that the company had signed an AI deal with the DoD’s Project Maven hit employees hard after going out on an internal mailing list.  DoD’s Project Maven, officially named the Algorithmic Warfare Cross-Functional team, aims to accelerate the DoD’s integration of big data and machine learning and “turn the enormous volume of data available to DoD into actionable intelligence and insights at speed,” the DoD says.  Project Maven reports directly to the Deputy Secretary of Defense.

While Google at the time told Gizmodo that its technology was not being used for military combat, employees were still “concerned” and “outraged,” Gizmodo reported in April.

Come May, about 12 employees resigned from Google, and almost 4,000 signed a petition calling for the end of Project Maven and for Google and its contractors to never “build warfare technology.”

What’s the Point?

But can employees really affect tech companies’ interest in obtaining lucrative government contracts that provide both big bucks and the opportunity to lock down a new market?

Amazon has not commented on its situation and, though Microsoft has made a statement saying that it isn't helping to separate families, it has not terminated its deal with the feds.

Google, on the other hand, announced that it would not renew its contract with the government when it expires in 2019.

In an op-ed for Forbes, Enrique Dans, an innovation professor at Spain’s IE Business School, argues that employees should speak their minds if they feel their company’s practices contradict “basic ethics.”  He states that is particularly doable in the tech field since the industry’s growing so rapidly and workers should be able to find employment elsewhere if needed.  However, he also points out that in other industries, countries with higher unemployment rates, or countries where it’s more common for business and government to work together, challenging an employer’s ethics can be more difficult.

“Can we and should we put a price on our principles?  Is having a conscience the unique preserve of the wealthy and highly skilled?  Obviously not, and it is good news that some employees at U.S. companies are setting a precedent.  If companies are not going to behave ethically of their own volition, at least we can count on their employees to embarrass them into doing so,” Dans wrote.

Indeed, employees can at least draw attention to practices they find unethical via social media and petitions, which are often picked up by the press and could put pressure on companies to reconsider.  It’s reasonable that some tech firms would reconsider a deal if the bad publicity is that damaging, although as we’ve seen this is not always the case, at least not immediately.

At the end of the day, tech executives who are adamant about working for the government may just leave the tech industry and commit to the public sector wholeheartedly.  For example, Eric Shmidt, former CEO and board of directors chairman for Google, and Matt Cutts, former head of Google’s search spam department, both work for the Pentagon now (although they left Google before the Project Maven controversy).

But, as information about how and with whom tech companies choose to work becomes more accessible and widespread, ethical discussions go nationwide thanks to the internet and the press and political landscapes continue to be controversial, it can become harder to wear that badge knowing what it represents.

If employees cannot truly get their company to reasonably align practices with beliefs they hold dear, it may be time to consider if the issue is important enough to warrant a new job search.

MAKING SEN$E - The New Wealth of Nations

"Why the new global wealth of educated women spurs backlash" PBS NewsHour 5/31/2018

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  The spread of education across developing nations is transforming global inequalities and playing a key role in closing the gender gap.  Economics correspondent Paul Solman sits down with economist Surjit Bhalla, and sociologist Ravinder Kaur, to discuss Bhalla’s book, “The New Wealth of Nations,” as well as the backlash to increasing equality.

Paul Solman (NewsHour):  And the cost?  What’s the cost?

Surjit Bhalla, author:  The cost is that people in the West are going to lose out relative to the people in the East, the East meaning the rest of the world, the West meaning the advanced countries.

What happens, when the world is filled with everybody graduating from high school, then the Western people will lose their advantage over the rest of the world.

SCHOOL SHOOTINGS - The Students & Guns In Schools

THE STUDENTS:

"‘We do have a right to go to school and not fear for our lives,’ say Florida shooting survivors" PBS NewsHour 2/19/2018

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SUMMARY:  Last week’s school shooting has given rise into a new campaign for action on guns.  Two students from the Florida high school, Suzanna Barna and Lewis Mizen, discuss the aftermath of the shooting and the change they hope to drive in state and national gun laws.

"Staging walkouts and rallies, students and family members implore lawmakers to end gun bloodshed" PBS NewsHour 2/21/2018

#NeverAgain

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SUMMARY:  As dozens of survivors from the Florida school shooting lobbied the Republican-led Florida legislature for tougher gun control, thousands across the country heeded a call to walk out of classes, massing at Florida’s state capitol, as well as the U.S. Capitol and White House, where President Trump held a listening session with shooting survivors and family members.  William Brangham reports.

"These students are fed up with going to school scared for their lives" PBS NewsHour 2/21/2018

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SUMMARY:  Student-led rallies in support of gun control are picking up momentum in Florida and around the country, in part born out of anger over the easy availability of assault-style weapons.  Judy Woodruff gets perspectives from Camille Richter and Jake Bennett, two Virginia high school students who took part in a walkout from their schools.

"For kids who survived the Florida shooting, the next assault is from online conspiracy theorists" PBS NewsHour 2/21/2018

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SUMMARY:  The immediate response to the school shooting in Florida was a national wave of prayers, condolences and political outrage.  Then came a different flood, allegations and conspiracy theories about the students now calling for gun reform.  Right-wing outlets and online trolls are promoting the false theory that the Parkland teens are actually paid actors or even FBI “plants.”  Hari Sreenivasan reports.

"Scottish town devastated by gun violence has advice for America: Say ‘no more’" PBS NewsHour 2/21/2018

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SUMMARY:  For the Scottish town of Dunblane, one deadly shooting massacre was enough.  After 16 children and a teacher were murdered in 1996, Britain outlawed hand-gun ownership.  After years of watching deadly shootings in the U.S. with little change in American attitudes toward gun control, some in Dunblane feel inspired by students in Parkland, Florida.  Special correspondent Malcolm Brabant reports.

GUNS IN SCHOOLS:
#StandAgainstNRA

"If we arm teachers, ‘we have accepted… that school shootings will not stop,’ says Detroit teacher" PBS NewsHour 2/21/2018

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SUMMARY:  After last week's mass shooting at a Florida school, "students are scared," gasping even at the sound of the normal school announcement system going off, says Mike Conrad, a teacher at a high school outside Detroit.  Conrad joins Judy Woodruff to discuss the importance of making school a safe environment and why he's opposed to arming teachers.

"NRA backs Trump’s call for arming teachers: ‘Schools must be the most hardened targets’" PBS NewsHour 2/22/2018

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SUMMARY:  The CEO of the NRA gave a full-bore defense of gun rights at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday, calling for weapons in schools in response to a mass shooting in Florida last week.  Meanwhile, Republicans in that state like Sen. Marco Rubio face new pressure in the gun control debate, as evidenced by a tense televised town hall on Wednesday night.  William Brangham reports.

"Students who support gun rights say schools safer when ‘good guys’ are armed" PBS NewsHour 2/22/2018

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SUMMARY:  Judy Woodruff talks with Maddison Westcott, a Rio Salado College student, and Ian Parish, a Liberty University student, about various restrictions and other gun control measures being raised, as well the prospect of arming teachers.

"New Florida gun control proposals make notable break with NRA" PBS NewsHour 2/23/2018

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SUMMARY:  President Trump at CPAC again insisted that arming teachers would help stop mass shootings, despite disapproval of many education groups, and repeated his call to keep seriously mentally ill people from buying guns.  But in Florida, Republican Gov. Rick Scott broke with the President and the NRA in announcing new gun control proposals for his state.  William Brangham reports.

DOMESTIC TERRORISM - Tech Company Backlash

"Tech companies shut down white nationalist sites" PBS NewsHour 8/19/2017

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SUMMARY:  Events in Charlottesville last week prompted the tech community to take steps against hate speech.  Companies like Google have stopped hosting white nationalist websites, and Facebook and Twitter have shut down known white nationalists' accounts.  Cindy Cohn of the Electronic Frontier Foundation warns that the tactics used to silence neo-Nazis online could be used against others in the future.