Project Dragonfly Is it possible for a company who's revenue comes from advertisements served to their users to operate ethically? I don't really believe so. The project dragonfly scandal at google in 2018 present a particularly agregious example of the failings of today's big tech companies to honestly reckon with the implications of extending their business model at a global scale. If the mere ability to exist in a market such as mainland china predicates a submission of basic ethical considerations, it seems a bit foolhardy to expect a company as large and profit-hungry as google will be willing to leave so many yuan on the table, just for the sake of ethics. It seems that the ultimate power in this situation comes down to the workers being willing to demand a higher level of ethical consideration from their corporations, as the shareholders clearly are not interested in having that conversation.
Will Democracy Survive Big Data? Reading this article, written in 2017, today in 2021 is an interesing experience. In some senses, I have regained a tiny bit of optimism for our systems of government since 2017. In a larger view, however, I still feel that many of the problems this article describes have worsened and continue to pose a major threat to the future of democratic ideals in this country, at least. The unforeseen consequences of many of these new technologies and techniques will likely end up being the most influential aspects of them. Most worrisome to me is the general intereia and scale of these changes - if twitter can become as big and influential in our national media dialogue as it has without facing literally any legislative regulation, what does that portend for the coming AI technologies which, frankly, make a text-message sharing app look elementary?
Skim: Software Engineering Code of Ethics
Project Dragonfly, Google’s censored search engine
Amazon workers demand Jeff Bezos cancel “Recognition” software
Microsoft Employees demand end of ICE contract
Ethical dilemma of self driving cars
Cyber-Security of self driving cars
Big Data is our Civil Rights issue