Ethical Considerations When Using Technology

Technology plays a greater role in our lives than ever before. 

We are more dependent on technology in both our professional and personal lives and have adopted a plethora of tech-based solutions to benefit us, whether that’s to make us more efficient, more informed, more educated or to simply entertained, and more.

In addition, the surge in AI is ever-enhancing the capabilities of modern tech, making it more user-friendly, more immersive, and more addictive, creating tech-ecosystems that become embedded in our everyday lives.

While this offers many benefits to the user, there are many pitfalls to be aware of for developers when creating such systems. 

This is a vast area, which needs more than a brief blog to cover, and so we’ve focussed on some of the very topical areas to consider. 

Here are five key areas:

1) Privacy, Cybersecurity and Data Protection 

Gartner predicted that 45% of businesses will be affected by a supply chain related data breach by 2025. Protecting systems and users from such breaches has to factor high in priorities, especially as the risks and penalties of breaches can be severe.

Storing, sharing and saving of information has to be highly secure and expertly managed.

2) Fairness, Equity and Accessibility

Technology should be designed to support the range of users anticipated to interact with it.

Taking measures to help ensure the tech operates in a way that enables ease of access, prevents discrimination and supports inclusion must feature early in design stages. 

Systems need to provide a fair way for all users to use the tech, regardless of physical ability, age, socio-status, race, gender religion and more. 

3) Misinformation and Deep Fakes

In this age of AI, images, audio and video can all be harnessed to create fake media that very smartly mimics the real thing. While this does apply to the first point above, it is an emerging business risk and very real problem that can permeate many applications.

4) Sustainability

Using resources efficiently will help to ensure the impact on the environment is minimised. Energy use, resource deployment, waste control and efficient processes all contribute to this end.  Tech can also play a role in helping to reduce the carbon footprint.

5) Compliance

Current legal requirements along with any criteria relevant to quality standards and general best practice all apply here when it comes to compliance. Staying ahead and compliant can help to prevent any problems in time.

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