Whether we like it or not the world is transforming itself into a technological revolution or the more popular term “disruption.” While it brings tremendous benefits, technology does not only have a “Jekyll” side but, unfortunately, a “Hyde” part of it, too.
This is a period of the Fourth Industrial Revolution – a result of the advances in information technology (IT) such as artificial intelligence, robotics, Internet of Things (IoT), 3D printing, genetic engineering quantum computing, optical character recognition and other advancements in technologies. It makes life easier and processes seem to be a million times faster than these used to be.
Homes, workplaces, society and the whole world are transformed and the general lifestyles are revolutionized. With the pandemic, the disruption was further hastened.
I once wrote in the “Black and White Book of Ethics” of the Financial Executives of the Philippines (Finex) a subject on “Humanizing Technology and Digitizing Humanity.” It seems that in our excitement to explore the many advancement, companies often forget the need to set up ethical standards not only for those given the responsibility to manage our IT departments and/or units but the whole company as well in the proper use of technology.
We have a Code of Ethics for CPAs, doctors, lawyers—and I understand there is now a code of ethics, too, for IT professionals. For the accountancy, the medical and legal profession, for instance, we should also incorporate in our Code of Ethics standards (to be observed by company officers and staff) with regards to the use of IT tools, systems and procedures including confidentiality and privacy issues. Some organizations had already incorporated these but there is still a lot of room for improvement and some businesses are sorely lacking in this area.
The technology disruption can be likened to a “Jekyll-and-Hyde” syndrome. “Jekyll” is the good guy but he has a twin side that is bad called “Hyde.” Many fraud cases on information technology had been perpetrated sometimes because of the lack of ethical standards to guide the people in a company. There also times that no matter how many ethical standards and guidelines there are, if the values of the people that should abide by these codes of ethics are to be desired, the bad, or the “Hyde,” side of the technology disruption will always be perpetrated. Let us be careful then in choosing people to work for us.
The ethical standards for technology adoption or transformation should be defined at the start and not when an issue already arises. We should be proactive and not be a “firefighter” or one who only seeks a solution when already faced with the problem. The “Jekyll” side is indeed exciting with companies becoming more agile and smarter and efficient. But let us not forget to set up preventive measures before “Hyde” looms its head. Otherwise, we will be facing not only financial risk but reputational risk.
For big companies with more complex IT application—this is needed. But it should not be an excuse for the small and medium enterprises to take ethical technology standards for granted. Every business will be forced to join the bandwagon of digital transformation sooner or later, or they will be left out. And before problems start to pop out, these SMEs should have, at the start of the technology transformation, resources or policies to guide their employees on what to do when confronted with ethical technology concerns.
In 2019 for example, the Identity Theft Resource Center’s “2019 Breach Report” showed that the highest form of breach of data is hacking in the form of phishing, ransomware, malware and skimming. The second-highest form is unauthorized access and the third is employees’ error or negligence thereby exposing data or resulting in lost data.
If everybody in the organization knows beforehand how to fend off or avoid such different forms of breach of data, they will likely have a more informed basis of their decisions when confronted with such technology challenges. Employees and even officers can also unknowingly expose data through social media.
As technology moves at a fast speed quicker than our mind can comprehend, the ethical issues and the challenges that go with the progress are also getting more complicated. It is much the same way as Jekyll and Hyde. Wherever Jekyll goes, Hyde is there. Jekyll is moving fast in terms of providing benefits to businesses but Hyde is also moving at the same if not at a faster pace to perpetrate harm.
Let us be vigilant—technology is here to stay – let us maximize the good that Jekyll brings and fend off if not totally avoid Hyde so we will not be caught by surprise.
Wilma Miranda is the chairman of Finex’s media affairs committee, managing partner of Inventor, Miranda & Associates, CPAs, member of the board of directors of the KPS Outsourcing Inc. and treasurer of Negros Outsourcing Services Inc. The views expressed by Miranda herein do not necessarily reflect the opinion of these institutions or the BusinessMirror.