"Nothing Says I Can't...": How Ethics and Legislation Lag Behind Emerging Technologies

Christopher Wylie, whistle blower in Cambridge Analytica Scandal

In 2005, Google launched it's now ubiquitous web tool Google Analytics which is used to keep track of how visitors use websites all over the world. Since then many sites including social networking companies have been founded which collect and keep user data for the purpose of analyzing demographics, and to sell ads and user data. Regulation of this practice had been minimal aslegislators had seen little direct public consequence of these practices, and public opinion had been largely apathetic. However, thirteen years after the inception of Google's software, the Cambridge Analytica scandal came to light, and later that same year, legislation was passed in California which would allow citizens to see and remove data from their digital footprint.

New ethical and moral quandaries seem to arise from data collection at greater frequencies every day. According to James H. Moor, a philosopher who specializes in new technologies, despite the internet and the power it provides being a "sub-revolution" of the greater computer revolution, in his 2006 paper Why we need better ethics for emerging technologies he states: "As technological revolutions increase their social impact, ethical problems increase." So could scandals such as that of Cambridge Analytica and other data related scandals past, present, and future be averted? According to Moor, with preemptive understanding of the implications of new technology, it's possible.

Facial recognition software is another budding technology with potentially harmful ethical ramifications.

The internet and its data are largely immaterial, yet other technologies may one day have more direct and dire consequences if they are misused. In his paper Moor discusses areas of research such as genetic technology, nanotechnology, and neurotechnology, which he believes could someday have the same impact on our lives as the internet does now. Given the potential ethical ramifications of their implementation, should the vision provided by this research be fully realized, we should at least begin the discussions of "what if..?" today.

Some might argue such discussion would slow down the progress of cutting edge technologies, an example of how bureaucracy interferes with free enterprise and creates needless red tape. Considering how far behind governance and public opinion lag behind the visionaries who see the potential of emerging tech and are able to bring their products to bear before the rest of the world truly understands what may be happening, a compromise may need to be reached as we attempt to maintain the delicate balance between what is ethical and what is progress.