Does Anyone Trust This?

The Moral Code of Tech Companies

A Reflection on the Trust Consumers have on Tech Companies Self-Regulating Their Behavior

We have recently witnessed a big controversy in respect to privacy issues in some very relevant tech companies and it's clear that the issues that are arising need to be tended more harshly than they have been so far. 

Since the beginning of the technological revolution, it was commonly accepted, specially by the internet scientists, that it would be best if the Government would stay out of such issues, which, considering the times, is understandable.

At first, the internet had a relevant military importance and the absolute control of such a mechanism by a government could have caused substantial changes in the world.

However, the internet is not unsupervised. We have a number of authorities, from ICANN all the way through IEFTF, that have as a sole purpose the regulation of certain aspects of the internet as we know it. But these private actors control the operational aspects that are a consequence of the existence of the internet. 

In no way, through this article, we mean to criticize the existence of such institutions, or even the work that they do. It's apparent that is because these institutions exist that we are able to adequately use this means of communication.

The issues that are being raised here go deeper than the inner workings of the internet as mechanism, they are about the claim, by these companies, of a moral superiority in respect to the protection of user rights, specially privacy consumer rights. 

This assertion seemed to please consumers, in general, up until the moment they realized that the virtuous atitude of these companies, towards such mission, was a hoax.

Let's take a look at two simple examples that should lead us to conclude that these tech companies are unfit to protect consumer rights, in particular, consumer privacy rights. 

• The US Government asked a Court for the assistance of a tech company in accessing a mobile device for investigative purposes. That company refused to help the investigation. The US Government withdrew the request after US Federal investigating agency, that was in charge of the investigation, was able to access the content on the mobile phone on its own. 

• A big social network company had a security system breach that exposed the private information of millions of its users.

At this time we should start asking a simple question: is the claim - that such companies follow praiseworthy conduct and are committed to protecting consumer rights - enough? 

And if we give a negative response to the previous question another one arises: should we really start pondering Government interference? 

The intervention of the Government in any matter that concerns the internet is very controversial, so we must tread lightly.

We do not wish to say, with this essay, that there should be Government regulation, meaning, we don't think the Government should, necessarily, establish rules on how these companies - that hold large amounts of user data - should ensure that there are no information breaches. 

It would be foolish not to recognize that the due to the fact that technology is constantly evolving, regulations of such kind would become obsolete in no time.

We believe these companies should be held responsible for arrogation of the protection of consumer privacy rights - which they already did voluntarily and that ended up creating the perception that the information that is shared is protected.

We must bare in mind - when considering this self-imposed mission of protecting private information - that some of these companies even advertised that safety and security of the users data was there biggest concern.

Since these tech companies pride themselves on being beacons of freedom and sources of protection of consumers, one possible - and might we say logical - solution to ensure that these companies live up to the role that they imposed on themselves, is creating a system of liability for infringement of privacy rights.

From recent experiences we have learned that the only way to make these companies bow down is to administer heavy fines for infringements.

If the involvement of big money is the incentive that is needed to ensure that consumer rights are protected, then maybe such a solution should be adopted by the EU and the US, and maybe then  these companies will most likely step up immensely their security systems in order to avoid Government fining and meddling. 

Will the threat of big fines be enough to ensure that these tech companies can actually be trusted with users private information?

Francisco Maia Cerqueira