Compliance Culture

Practical insights for compliance and ethics professionals and commentary on the intersection of compliance and culture.

Corporate takedowns: Theranos

This is the second post in a series of four posts about corporate takedowns.  Last week’s post was about American Apparel.  Today’s post is about Theranos.  The third post on April 17 is about Facebook, focused on the recent Cambridge Analytica data sharing revelations.  The fourth and final post, on April 24, will discuss Gawker.

For an in-depth discussion of the corporate history and culture of Theranos, check out this post.

A variety of business ethics and cultural practices contributed to the failures at Theranos both as an enterprise and in fraudulent representations made by its founder and CEO, Elizabeth Holmes, to investors and the public.

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Tension between innovation and regulation

Cutting-edge technology and competent supervision are often depicted as being at odds. Silicon Valley regards state and federal regulatory approaches with professional skepticism, reflecting the widespread sentiment that supervision is oppressive and stifling to creativity and design.  As the rationale goes, the ideas of futurists, technologists, designers, and engineers cannot develop freely amid the restrictions of legal and compliance controls.  By the same token, oversight attempts are presumed to be inadequately prepared for the task of keeping up with fast-paced technological advancements.

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Round-up on compliance issues with online platforms: Facebook

This is the second in a series of six posts on compliance issues with various online platforms.  Last week’s post was about YouTube.  Today’s post will be about Facebook.  Next week’s post will discuss Instagram.  The fourth post in the series, on March 29, will focus on Twitter.  The fifth post, on April 5, will be about Snapchat.  On April 12, the sixth and final post in the series will discuss Reddit.

The online social media site Facebook was created in 2004 and in the following years has become one of the most well-known online platforms. Facebook was originally created as a social networking service by and for Harvard University students and then expanded to the broader Ivy League and then general university community before opening up in 2006 to all users who meet the local minimum age requirement.  Since 2012, Facebook has been publicly-listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange.

Facebook’s rise to extreme popularity coincided with the disruptive innovations in Internet-enabled devices other than traditional computers, such as smartphones and tablets. Therefore as the site grew its user base it became an immersive and highly-engaging platform for people to share a wide variety of personal information, partake in social interactions, upload media such as photos or videos, and participate in community-based activities organized by profession, background, and interests.

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Round-up on compliance issues with online platforms: YouTube

This is the first in a series of six posts on compliance issues with various online platforms.  Today’s post is about YouTube.  Next Tuesday’s post will be about Facebook.  The third post in the series, on March 22, will discuss Instagram.  The fourth post in the series, on March 29, will focus on Twitter.  The fifth post, on April 5, will be about Snapchat.  On April 12, the sixth and final post in the series will discuss Reddit.

The video hosting and sharing service YouTube was created in 2005 and is now owned by Google. YouTube contains content from both individuals as well as media corporation partners.  This content is extremely diverse, ranging from short clips to entire television shows and films as well as music videos, video blogs, live streams, and educational presentations.  YouTube also makes use of the advertising program Google AdSense and includes targeted ads on its content; most of the videos on YouTube are free to view but some ad content will appear before, during, and/or after the video plays.

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Round-up on bioethics in scientific research

Considerations from bioethics are prevalent throughout scientific research.  As bio-technology innovations advance in both science and medicine, research methodology standards and practices become more ethically complex.  Bioethics is traditionally centered on the link between humans and the sciences.  The far reach of bieothics into health and human sciences reflects how pervasive the ethical obligations and moral choices in scientific research can be.  As humans continue to explore the far boundaries of existing science knowledge for their own benefit, these transformations to all areas of human life will also change the ethical choices and challenges involved.

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Justice in Black Mirror

As previously discussed on this blog, the universe of the science fiction show Black Mirror is very interesting from a compliance and ethics perspective.  As discussed in this post about the first three series of the show and this post about the fourth series, the show often focuses on connections between humanity and technology.  The show frequently contemplates the negative impact of excessive or dangerous reliance on technology and warns of the disruptions to people and communities that could result from overly integrating advanced technology into life.

While the most common themes of Black Mirror indeed pertain to traditional risks of overuse of technology, such as data privacy, consent, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity, there’s an additional layer of commentary on the show which focuses on broader social issues, such as power, community, and justice.  Indeed, the question of how a technologically-advanced society might define and handle justice uniquely is compelling.  Portrayals of justice throughout all four series of Black Mirror include the treatment of issues such as punishment, reparations, confessions, investigations, judgment, and surveillance. 

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Compliance in Black Mirror Series 4

Black Mirror’s fourth season continues the themes of the previous three series of the show.  As discussed in this post, the show makes often uncanny connections between human life and technology, frequently covering the ways in which social media, AI, biometric devices, and other advanced technological systems and devices affect and change society.  What makes Black Mirror so effective, and often so disturbing, is that in each of the anthologized stories it contains not only a vision of the future but also a warning about the disruptions that would happen to people along the way.  The reality depicted in Black Mirror is like an amped-up version of the world that seems to be already nearly within reach, with technological advancements abound to make life easier or more entertaining.  However, the point of view in the show is markedly dystopian, forcing viewers to consider the addictive or even dangerous influence that immersive technologies could have.

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Business compliance wish list for cryptocurrencies

One of the hottest topics of 2017 was cryptocurrencies.  The blockchain-derived digital currencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Ripple were the subject of seemingly endless interest and speculation, in both the media and the markets.  In an excitement reminiscent to many of the dot-com boom, cryptocurrency companies rushed to become issuers via initial coin offerings (ICOs).  Companies that were previously unrelated to blockchain or any product of the technology changed their names or indeed their entire operational purposes to attract market interest.  Investors searched for information and guidance, experimented with the digital currency as both a payment service and a securities holding, and filled social media and dinner table conversation with curiosity and enthusiasm for the disruptive potential cryptocurrencies hold for banking, technology, and the markets.

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