Hyperconnected: Electronic Ethics & Data Governance

The fundamental essence of electronic ethics and data governance is to ensure the responsible and ethical collection, use, storage, and sharing of electronic data while protecting individual privacy rights and complying with legal and regulatory requirements.

How do we maintain ethics in a hyperconnected world?

Constant internet connectivity is increasingly becoming a necessity in today’s fast paced, hyperconnected world. This state of hyperconnectivity extends far beyond personal living spaces and seamlessly accompanies us in vehicles, airplanes, hotels, retail shopping centers, and our favorite eateries. For those fortunate enough to have school-age children, the reality of COVID-19 has highlighted the undeniable need for everyone to exercise ethical judgement in their use of electronics and re-envision what a home office or classroom should look like.

Many of the “golden rules” instilled from generations past are foundations for our decision making. However, the emergence of the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) and near instantaneous access to data has challenged how information is processed, understood, and acted upon. Data in context yields great insights — what are the ideal ways to approach this on an individual, family, and professional level?

Down the Digital Exhaust Rabbit Hole

The opportunity before all of us is to take an active role in how our total online identity is managed. In order to understand the “digital exhaust” we produce 24/7/365, we must begin down the pathway of education and purposefully and morally guide our technology decisions. No one company nor individual holds all the answers and author Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland, captured it remarkably:

If you don’t know where you are going any road can take you there.

Lewis Carrol, Alice In Wonderland

The convergence of policy and technology is where this lifelong journey begins. In our homes and public spaces, we decide each day with how to share or restrict our digital exhaust. This will never be a sprint, but rather a marathon where the winners are determined by how they run the race and by whom they run alongside. It is important to recognize that everyone has a place in this 4th Industrial race. Realizing the opportunity cost of sacrificing individual privacy and, in most cases, security for instantaneous access to data, discounted products and services can best be summarized by “If the product or service is free — YOU are the product.”

Without knowing the common ways our data is collected, who is collecting it, and where it can end up, safeguarding our information becomes difficult. Fortunately, there are specific steps everyone can and should undertake to better protect themselves, family members, friends and colleagues, and employers to elevate their ethical use of electronics and actively manage their data governance.

Conclusion

Internally we have adopted this mantra to deliver business evolution through technology, data-driven process, and cross-disciplinary experience to create valued change and opportunity without sacrificing ethics. We are practitioners first and chart our course ahead from this vantage point. We achieves this by first constructing a team of Doers — they are talented, genuine, accountable, and passionate to enable others to succeed and have a great time along the way doing it! Have you paused to consider how you actively manage data governance in your personal and professional life? Or how your company actively and ethically accomplishes this?

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