Tech companies can’t make tech more trustworthy on their own, expert says

Tech companies have a responsibility to ensure their products are secure, but for tech to be trustworthy, researchers, civil society organizations, and governments need to get involved in governance, according to Wafa Ben-Hassine, principal on the responsible technology team at Omidyar Network. “With great power comes great responsibility,” she said on a panel this week about trust in technology during the World Economic Forum’s Global Technology Governance Summit. “Unfortunately, those that hold the power exhibit very little responsibility,” she added. “Part of the problem is a lot of the technology was developed by mostly white males who are based in California,” Ben-Hassine said. “The technology is then deployed to the rest of the world. That carries certain values with it that do not incorporate the rest of the world.” And just because a technology is trusted does not necessarily mean it is trustworthy, she said. Ben-Hassine’s work at Omidyar Network, a philanthropic investment firm, focuses on encrypted messaging platforms, including the spread of propaganda that targets people using their personal data. She said researchers need better access to datasets that, while respecting user privacy, would allow them to determine whether a particular technology is, in fact, worthy of trust. “We do need more evidence-based research to measure which approaches, if any, are more effective in countering harmful effects,” she said. Because measurement is challenging, it can be hard for researchers to track content that is harmful or illegal to generate insights that could inform policy. Ben-Hassine said the tech industry can do two things to make the idea of responsible technology a reality. The first is for companies to radically transform their business models. “Currently, a lot of Big Tech business models are extractive,” she said. “They use personal data to further their own profits in a way that is completely irresponsible and that violates the human right to privacy and people’s dignity.” The second is to involve more researchers, as well as civil society organizations from high- and low-income countries, in the governance of these tech companies. “That goes beyond forming working groups that get blocked by executives or other kinds of arrangements.” she said. “It’s actually having users control and own and give feedback and input into how the technology is being deployed and used.” But the tech industry is unlikely to make these changes on its own, according to Ben-Hassine. Instead, governments need to develop standards and processes for navigating the online space, she said. For example, they could create rules on the development and placement of advertising, mandate disclosure requirements on how information travels, and come up with ways to curtail harmful information. “There is a really big role for governments to play, and we can’t overlook that,” she said. “By overlooking that, we’re doing society a really big disservice by insisting that this is a problem created by tech and that tech needs to solve.”