Information Technology, Ethics, and Personal Banking: A Reflection on How They Intersect

It would be no exaggeration to say that before June 6, 2013, only a handful of people would have predicted that a 29-year-old systems administrator in Hawaii would become the biggest worldwide public headline of the decade. While the ethical case of Edward Snowden, a private contractor in the National Security Administration, takes place in a much different work setting than in my personal banking career, the messages stemming from his public declarations highlight how information technology (IT) and ethics intersect in any modern organization. People working in positions of privileged access to sensitive information make critical assessments about the data they see. As such, they are uniquely qualified to draw conclusions about what others may perceive as “ordinary business,” but to them are actually patterns of abuse demanding immediate and substantive attention from upper management. Regardless of how one feels politically about Snowden’s public declarations, this course has therefore impacted my understanding of how IT, ethics, and personal banking intersect when an organization’s stated values are inconsistent with what the information analyst actually sees.

Most entry level IT students would expect coursework to focus solely on learning unequivocal answers, such as statistical principles supporting organizational structures and programing mechanics. What distinguishes this course is its emphasis on understanding how engineering interacts with an interconnected and complex humanity. Individuals working in IT come from diverse cultural backgrounds, socioeconomic environments, continents, and nations. When their employing organization is perceived to violate its enduring “Don’t Be Evil” manifesto, as was the case with Google Street Maps in collecting unprotected wireless network information in Germany, the worldwide public backlash simply reflects what may also be the private doubts of some who work “on the inside” of that technology giant (Reynolds, 2012). Rather than learning unambiguous answers, therefore, this courses emphasizes creating better internal (company-centric) and external (customer-centric) insights through critical questioning. This forms the basis of not only how, but why understanding the intersection of IT, ethics, and personal banking is important today.

The right to privacy underpins much of personal banking relationships. Prospects for sophisticated systems that steal or compromise sensitive customer data associated with earnings, accounts, holdings, and growth strategies poses real risks of losing billions of dollars, both for customers and the company. Since the Internet is the basis of so much of our modern communications, with cloud-based data retrieval and dissemination systems forming the backbone of so much decision making, the opportunities for breach and loss grow exponentially.

Organizations of all sizes have been known to “cut corners” in their operational supports, including IT. In so doing, they increase risks of collapsing their own private structures, as well as the entire industry in which they serve. The recent LIBOR fixing scandal is but one example of how properly staffed and ethically trained IT workers can positively support the entire banking and trading industries, as well as the world economy. They are uniquely qualified to see and respond to digital clues left by business insiders who drive illegal market manipulations, third party regulators whose conflicts of interest color their judgments, and government officials who turn a blind eye to “business as usual” in order to meet their own national policy interests.

Since no powerful technological solution is risk-free, the ethical questions posed in this course have caused adjustments in my thinking about how IT can positively affect my career and shape the course of interactions within my organization. Understanding the mechanics of Internet filters, firewall configurations, and ISP blocks are relatively unambiguous matters of company protocol that any IT professional, including me, will understand and can lobby to implement. What truly matters is how the organization’s policies and practices interface with the people who access and use the private information stored within its databases. As someone who has both the technical knowledge and a deeper understanding of how ethical questions underpin these IT related issues, I hope to bring greater insights into my personal banking career.

As we continue to move toward a global community, it seems reasonable to predict that these challenges will grow more numerous, sophisticated, and possibly sinister. Not only do these challenges today emanate from private corporate espionage and individual hackers, but they also and perhaps most predominately will form the basis of nation-based policies against private companies and citizens. In this way, ethics may form the very foundation of what makes IT no longer just a matter of statistics and structures, but instead a true profession, where asking critical questions is the very core of growing a healthy and more prosperous humanity.

Reference

Reynolds, G. W. (2012). Ethics in information technology (4th ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western. 2015-10-29. VitalBook file.