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How to Use Transparency to Build Trust in Your Business

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How to Use Transparency to Build Trust in Your Business How to Use Transparency to Build Trust in Your Business By: Olivia Gambelin Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer, Ethical Intelligence lanciaconsult.com 2 About the author business does not have any ethically questionable actions it wants to hide. We are delighted to introduce our guest writer, Olivia Gambelin, CEO and founder of Ethical Intelligence. We first met Olivia Technology has the potential to help add in Edinburgh when Ethical Intelligence this layer of transparency into business, Associates first launched. She was a star but it can also act as a major deterrent if speaker at our #BeingRelevant2019 not properly handled. It’s been shown event in Bristol last year on the that the introduction of technology into challenges of Trust and Ethics in the workplace can lead to a significant technology. decrease in the trust of the consumer, as 61% of people believe that tech Ethics and responsible technology is a topic a growing number of our clients companies have too much power, while are looking at and we love EI‘s mission to only 39% of people believe tech is putting the welfare of its customers ahead of integrate what can be a grey area of 2 ethics into the black and white field of AI. profits . Their interdisciplinary team of experts uniquely bring together philosophy with programmers to provide their clients How then, do we win back consumer with clear and creative analysis. trust in the face of technology misuse? “Transparency breeds trust“ Transparency is a tool not an ethical principle We have heard this claim before, but in our modern connected digital world, it We must recognize the growing carries more weight than ever before. demand of consumers for transparency Society’s strong reaction to the misuse of and learn to meet that demand, not only personal data, in cases such as in business, but in technology as well. Cambridge Analytica, shows that we all want and demand more transparency from our governments, the media and the businesses we interact with. This also Why is transparency so central to trust if influences our buying behaviors as 94% it is not an ethical principle itself? The of consumers state their loyalty to a answer lies in the ethical implications of brand is only if it is transparent and 73% disclosing information. say they are even willing to pay more for a completely transparent product1. In order to be transparent, information must be disclosed. However, before the So what does this mean in business decision is made on how much and to terms? whom the information is disclosed, a close look into the potential ethical or unethical use of the information is required. The right amount of Transparency in business is the ability to transparency is ethically enabling, while ‘look behind the curtains’. We want proof a misuse of transparency is ethically from businesses that the actions being impairing3. taken align with our values, especially when these actions deal with our personal data. If a business shows that it is willing to be transparent with this In summary, transparency can build, or it information, then we are more inclined can destroy trust, depending on how you to trust the business as it implies the use it. lanciaconsult.com 3 Three positive ways in which you company isn’t transparent about this can use transparency as an ethical and claims accountability, then the tool to build trust: risk is this is seen as a publicity stunt, and ethics washing. 01. Using Transparency as an Ethics Endorser What you can do: understanding that human actions are just as important to disclose as computer generated ones, and vice versa. Today’s workforce has 02. Auditing for the Misuse of become heterogeneous, i.e. human and Transparency computer based, and so both must align with ethical standards if transparency is to be pursued. 03. Going beyond a Code of Ethics 2. Auditing for the Misuse of Transparency Auditing the potential impact of 1. Using Transparency as an Ethics disclosed information is essential to Endorser preventing the misuse of transparency. In order to prove a business is not ethics washing, transparency must be applied to endorse the use of other ethical Transparency can be a double-edged principles sword; too much transparency is a breach in security and privacy, while too little transparency is secretive and untrustworthy. The proper amount of Transparency, when used properly, can transparency enables key ethical help illuminate and improve the ethical principles, a misuse of transparency can standards of a company, which in turn severely impair them. inspires the trust of the consumer that companies rely on for survival. How, then, do we approach transparency in a way that allows us to utilise it as a tool to Industry example – Medical Data: On the enable ethical principles rather than one hand, a disclosure of information can impair them? lead to better, more personalized health care, while on the other hand it can lead to fraud and privacy breaches. One outcome is an ethically good use of data, • Evidence – use the transparency of whereas the other is an unethical use of information as a tool to endorse data. ethical principles. In other words, by using a certain level of transparency, a company can prove, or endorse, the fact that they are following the sets of This can also be taken to the opposite ethical values they claim to. extreme, when no medical data is shared whatsoever. This inhibits patients’ trust in health care providers, as they do not understand the reasoning behind the • Accountability - when a company decisions being made and so feel at risk claims to be accountable for the for malpractices. Transparency can thus decisions taken by the technology it become a double-edged sword if not uses, then the company must be properly handled, as too much transparent about who in the transparency leads to the misuse of company is taking responsibility for information, while not enough the decisions of the technology. If a transparency leads to lack of trust. lanciaconsult.com 4 2. Auditing for the Misuse of Technology has led to the information Transparency (cont). that enables transparency being detached from the context in which it was gathered. This can lead to consumer confusion, with bombarding out-of- What you can do: one step would be to context information that doesn’t lead to audit the potential use of transparency to useful insight in the matters it was determine probable outcomes and meant to in the first place. thereby the ethical implications associated with its usage. In other words, before disclosing any amount of information for the sake of transparency, A company may believe it is being the benefits and risks of such a transparent by issuing a code of ethics, disclosure must first be thoroughly but if this information does not have any examined. context, i.e. how the ethical principles in the code are being used in business and technology practices, then the consumer is only confused as to how the ethical principles are relevant in the first place. 3. Going Beyond a Code of Ethics Confusion inhibits trust, as without context there is no way to ensure Codes of Ethics are a step in the right consistency between what a company direction, but to be fully transparent, a says and does. company must also disclose how those codes are used What you can do: although codes of ethics are a step in the right direction, We have seen the trend of companies how these codes of ethics are put into issuing ethics codes in an attempt to practice must also be evident if a create transparency and build trust. company wishes to utilise transparency Although this is a step in the right in order to build trust. In other words, if direction, it is not the final solution. In you have a code of ethics, you also need fact, in some cases it can even lead to a a framework, or a protocol so-to-speak, decrease in consumer trust due to the that indicates how this code is put in to confusion it creates. action. Sources: 1 https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/295739 2 https://www.edelman.com/research/2019-trust-tech-wavering-companies-must-act 3 https://www.academia.edu/631117/The_ethics_of_information_transparency lanciaconsult.com About the Author: Olivia Gambelin, founder and CEO of Ethical Intelligence, is an AI Ethicist who works with tech entrepreneurs to understand the importance of ethics in AI development and usage. Olivia holds an MSc in Philosophy from the University of Edinburgh, and currently sits on the Advisory Board of Tech Scotland Advocates. lanciaconsult.com.
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