Easy question to tackle for a blog post right?
There has been an interesting convergence around this topic for me. Along with all the news about Facebook, I am currently building a social media ethics course for social workers. It is has been an interesting journey in the last several months taking a deep dive into how social work and other allied health professionals should conduct themselves online. Secondly, connecting with David Ryan Polgar (aka @TechEthicist on twitter) and learning about his initiative #AllTechIsHuman has made me think carefully about this topic. Lastly, Instagram reported that will be hiring a brand manager for “Wellbeing”.
As a social worker on social media the ethical concerns are two-fold. One is about managing my duel role as a licensed medical provider who has a responsibility to the individuals and groups I serve with my responsibility as a blogger. The other is maintaining privacy of those I serve. The Facebook story about what they do with data bleeds into the issue of consent which has always been a cornerstone to social work practice. When we sign up for social media, what are we consenting to do? I will try to tackle social media ethics from what I see are three main issues; consent, privacy, and duel responsibilities.
Consent
As a social worker, when someone enters treatment with me there are a few layers of consent. We are mandated to be transparent to who I am talking to, getting their permission, and conditions on which this consent my be broken. With social media the process is a little bit less transparent…
Every joke has a little bit of truth but in our eagerness to connect with technology we often make mistakes and not ask the right questions. Also we are not always informed of our rights. As a health tech enthusiast this is happening in the mobile app space. Sometimes in our eagerness to solve a problem with technology we don’t always read the fine print. Where is our data going? Who will be looking it at? These are important questions as consumers. A nice example of a company being transparent about data is DrugStars.
But as I think about an ethical internet, consent and spelling things out better in terms of service is critical. Perhaps technology companies collecting data need to go beyond a check box “Did you read the terms of service?” and title that box “Here is what we are doing with your data?”
Privacy
As a social worker on social media, I have to take steps to ensure the privacy of my clients. By focusing on my interest in technology and Health IT, I am able to put up a large firewall to this issue. It made me think about how are social media companies spelling out they ways they are protecting your privacy.
“Nobody reads terms of service, we know this … if consumers start demanding a company that benefits privacy then you can ask a VC for that … you pay more for organic food at Whole Foods why?” – @TechEthicist
— Kerry Flynn 🐶 (@kerrymflynn) March 29, 2018
In the United States we have HIPAA (Health Information Portability and Accountability Act). As a licensed professional this is the standard I have to live by. What privacy standards to social media companies live by? Where can you find them? Perhaps as consumers we need to demand what they are. Again it is incumbent of us a consumers to demand terms of service that include privacy, it is also incumbent on social media companies to develop them.
Duel Roles
As a social worker on social media I have the responsibility to represent myself an the profession appropriately. That the information I share is vetted and accurate. For social media companies this duel role is much more complex and brings up larger ethical questions…
My above points about consent and privacy point out that social media platforms have a responsibility to the individuals. From their point of view they also have a responsibility to there shareholders and employees…To make money. From the social work perspective it’s interesting ask from the ecological model; what responsibilities do social media companies have to individuals, groups, and communities? In a more macro sense their duel roles become even more complex when you think about “fake news”. There is certainly a debate taking place what roles they have with allowing freedom of information but how do they manage misinformation. We need to ask what responsibility do social media companies have to the larger society compared to their duel role as a company that makes money.
Conclusion
There are no easy answers but we need to keep pondering these questions. Just noticing a lot of parallels between questions I grapple with as a social worker on social media. We certainly need to be empowered consumers of what is happening with our data and privacy but also ensure that social media platforms are being held accountable. Yes they have a responsibility to their employees and shareholders, but they also have a responsibility to a society at large. I think together we can continue to ask these questions to develop a more ethical social media.
