- “Ransomware Doesn’t Scare Me; Listeria Does”In my opinion, security is one of the most important, yet underrated components of any digitalized product. One of the first products that came to mind when I saw this article was a start-up at Stanford that launch around 2 years ago with the intentions of matching two people up. Each user inputs their crushes and an email is sent to them. If their crush adds them to their crush list then both parties will be notified. While this app did not have anything as dangerous as the leakage of medical or legal documents, it was a demonstration on how important security can be to a user. Within a year of being live, the database with everyone’s crushes was leaked and spreadsheets were distributed. It completely destroyed the reputation and aim of the company to have risk free confessions. It breach user privacy and is unethical in its responsibility to keep what could be classified as sensitive data from the public and in many ways, could be detrimental to the sense of trust and safety people feel with technology. However, it is hard to identity anything that should have been kept offline, which I think is true of most digital products because removing it just makes the chances that information gets lost or stolen higher.
- “Who Invited Her?”: In this case study, a woman spoke up in the midst of the all-hands to the surprise of her (male) coworkers, including her boss the COO who tried to apologize for her and then the head of engineering, who scoffed at her questions. The CEO, however, acknowledged her contribution and asked her to continue.
Had she stayed quiet, her voice lack of inaction could have been intrepreted as a lack of care or responsibility within the company. However, if the CEO did not address her, her social status most likely would have been diminished. So much of trust is ensuring that others trust the person who is speaking. We often look for our peers to validate our ideas and if someone is already seen as inferior, having a person with power is crucial in ensuring that that person is hard. Her voice and sense of authority would have been lost or questioned in addition to her experience at the company and positive impact. She challenged the idea that continuing what they have already been doing was the best move technically. As a woman who was almost dismissed, her CEO’s step-in set in stone a space for her as a woman in the office and established her position in the space.
