Not Accepting the Partnership Offer

Not Accepting the Partnership Offer

Ethically, no I will not accept the partnership offer. Given our company’s objective to offer reliable and trustworthy services for those who are less fortunate. While the clients choose to sign a “intent to collect and analyze data” disclosure, they are more likely than not, not actually reading that disclosure. More importantly, if they are reading it, they might be willing to take the risk, depending on their situation, for collection of anonymous data. By accepting this partnership offer, you might potentially alienate people who really need the services but aren’t willing to have their data be public knowledge.

In addition, regardless of nonprofit or for-profit organizations, data needs to be used in the same anonymous manner (Woods, 2014). Because this entity is seen as a financial services provider and is held at a higher standard for privacy practices which would not be upheld in this deal as written (Woods, 2014).

My reasoning for the decline of this offer stems back to my previous research on the Facebook and Cambridge Analytica scandal in 2018. While Facebook is a publicly traded company and not similar to a non-profit organization, the data sharing concept is relevant. Facebook executives made a choice to allow third party application users to have access to profile information from users and this led to the sale of data to Cambridge Analytica who then used the information in 2016 Presidential Campaigns (Tuttle, 2018).

While this data is anonymous for the firm, I would argue that it could potentially still be used for improvement purposes of the organization which in turn could eventually been seen as effective revenue. If the firm uses their data to determine how many times people are using their services, their financial state over time, etc. They can use this information to see if their services are effective. If they are not, then they can use this information to improve upon their processes and methods in order to be more effective. “Nonprofits are taking on business strategies and outcome metrics, often seeking to generate earned revenue to wean themselves from dependency on charity” (Woods, 2014).

New Proposal

If the mortgage company is still interested in partnering with our firm and willing to renegotiate, I would propose that they find a way to use anonymous data. In addition, they would receive demographics, behaviors and financial records, but no personal information tied to them. This could still be of use when marketing products to different individuals.

One of the primary hesitations for my refusal of the first offer is “The Mortgage company also reserves the right to sell your clients’ data.” This clause will be removed from the new proposal. Instead, if the mortgage company wants to use our data, it will agree to eliminate the sale of the data. This clause will be upheld by semi-annual audits in order to ensure that the data is remaining confidential.

Resources:

Andrew K. Woods, "Do Civil Society's Data Practices Call for New Ethical Guidelines?" Stanford University, 2014. Retrieved from: http://pacscenter.stanford.edu/sites/all/files/Woods.Provocation.Final_.pdf 

Tuttle, H. (2018). Facebook Scandal Raises Data Privacy Concerns. Risk Management,65(5), 6-9. Retrieved January 27, 2019, from http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc