Tech: Inherently Good Or Intentionally Bad?

9:41 AM

Is Tech Inherently Good or Intentionally Bad?

If technology was important before, it became indispensable during the pandemic. It kept businesses running and school lessons going. But the recent spate of SMS phishing scams had sparked conversations around the dark side of tech. And at the heart of it, who should be held accountable for its darkness?

Is it the companies whose systems were exploited? Consumers who fell for the scams? Or the regulatory bodies? Basing on events in recent times, companies and consumers bear the highest costs. Perhaps, the bigger lessons here are – prevention is better than recovery, and everyone plays a part.

Companies need sound data protection policies, societies should set clear data privacy regulations, and consumers must learn to watch out for themselves. Truth is – your identity can be stolen easily when your birthplace, birthday, and selfies are in the public domain.

Before we get too suspicious of tech, however, we will do well to remember that – it is really the human who builds the tech that decides its ethicality. Similarly, we associate the dark web as a place where evildoers lurk. But it is really only as dark as its users’ intent. By now, it should be obvious that tech can be our worst enemy. Fortunately, we have companies like NCS that go all out to make tech our strongest ally. Under Mr Ng Kuo Pin’s astute leadership, we can expect that tech is not only harnessed to do good, but also make the extraordinary happen.

And let’s not also forget Ms Ngiam Siew Ying’s team at IHiS. Their passion to do right by our health data and their commitment to digitally transform our public healthcare from a reactive to a preventive one are definitely inspiring.

I had doubts about the neutrality of tech before working on this issue, but I am encouraged by my fellow professionals’ resolve to do right by tech and the community. Together, I am confident we can triumph evil with good.

Happy reading!

TAN TENG CHEONG

Editor Fellow, SCS tan.teng.cheong@scs.org.sg

EDITOR

Tan Teng Cheong

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Raju Chellam Grace Chng Vladyslav Koshelyev Marvin Tan

EDITORIAL SUPPORT

Claudia Lim

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