Innovating With Integrity: Ethics in Silicon Valley

Michael Krasny

Sep 3, 2015 at

Save Article

Failed to save article

Please try again

(STR/AFP/Getty Images)

In a recent episode of HBO’s “Silicon Valley,” the startup founders at the center of the television series are forced to make an ethical decision: whether or not to hack into a rival company’s database. Though fictional, that scenario may not be too far from the truth. Uber has been accused of tying up competitors’ cars with fake orders. Facebook turned the news feeds of half a million users into a psychological study. And Snapchat has been accused of taking a “cavalier approach” to security. We’ll discuss the role of ethics in Silicon Valley’s environment of disruption and innovation.

Guests:

Kirk Hanson, professor and executive director of Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University

Mark Leslie, founder of Veritas Software, managing director of Leslie Ventures and lecturer in management, Stanford Graduate School of Business

Kellie McElhaney, founding director and adjunct assistant professor at the UC Berkeley Center for Responsible Business

Sponsored

lower waypoint

next waypoint

Violence Escalates in Sudan as Civil War Enters Second Year NPR's Sarah McCammon on Leaving the Evangelical Church KQED Youth Takeover: We’re Getting a WNBA Team Rainn Wilson from ‘The Office’ on Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution Forum From the Archives: Remembering Glide Memorial's Cecil Williams Erik Aadahl on the Power of Sound in Film KQED Youth Takeover: How Can San Jose Schools Create Safer Campuses?Supreme Court Hears Oral Arguments in Major Homelessness Case Percival Everett’s Novel “James” Recenters the Story of Huck Finn Have We Entered Into a New Cold War Era?