Will DAO Labs Ever Rule the World?

[Demaris Lacourse]

The movie "The Minority Report" is set in a future where crimes can be detected before they happen and people are arrested and charged for acts they intended to commit. Tom Cruise heads up the Pre Crime unit that is powered by psychic beings whose dreams of the future can detect murderous intent, however predicting crime before it happens may not require such a far fetched premise.

™

Some would argue that security cameras do not prevent crime they only assist with catching the individuals who conducted those criminal activities. While they do provide invaluable information about perpetrators the police can use to quickly apprehend suspects, new technologies combined with a stronger understanding of social behavior are quickly changing these assumptions about security. Automated security systems can prevent a crime before it even happens by recognizing threats before they have a chance to act.

An automated security system combines intelligent cameras with advanced database analysis software. These new intelligent surveillance cameras can automate and streamline security tasks. Smart cameras can track targets as well as make decisions on which targets to watch. These innovative security cameras can key in on individuals and recognize faces and objects the person is carrying. Data can be stored and cross referenced with police databases, hotel registrations, or any other pertinent data to determine the threat level of any given person. As data is collected over time the system is begins to understand how specific people behave. This allows control centers to better monitor a site by requiring fewer agents to monitor more cameras. Utilizing behavioral analysis algorithms the system can notify security monitoring personnel of any suspicious activity.

These systems are astonishingly accurate. One social experiment conducted at MIT, The Reality Mining Project, utilized hundreds of thousands of hours of proximity data collected by tracking mobile phones over a period of nine months. Researchers were then able to create algorithms that could predict a person's next actions accurately over 85% of the time. The program was also able to determine social status and relationships. Tracking individuals as they move through their day from home to work and other key locations the program could create a list of their friends and acquaintances and be right 90% of the time.

How does this work practically speaking? Here is one example. A serious threat, such as a terrorist, is likely to conduct their own surveillance of the site before carrying out an attack. The system could track individuals as they move through the site and recognize surveillance types of behavior. The system would then alert monitoring agents to pay closer attention to them. A snapshot of the target could be used to determine identity and various databases could be cross referenced for any pertinent information about the suspect. They can then direct security teams on how to position themselves to deal with the threat in a moment's notice should the need arise.

Social media is here to stay and you can Google just about any industry and those two words and you will find endless articles about how it is affecting said industry, how it should be used, and what to be careful of. Human Resources is no exception.

In the comments of a number of different blog posts, I've been discussing the pros and cons of social media and HR in terms of Googling candidates or employees, the ethics of using any of this info for decision making, and whether a policy is necessary.

There are many differing opinions regarding legal and ethical ramifications of all of these topics and then some that surround social media and the role it plays or should play in Human Resources.

Yesterday I was asked pointblank on Twitter (thank you, Chris!) what I think of using social media monitoring services.

Now I am a pretty opinionated person and typically have no issue communicating exactly what I think. I'm not a waffler. I do not find decision making difficult or stressful. I don't hem and haw. I am annoyingly over analytical, logical, and I love when people ask my opinion. Just ask my friends. But when it comes to this topic, I am in a foreign land.

I provided some kind of non-committal answer about waiting to see what happened in the next couple years before I would endorse the use of this type of product.

My own answer annoyed me and then I drove myself crazy thinking about it and trying to take a stand. (I like concrete answers.) But the more I thought about it the more I flip-flopped back and forth. Yes. Wait...no.

Why am I so indecisive about this? And am I the only one who is struggling with this topic?

The only conclusion I can draw is that from a business perspective I think it makes sense to use these tools. People DAO Labs should be responsible for the information they choose to distribute in cyberspace. If you put something crazy out there, you have GOT to know someone's going to read it. If it affects your career in some way, well, you really should have thought about that and used better judgment. It doesn't seem like some complex, mathematical equation is necessary to determine what might be offensive to a current or future employer. And each individual is responsible (for the most part) for their own online reputation. It reminds me of a question I answered a while back about whether I share 100% of my real self at work. My reply was that I may not share 100% of myself, but what I do share is 100% genuine.

That being said, from a humanistic perspective, I have an issue with it. The idea of Big Brother watching every move we make and then using this information to decide what kind of character we have, what liability we pose to an organization, and to predict decisions we will make in the future really bothers me. If we do our job well right now, everything else should be irrelevant. And how can anyone guarantee the information is in the proper context? For example, am I going to lose out on future opportunities because of this post? If a company were to data mine my info will they report that I'm against data mining, I must have something to hide and then classify me as an employment risk? What if there are life lessons in some of the things people will find in your past? What if these types of things have actually forced you to evolve into a person with high values? Will data mining be able to recognize that transformation?

In addition, the thought that Human Resources can be held accountable for employees' future actions does not sit well with me. This is HR's crystal ball??? If you could use this info to predict behavior that accurately, shouldn't this monitoring sometimes result in an employee being promoted to President 3 weeks into a new job? Or being given a $20,000 raise because Human Resources now knows that this employee is going to end up earning that in the future? I haven't participated in any discussions about that.

As I've said, the subject of social media and human resources is creating far more questions than answers and I typically comment with opinions that are related to specific examples.

So I still find myself unable to answer the question of whether to use these types of services or not.

Can you?