India Inc must build digital ethics into its business model: Deloitte, BCIC

Paper cites example of cab aggregator services, where user behaviour and travel patterns ostensibly recorded to improve user experience are actually used to extract more out of the customer

Indian companies must consider a “digital ethics framework” in order to ensure a holistic view of ethics, and govern the digitalisation journey of their business, a paper by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India LLP (DTTILLP) and Bangalore Chamber of Commerce (BCIC) said.

An accelerated pace of digital transition, consumption of goods and services via app-based interface, and proliferation of data bring numerous risks such as biased decision-making processes being transferred to machines or algorithms. These biases can be a threat to the reputation and trust towards stakeholders, as well as cause operational risks.

Explaining ethical grey areas with an example, the paper "Digital