Week 8: Call Centers and Data Theft
For developing countries such as the Philippines, call centers are important economic entities, as call center corporations are hiring workforce from developing countries due to the cheapness of labor. Such is exemplified in the documentary Dispatches: The Data Theft Scandal (2006). We follow Sue Turton as she transact with data thieves of cal center data, which include the name, address, bank accounts, credit card numbers and other important financial information of British call center clients, who unknowingly gets victimized by people in the call center who trick clients into disclosing confidential data.
Apparently, the illegal data trade is a naturalized part of the call center industry, as how informant reacts about the matter in a light way. This may imply that the digitalization of previous offline transactions is a highly risky process, with the correspondences being prone to wiretapping, which is demonstrated by the documentary. However, it was because of a glitch in the system, thus the mechanization of the databases is also a factor that contributes to the riskiness of transactions. Two forms of data thievery are thus in play – on the one side is that by human intention, and the other by mechanical error.
Two countries are placed in the forefront, United Kingdom, a developed country, and India, a developing country. The documentary has implications on the digital divide phenomenon that we are experiencing, and the capacity for it to be an avenue of crime. Looking at the dynamics of the call center labor pricing in developing countries which is cheaper than those from the first world, it would seem that the reason for resorting to crime is the deficiency in salaries. However, that is not the case, as call centers contribute highly to the local economy. Thus, the drive to commit the crime may be attributed to the corruption of individuals who have the power to control the data.
As communication researchers, such as have implications on our role as data analyzers who must keep the confidentiality of our sources. In the case of call centers, lives may be put in jeopardy if the financial data of the clients land on the wrong hands. From the perspective of the call center agent, and in our case the researcher, selling client/respondent data for personal gain is extremely in violation of the ethics of research.
Another perspective to the issue is social media research on the other hand, which usually looks at the aggregate of Facebook or Twitter enunciations, without the profile owner’s consent. However, the assumption here is that the person’s profile is public on the web, and thus consent is given without the need for formalities. However, in the context of bank accounts, formalities are held in high regard, because of the delicacy of the matter. Financial damages may be procured from the unethical disclosure of information. Thus, in this sense, cyber crime law is applicable, as theft is by in its essence, a crime.
The documentary presents a grim fact about the digitalized worlds we move in. It also says something at the applicability of the crime in the Philippine context, being that our country is of the developing type. In the end, it must be at our careful judgment whether the information being sought from us will affect us in a detrimental way, and thus we must know how to safeguard. Criminals may be hard to spot because of the mediated nature of the process, but cues exist, particularly suspicion over the data gatherer’s online demeanor. May such judgment ward off cyber criminals.
MANALESE, Kevin John C.
2010-17726
University of the Philippines, 03.03.2014