Apple’s Battery-Gate
In 2017, Apple faced “battery-gate.” As software became more computationally taxing, Apple had to make the decision to decrease performance or decrease battery life on older iPhone models. They opted to decrease the performance but didn’t make customers aware of their choice. It is unethical because they were intentionally making their product worse by having their IOS software slow down processing speeds.
Facebook’s Privacy Violations
Social media platforms like Facebook have been found to use user data for targeted advertising without fully disclosing the extent of the data collection to users. This is problematic because it violates users’ privacy and can lead to the manipulation and exploitation of their personal data. The unethical behavior lies with the platform’s business model and the functions being performed by the software, and the responsibility for this lies with the platform’s management.
Tiktok’s Algorithmic Addiction
As one of the most popular video-sharing applications, Tiktok has been criticized for its algorithm that focuses on detecting users’ tastes and creating addictions. As demonstrated by a Wall Street Journal report, Tiktok’s algorithm gathers user information indicative of their potential interests and preferences, such as how long they stare at certain videos. Based on that information, the videos Tiktok chooses for users will be increasingly similar and aligned with their true preferences. As a consequence, some users might keep receiving similar content that could harm them, such as videos about depression or those encouraging eating disorders.