Stories

"If the committee votes to repeal the code and not replace it, or votes to leave it as is, 'our task is complete,' Ms. Callaghan says. Otherwise, the committee will discuss changes to the code so she can prepare a draft for a third meeting, she says. A third meeting would include more debate and recommendations. If the group reaches consensus, a completed draft code would go to the council. If not, the committee would vote on 'general recommendations (to the council) for a new ethics policy'." 

Excerpted from an article in The Almanac.

“No single person creates culture, but a founder or CEO can certainly influence culture,” says Skeet. These top executives can help mold a positive and purposeful ethical culture. “If leadership in a company is committed to designing systems that promote ethical behavior, that’s a positive sign, as is any additional bandwidth they might have to contribute to industry-wide standards.”

Excerpted from an article in CFA Institute Magazine. 

"What can we expect of tech executives under increased heat to acknowledge harms their products inflict and correct for them? What moral obligations do these companies, and others like them, have to identify, publicize and address the risks using their products pose to consumers?"

Excerpted from an article in MarketWatch. Photo credit: (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)

"The team at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics put together a series of questions for ethical decision-making in business.

"This framework is designed to help you evaluate potential consequences of your decisions from every angle.

"The questions support you in the following core ethical decision-making steps:

• Recognize the issue
• Get the facts
• Evaluate alternative actions
• Make and test a decision
• Action and reflection (in order to help assist you in further ethical decision-making in business)

"And, if you are on the road and need some business ethics support, don’t worry there is an app for that, too!"

Excerpted from an article on Spin Sucks.

“They appear to have tricked somebody to say that [Twitter] would comply with a legal process,” said Irina Raicu, director of the Internet Ethics Program at Santa Clara University’s Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, Thursday. She said the video doesn’t  prove that Twitter as a whole is biased, only that individual employees have “their own political views.”

Excerpted from an article on Silicon Beat. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

“Public officials are basically public fiduciaries. We put them in a position of trust to act on our behalf and always in our best interest,” Hana Callahan, director of Government Ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, said in an interview. “As public fiduciaries, they have a duty of loyalty, which means they have to put the public’s interest before their own personal interest.”

Excerpted from a ThinkProgress article about the appointment of Kevin McIntyre as chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

"It kind of lends itself to a moral myopia," Brian Green says of the prospect of significantly extending the human lifespan. “Humans work better if they have a goal beyond their own survival.”

“Hopefully these things will work, and they’ll help us live a little bit longer,” Green says of the scientific research being done at the Mayo Clinic and the Scripps Research Institute. “But the idea of radical life extension where we’re going to live indefinitely longer, I think that is very unrealistic.”

Excerpted from an article on Leapsmag.

"The belief in American exceptionalism has been grounded not just in the strength of our political institutions and the bounty of our natural resources but in the strength of our national character, our commitment to a distinctive set of ethical values. How have these values and our national character fared in 2017? I believe there are ways in which our character was strengthened in 2017, but many more in which it was weakened."

Excerpted from an article in the Mercury News by Kirk O. Hanson.

Kirk Hanson with the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics says appointments like Rood's are controversial because policy and purchasing are linked at the Pentagon. "All matters could perhaps influence the sale of Lockheed Martin equipment, and therefore it would be very difficult to do his job," said Hanson.

Excerpted from an audio recording of Marketplace. (AP Photo/Sang Tan)

"There are more subtle and complex systems that contribute to harassment, and typically their flaw is in the imbalance of power.  A professor seeking tenure, an attorney hoping to make partner — all professionals that participate in promotion practices tied to a timetable are, in my opinion, at risk right out of the gate.  Leaders in all professions should be asking themselves what they might be willing to let go of in some of these time-honored professional practices if it creates more fairness and safety in the workplace."

Excerpted from an article by Ann Skeet in MarketWatch.

“Our species is the only creative species,” writes Steinbeck, “and it has only one creative instrument, the individual mind and spirit of a man.” He goes on to knock down the notion of collaborative creativity, and you can certainly disagree with that, but keep in mind that in our time the trajectory seems to be toward handing over creativity, too, to algorithms, leaving aside the human mind (whether individual or collective).

Excerpted from an article by Irina Raicu in recode.

"Some people also question whether trying to treat ageing makes sense from a humanitarian standpoint. Brian Patrick Green, an ethicist at Santa Clara University in California, says that although there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with extending human life, it does carry some risks. He worries, for instance, that people in rich countries will benefit while those in developing nations continue to die young. People living longer could also consume more resources, leading to social and environmental catastrophes, he says."

Excerpted from an article in Nature.

“The general populace is certainly becoming more aware of how their online interactions can be monitored,” said Irina Raicu, Internet Ethics program director at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University. “This has forced people to begin using encrypted applications on a broader scale.”

“As young people, you know about these applications and how to implement them,” she said. “People in older generations are less inclined and often less knowledgeable about how to use encryption.”

Excerpted from an article in Spartan News Room. (AP Photo/Karly Domb Sadof, File)

"The Trust Project, supported by Craig Newmark of Craigslist, Google and Knight Foundation at Santa Clara University, is working with newsrooms and technology companies to help the public and algorithms differentiate between news content and fakery."

Excerpted from a speech (published on Medium) by Alberto Ibarguen, President and CEO of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

"The definition of ethics that I like to use is the one from Markkula Center for Applied Ethics because it specifically says being ethical 'is not the same as following the law.' They make mention of laws that are not ethical, such as the old apartheid laws of South Africa. Laws that do not take ethics far enough would be a similar worry. And by extension, not having a law to cover the circumstances does not mean it is OK to do whatever you want.

"Currently, Canada does not have a law about the ethics that programmers must follow when creating artificial intelligence. Germany just passed a law about this. This makes them the first government in the world to address AI ethics."

Excerpted from an article in IT World Canada.

"It's the first time that we're really talking about whether the machines will really do the kinds of things that make us human. Will they care for people, think through the implications of their actions, revolt if they are given bad orders or something? They might recreate the biases present in society, rather than correct them or they may just reach really bad decisions," said Irina Raicu, director of Internet Ethics.

Excerpted from an televised interview on Fox KTVU.

The Trust Project, hosted at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics and led by senior director Sally Lehrman, received worldwide coverage for its first major initiative — “Trust Indictators” which help readers determine whether the news they are reading is reliable. The news was carried in over 200 stories from more than 55 outlets, including USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, CBS MoneyWatch, CNN Money, Breitbart, The Next Web, Fox News, Digital Trends, CNET, Hipertextual, The Daily Caller, TechCrunch, AdWeek, AFP, NiemanLab, Poynter, Journalism.co.uk, Fast Company, The Verge, PanARMENIAN.net, Gadgets Now, PC Mag, Search Engine Land, The Drum, Technowize, Press Gazette, Presse-Citron, CNET in Spanish, Mexico - Noticias Al Dia, Engage, derStandard.at, t3n.de, ITespresso, Tweakers, UniSOB, MediaPost, The Blaze, 15 Minute News, Channel NewsAsia, The Jakarta Post, The Smart Investor, Associations Now, NYOOOZ TV, ValueWalk, Rappler, Anweshanam, Meedia, Search Engine Roundtable, eWeek, Top Tech News, and El Mercurio, as well as in blog posts such as Mic, The Economist’s post on Medium, The Globe and Mail, Mirror, La Repubblica, La Stampa, Google’s blog, Facebook’s blog, and Haymarket Media.

Social media also was abuzz with Trust Project news, with Tweets from top influencers including Rutgers assistant Prof. Joyce Valenza; Marketing consultant Mari Smith; Huffington Post’s Ferial Haffajee; YLFLY President Louis-Serge; SEO company Moz; and Nieman Lab at Harvard University.

"There are nascent efforts at creating a code of ethics for individual programmers and software engineers—including one similar to that of civil engineers—and a discussion of ethics should be part of the on-boarding process at tech companies, says Irina Raicu, director of the Internet Ethics Program at Santa Clara University’s Markkula Center for Applied Ethics."

Excerpted from an article on Quartz at Work.

"The Atlantic has a section dedicated to ethical issues in collaboration with the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics of Santa Clara University. Its director of Internet Ethics, Irina Raicu, deals with difficult questions such as the manipulation of algorithms. In an article published last May, Raicu raises the imperative of training in ethics the hordes of technologists and entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley and, in general, technology companies."

Excerpted from an article in El Mundo.

"I think the most valuable thing [Apple] can do is to act consistently, so that all employees - no matter what their paygrade or their experience background or the role they're playing at the time - are held to the same standard," said Ann Skeet, director of Leadership Ethics.

Excerpted from a video by KPIX. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)

"People who strive to be ethical corporate leaders must emphasize ethics regularly in their work and corporate culture. To secure long-term value creation that markets will reward, middle managers need to be treated as valuable, long-term assets themselves."

Excerpted from an article by Ann Skeet in MarketWatch.

In an interview with ABC 7 News, Kirk Hanson discusses the troubles that Uber faces in the wake of accusations of sexual harassment and sexism.

"Today it has real bottom line impact due to bigger fines and more lawsuits," Hanson said. "But it also has a huge impact on the interest of workers in working for such a firm." 

Hanson also spoke about Uber's situation with KQED, and Ann Skeet spoke with Scott Budman of NBC Bay Area about what the company ought to do moving forward. "They should hire a strong, female CEO with a sterling reputation for building great culture," she said. Skeet also spoke with KQED about the ride-sharing company. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File)

As part of a KQED Radio live broadcast from the Computer History Museum, Sally Lehrman discusses the efforts the Trust Project and companies like Google and Facebook are making to restore trust in the media.

"The idea behind the Trust Project, is how can we make it easy for the public to identify high quality news out of all this hubbub online, and also how can we signal this to the news distribution platforms like Google and Facebook," Lehrman said.

Lehrman also discusses the problem of fake news in an article for TechRadar. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

In an article on WAMU.org, Ann Skeet comments on the decision by a non-profit agency to use confidential information it mistakenly received about homeless residents.

“A better alternative would have been for the non-profit agency to allow the government agency to reach out to these people and say, ‘Hey, there’s a non-profit agency that would like to offer services to you and they have your information,'” Skeet said. (AP Photo/Susan Ragan)

“It’s one thing to have neutrality in terms of content,” said Irina Raicu, director of Internet Ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University. “When you get into ads, it’s a different issue. You absolutely get to choose which ads you feature on your platform.”

Excerpted from an article in The Mercury News. Photo credit: AP Images

“Just to allow him to retire and ride off into the sunset with this much questioning over him, and especially this much questioning in the last week — they should at least have some discussion about it,” said Ann Skeet, director of Leadership Ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics.

Excerpted from an article in The New Orleans Advocate. 

"One hopeful outcome of this slew of failures is that legislators are becoming not just aware but angry, and appear to be ready to propose some legislative measures in response. Maybe part of Cybersecurity Awareness Month should also be to keep a close eye on the regulatory proposals to come, to ensure that they are comprehensive and properly targeted. There is much to be aware of."

Excerpted from an article by Irina Raicu in Future Tense by Slate. 

Data breaches like the one at Equifax can expose millions of customers’ personal information. Kirk Hanson comments on this data breach and concerns with other companies including Yahoo and Wells Fargo in an interview with KQED Radio. 

(AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

In an article for KQED, Irina Raicu comments on the challenge Facebook has in monitoring and removing potentially innapropriate content.

“Whether it’s humans or software making the decisions, moderating content is hard,” Raicu says. “The real issue with Facebook is we don’t really know how those decisions are being made.” (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

“The pay of the top three executives at Oracle has been very high over the last few years,” said Kirk Hanson, executive director of the Markkula Centre for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University. He added that, while “say on pay” votes had been effective at drawing attention to excessive compensation, it was too soon to judge how the new Oracle arrangements would work in practice.

Excerpted from an article in Financial Times. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File)

“This case has import for the high-tech sector far beyond just the concerns of Uber,” said Kirk Hanson, executive director of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University. “There are the beginnings of a movement against super-voting shares, that could get much stronger in the months ahead.”

Excerpted from an article in the San Francisco Chronicle. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)

In an article for recode, Irina Raicu discusses the way social media platforms like Facebook can become a public performance while on vacation.

"If Facebook is a diary, it’s one from which you read out loud in a public park — or at least at a motley gathering of friends, relatives and colleagues," Raicu says. "Traveling with others means enforced physical closeness and a heightened sense of synchronously shared new experiences. It makes one realize what social media does and does not provide."
(AP Photo/Marco Garcia)

In an article for The Register-Guard, Ann Skeet comments on the ethical considerations for the NFL and football fans in general, in light of a recent study about chronic traumatic encephalopathy in former football players.

“This could be akin to the tobacco companies sitting on information about the harms of tobacco,” Skeet said. “They do have obligations to their employees to keep them safe. Whether that’s written down in the law or you see that as a moral obligation, it’s considered a basic fundamental. You should be able to do your work safely.” (AP Photo/Peter Anfrews)

In an interview by Crux, Brian Green discusses future ethical considerations regarding the growing influence of artificial intelligence.

"Ultimately, AI gives us just what all technology does - better tools for achieving what we want," Green said. "The deeper question then becomes 'What do we want?' and even more so 'What should we want?' If we want evil, then evil we shall have, with great efficiency and abundance. If instead we want goodness, then through diligent pursuit we might be able to achieve it." (Credit: Dr. Michel Royon/Wikimedia Commons.)

"My term at Berkeley probably saw more major crises of one kind or another than anyone since maybe the 1960s," Dirks said. 

"When we got the tweet on the morning of February 2nd, when I woke up and I saw that the president had tweeted against Berkeley threatening us with the cancellation of all federal funds, that raised the stakes in a way that once again was unprecedented," Dirks continued.

Excerpted from a video on KPIX 5 News. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

In an article for the Los Angeles Times, Kirk Hanson comments on USC's medical school scandal, suggesting that President C.L. Max Nikias likely ought to recuse himself from the ongoing investigation.

“It would be best practice to have the board supervise the investigation and discuss findings without him present,” Hanson said. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

In an article for the San Francisco Chronicle, David DeCosse objects to the libertarian argument for "freedom" as it pertains to a person's decision to get health care insurance.

"'Freedom' in an American political context is a potent word," DeCosse says. "But it has proved an unsuccessful battle cry in the health care debate because the notion of freedom invoked by the opponents of Obamacare is deeply incorrect.

"Misplaced pride about freedom...blinds one to the vulnerability of others," DeCosse says. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

In an article for The Mercury News, Ann Skeet writes about the challenging choices CEOs and other business leaders face.

"An attribute of effective, ethical leadership is having courage to act on one’s convictions," says Skeet. "Moral judgment is developmental, and my expectation is that people serving as CEOs and directors have well-developed consciences that aid them in making decisions in moments when they must choose between competing interests."

Kirk Hanson, the executive director of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University, provides excellent advice to avoid the ethical slippery slope.

• Listen to your instincts: Don't disregard that disquieting feeling when something doesn't feel right or your being asked to do something that makes you uncomfortable.
• Look for backup: Approach others in the organization that you believe have a good 'moral compass' whose values will stand strong in the face of bad behavior.
• Collect Information: Gather information to support your own behavior and make it clear that even though an action may be acceptable in the organization you will not act in the same way.
• It's never too late to pull back:While it is challenging to reverse course on the ethical slippery slope, one can change behavior once the moral issues have been identified and risks of certain behaviors are considered.

Excerpted from an article in Workplace Ethics Advice.

Faculty scholar Jo-Ellen Pozner is quoted in an article in The Independent about Silicon Valley tech companies speaking out and taking action against bigotry, following the violence that took place in Charlottesville.

“There’s an evangelist streak to a lot of the companies that get attention,” said Pozner. “If you’re putting that front and center in your corporate mission and vision and the communications you have internally and externally, and you’re confronted with a value-based challenge - you said you’re a company that wants to make the world a better place, and now you have to do it.” (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

An article in Catholic San Francisco discusses Brian Green's work with the Order of Preachers for Technology, Information and Communication (OPTIC) to engage technology companies in conversations about building a more ethical world.

“Technology makes us more efficient at the courses of action that we choose, good or evil, and we should want to be efficient at doing good and inefficient at doing evil," Green said. "If we are instead efficient at evil and inefficient at good we will live in a terrible world.” 

In an article for The Mercury News, Yael Kidron discusses the need for character education in shaping the moral compass of Generation Z.

"Character education is the deliberate, proactive attempt to foster the skills, attitudes, motives and beliefs that lead to pro-social and ethical behavior," Kidron says. "Character education is less prevalent in secondary than in elementary schools, although it is critically important in adolescence," she adds.

In an article for The Wichita Eagle about Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach's role in a lawsuit involving a Kansas company, Hana Callaghan discusses the obligations of government officials to preserve trust.

“Privately suing an entity you are sworn to serve may give rise to an appearance of impropriety and bias,” Callaghan said. (AP Photo/Ed Zurga)

In an article for The Center for Public Integrity, Ann Skeet comments on the implications of companies contributing money to both the Republican Attorneys General Association and the Democratic Attorneys General Association.

The implicit dilemma is that political spending is an action, even when companies split their contributions to the country’s two major parties down the middle, said Skeet. "There’s actually policy implications that go with the money that they spend,” she said.

As part of an initiative to rebuild trust in journalism, The Knight Foundation has provided $100,000 of funding to the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics' Trust Project. As reported in Forbes, the Trust Project is "developing open-source software toolkits to help newsrooms convey their commitment to ethics, independence and inclusive, accurate reporting to the public." Stories about the funding are also written in The Miami Herald and EContent.

In a recent article for Ozy.com, Sally Lehrman, director of Journalism Ethics, discusses the Trust Project's efforts to hold news accountable and to "try to move the whole field in the direction of improving quality, rather than suppressing the worst. The worst will start to fall away if we don’t pay attention to it.” (AP Photo/Mike Groll)

Irina Raicu, director of internet ethics, comments on NBC Bay Area News regarding the congressional hearing that will determine whether or not Apple must create a new operating system to help the FBI access the iPhone of the San Bernardino shooter.

"Now we're all learning about cyber security, and encryption, and a little bit about the law, and how the government can pursue certain things," Raicu said. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)

Margaret McLean, director of Bioethics, discusses California's new End of Life Option Law in an article for the Lincoln News Messenger by Trina Kleist.

“I should be able to make decisions about when and how I die," said McLean. "It’s a logical extension of my decision-making authority. It’s arguably the most important medical decision I will ever make.”

This article was also published in Loomis News and The Union.

In an article by Lauren Carroll for PolitiFact, Ann Skeet discusses the potential personal benefits the Clintons receive from their foundation, and whether or not it's an ethical concern.

"The reason people start charities in their name and donate significant amounts of money often boils down to a desire to feel like they’re contributing to a cause they care about or to increase their standing in the community, Skeet said. These are, however abstract, a form of personal benefit."

"'All donors to all organizations give for a reason you can tie back to personal benefit,' she said." (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

In a Financier Worldwide article, Kirk Hanson and Ann Skeet comment on an increased interest in ethics in business.

“Major scandals in previously respected companies over the last two years have shaken public confidence that they will be well treated by companies,” says Hanson.

“Companies that invest in creating ethical communities and cultures can expect better business results and avert most reputational crises,” adds Skeet.

In an article for Real Clear Politics, Hana Callaghan, director of Government Ethics, discusses the dangers of vitriolic language in a presidential campaign.

"Intentional or not, Trump’s comments are incendiary “dog whistles”—veiled messages that are heard by unstable people, which can have a high likelihood of resulting in violence," Callaghan said. "Were these comments illegal threats? Obviously not. They were, however, reckless, irresponsible, and unethical." (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

In an interview with KJZZ, Internet Ethics director Irina Raicu discusses The Democracy Project, a recent collaboration with The Atlantic, and the ways in which technology can both help and hinder democracy.

"A lot of [technologists] have been unaware of their own impact, of the impact of the tools that they're designing on the world that the rest of us get to live in," Raicu said. "There are different groups that need to be more aware at a more in depth level, but all of us need to be aware of the impact of technology on democracy." (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

In an article for Medical Ethics Advisor (AHC Media), Margaret R. McLean discusses the benefits of the Center's Health Care Ethics Internship program.

“Students observe clinicians’ everyday work,” says McLean. “They are directly exposed to ethical issues arising in the healthcare setting. Students develop a deep understanding of current ethical issues in healthcare, strong critical thinking skills, and compassion."

In a Sacramento Bee article, the newspaper's executive eitor and senior vice president, Joyce Terhaar, discusses how the Trust Project is working to turn the news media into a more trustworthy industry.

"The Trust Project, for instance, is using expertise from universities, media and technology companies to develop an online indicator intended to signal whether a news operation is trustworthy. If, like me, you are frustrated when supposed news sites don’t disclose who owns them or creates the stories, you might welcome an indicator." (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)

In an article for the Mercury News, Margaret R. McLean discusses the need for increased palliative care now that California has passed the End of Life Option Act.

"An ethical principle relied on by both proponents and opponents of aid-in-dying is autonomy," McLean said. "Autonomy is in play when we make our own medical decisions." "But if patients have unrelenting, unmanaged pain, can they truly exercise their autonomy; can they truly make a free choice to die in this way? If we want to ensure the autonomy of end of life choices, we need excellent, easily available palliative care, whose goal it is to relieve physical, psychosocial, and spiritual distress, treating the entire person." (AP Photo/Carrie Antlfinger)

Hana Callaghan writes in the San Francisco Chronicle that President-Elect Donald Trump needs to be a president for all Americans so that the country can heal and come together.

"It is time Trump undertakes his first presidential act by demonstrating that he is, in fact, president for all," Callaghan said. "Mr. Trump must heal this country. He must let those who would commit hateful acts in his name know that hate will not stand in his America. Trump mustn’t let the haters steal his legacy before it has even begun. I pray that he takes to the airwaves now and not wait until he is sworn in Jan. 20. There’s no time to waste." (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

A Financial Times article by Richard Waters details Google's and Facebook's decisions to restrict ads on fake news websites, after false stories about the presidential election received high visibility.

The article reports that Sally Lehrman, director of the Journalism Ethics Program at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, "said the failure highlighted the difficulty that news distributors such as Google and Facebook, as well as internet users, had in distinguishing fake news online." (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File) Subscription Only.

In a BBC article by Jane Wakefield, Sally Lehrman discusses the growing concern about fake news on Facebook and Twitter, and how the Trust Project is working to come up with tools to improve trust in the mainstream media.

"We don't know enough yet to know how [fake news] affected the election but we do know that fake news travels rapidly and it can change the conversation, not just by misinforming people but by focusing attention on something that may not be the issue," Lehrman said. "I would be concerned if we relied on Google, Facebook and Twitter to solve the problem of trust - we have to do that for ourselves," she said. (goir | Dreamstime Stock Photos)

An article in The Philippine Star discusses an upcoming international conference for business leaders and ethicists -- Managing and Teaching Business Ethics: Global Trends and Challenges. The June conference will be hosted by the Gov. Jose B. Fernandez Jr. Ethics Center at Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines, in partnership with the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics and the Lassalle-Haus Bad Schonbrunn Center for Spirituality, Dia-logue and Responsibility in Switzerland.

In a blog post for the Institute for Nonprofit News, Gabriel Hongsdusit wrote about the work that Sally Lehrman is doing with the Trust Project.

"The Trust Project is providing actionable solutions to help newsrooms foster deeper audience engagement and highlight the competency, ethics and dependability of their work," wrote Hongsdusit.

Lehrman and the Trust Project have also been mentioned in a recent story in Nieman Reports. 

Sally Lehrman, director of Journalism Ethics, has been quoted in multiple publications, such as The Guardian and The Gospel Herald regarding her leadership of The Trust Project, an organization that seeks to restore trust in the media by establishing indicators of accuracy and truthfulness in news sources. The Trust Project was also referenced in a Forbes article on fake news.

"In today's burgeoning and chaotic news ecosystem, it is difficult to parse truth from falsehood, wisdom from spin... We have seen a decline in trust in the media over a period of decades and the polarization across what types of media are trusted," Lehrman said. (© Milan Kupresak | Dreamstime Stock Photos)

In an article for the East Bay Times, Hana Callaghan writes that in order to maintain the public's trust in government, Donald Trump must avoid all conflicts of interest with his company through absolute divestment.

"We also don't know if Trump will be able to communicate with those doing business with his firm. At the very least he will be able to keep tabs on his business through the press. There will be those who try to curry favor with the President by doing business with his sons in an effort to improve the President's business position when he leaves office."  (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

In an interview with CNBC Asia, Kirk O. Hanson, executive director of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, discusses President Trump's conflicts of interest.

"Donald Trump has very effectively shielded public disclosure about his holdings throughout the world," Hanson said. "He has refused to release his tax returns, which has been a tradition for American presidential candidates in the past, and as a result American people and people elsewhere in the world simply don't know the extent of his relationships and his entanglements and his business interests. Nonetheless, I think there's a sense in which there's a feeling we've got to somehow get a handle on that, in order to judge whether the provisions that he has made for 'insulating himself' are adequate enough." (CNBC Asia)

In an article for KQED by Anne-christine d'Adesky, Director of Bioethics Margaret R. McLean comments on the health concerns involved in homemade epinephrine devices.

“There is always user error,” says McLean, “That is true with FDA-approved drugs too. But the error is less if I don’t have to draw up the right amount of epinephrine myself. I’m grateful for the standardization and check on the injector itself, and that the dose in there is appropriate for me. (AP Photo/Mark Zaleski, File)

In an article for the Guardian, Internet Ethics Director Irina Raicu addresses Facebook's offer to one of Australia's top banks to provide it with information on when teenagers feel “insecure”, “worthless” and “need a confidence boost”.

“Most people don’t know this level of analysis is being done on them and there’s an imbalance of power coming from an imbalance of information,” she said.

In an article for The Wall Street Journal by Dawn Lim and Chris Cumming, Hana Callaghan comments on the business interests of Wilbur Ross, commerce secretary nominee, and what he would need to do to free himself of any ethics concerns.

According to Callaghan, Ross ought to “leave all the boards, sell everything and invest the proceeds in a blind trust with an independent manager.” (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

In an interview on Fox2, Irina Raicu finds no censorship in Facebook's efforts to screen live-streamed crime and suicide.  

"We are talking about something so clearly harmful to the people both to the victims and to all the people victimized by even watching,” said Raicu.

In an article for Patch by Marc Torrence, Government Ethics  Director Hana Callaghan comments on a lawsuit filed against President Trump which claims he has received payments from foreign governments, thus breaking the "emoluments clause" of the constitution.

“The problem that we have is that there really has been no litigation defining what emoluments mean," said Callaghan. “One thing that the president could do would be to divest and all this would go away." (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

In an interview with Jason Middleton from KGO, Kirk Hanson discusses consumer ethics, corporate social responsibility, the implications of artificial intelligence, and many other ethical issues.

"Ethics is really relevant to every decision a business makes, but it's also relevant to the kind of decisions we as the consumers makes," Hanson said. "We could talk about the ethics of whether the business treats you fairly, whether the products are as advertised, whether they're available." But also "there are questions though about the ethics of customers. Should customers use their values in choosing where to do business?"

In an article for Fox 26 News, Sally Lehrman describes the efforts of the Trust Project to provide transparency regarding the media.

"We hope that our trust indicators become the new standard, that's what we're aiming for," said Lehrman. "It's more about creating transparency of what are the workings behind the news, what goes into a quality story." (Photo credit: Terry Johnston)

In an article for The Christian Science Monitor by Ben Rosen, Director of Leadership Ethics Ann Skeet weighs in on the the prospect of more MLB players suspected of steroid use getting voted into the Hall of Fame.

"Ann Skeet agrees these players’ induction into the Hall of Fame sends the wrong message to young fans, but says one solution is players publicly acknowledging their decisions to use PEDs was wrong." (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

In an article for National Catholic Reporter, Director of Campus Ethics David DeCosse writes about the ongling Catholic relief efforts to assist those affected by the 2011 tragedies of the Great East Japan earthquake and the subsequent tsunami and nuclear reactor meltdown.

"However far the repair of the physical environment has gone, the repair of the spirit remains a profound challenge," DeCosse writes.

In a KALW program, Sally Lehrman participated on a panel discussing America's continued and increasing distrust in the media and how the economics of journalism might be undermining our trust in the press.

"We look to these basic traditional types of news organizations for information but we're also getting information through these mediums and news distribution platforms...such as Facebook, and Google search and Twitter," Lehrman said. "So that's why it's important to think about where are we really getting our information because it's coming from the news organizations that are producing it, but then it can be distributed through a lot of different means and in this environment sometimes it's hard to tell where the information is coming from and whether you're really looking at a news article produced through traditional journalistic practices and ethical practices." (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)

In an interview that ran on both KGO and KOFY, Ann Skeet discussed the decision of various Silicon Valley businesses to formally oppose President Trump's executive order temporarily banning citizens of seven countries from entering the United States.

"Leaders who are gonna have the most impact in terms of being ethical leaders are gonna put some energy into the design of the system that they're operating within and they're gonna accept some responsibility for that," said Skeet.

In an article for MarketWatch, Hana Callaghan discusses President Trump's ongoing business entanglements with foreign governments.

"You might ask, why should we care if the Trump Organization does business with foreign governments?" said Callaghan. "Public officials have a duty to put the public’s interest before their own. They also have a duty to preserve trust in government by avoiding even the appearance of impropriety. By enriching himself through doing business with foreign governments, the president raises questions about his foreign policy motives.

In an article by Michelle Quinn for VOA, Kirk Hanson comments on the stance many Silicon Valley companies have taken against President Trump's travel ban.

“The tech industry is the natural rallying point for the global values that most of America espouses,” said Hanson. “It's a self-interested battle because the industry is the most diverse by national origin compared to any industry in the U.S. and is a substantial user of temporary visas. This is an issue they are ready to address.” (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

In an article for Denton Record-Chronicle by Peggy Heinkel-Wolfe, Government Ethics Director Hana Callaghan comments on concerns that the daughter of a Denton City Council member has been hired to run a city-funded organization.

Since one of the most important duties elected officials have is the fiduciary duty to taxpayer money, "that means the public comes before your family sometimes," said Callaghan. (Photo Credit: Tomas Gonzalez/DRC)

In an article for Santa Clara Magazine, David DeCosse and Brian Green discuss the recent use of chemical weapons, and the ethical boundaries that must be upheld in times of war.

"Even in the hell of the Syrian civil war, the use of chemical weapons crossed an unacceptable line of inhumanity," said DeCosse and Green. "But how does the American response fit into larger questions of just war theory; the history of chemical weapons; and recent technical developments in such weapons?" (Photo by OMAR HAJ KADOUR/AFP/Getty Images)

In an article for The Sookmyung Times, the Ethics Center's Keith Yocam is interviewed about the growing popularity of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) at Santa Clara University, Korea and other universities worldwide.

“6000 students from all around the world and at least students from 65 countries are participating now,” said Yocam about the SCU online courses. The Center currently offers two Business Ethics MOOCs: Business Ethics for the Real World, and Ethics for Managers. As of today, students from 119 countries have enrolled in one of the four MOOCs that have been provided by the MCAE. (Photo by SMT)

In an article for the San Francisco Chronicle, David DeCosse applies the simple notion of the Golden Rule in evaluating the legitimacy of the Supreme Court.

"In the case of the Senate GOP’s refusal to consider [Obama nominee Merrick] Garland, the departure from fair procedures and the spirit of fair play (which sounds quaint but refers to the ethical glue that keeps us as a people bound by the Constitution) erode the basis of legitimacy," said DeCosse. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

In an article for the San Francisco Chronicle, director of Internet Ethics, Irina Raicu, writes a Valentine to Silicon Valley.

"What might look like a 'coastal elite' bubble or a tech bubble from afar looks quite different close up," Raicu said. "Sure, Silicon Valley has much to be criticized for. But it also has much to love."

In an article for AP by Arek Sarkissian, Sally Lehrman comments on the work The Trust Project is doing to restore trust in the media.

"What we hope to do is elevate the quality of journalism that you will see online," Lehrman said. "With all of the fake news you see out there, people didn't know where to turn to. The project will help readers become better informed."

Lehrman also discusses the work of The Trust Project in greater detail in this interview with Watershed Media.

In an article for recode, Irina Raicu questions whether or not news stories should continue to be a part of Facebook's newsfeed.

"Keeping up with the news is important," Raicu says. "Communicating with friends and family is important, too. But maybe it’s time to separate the “news” from the newsfeed again — not because either of them is unnecessary or frivolous, but because they deserve different kinds of attention. Blended together, they now blur into a whole less meaningful than its parts." (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

In an article for The Christian Science Monitor, Kirk Hanson comments on a lawsuit filed by a small San Francisco clothing chain against Ivanka Trump's brand.

“There’s no question that the prominence of the Trump family in government creates advantages in the commercial world,” said Hanson. “The Trump brands will generate an unending series of lawsuits over the next four years because the conflict of interest is real and unresolved.”

“To my knowledge, this is the first time a first family has had so many business conflicts of interest in American history,” he added. “We will learn a lot from the next four years, and it may lead to a reassessment of our ethics laws and exemptions we grant for the president and for advisors who don’t hold formal White House jobs.” (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

In an article for The Mercury News, Hana Callaghan discusses the need for transparency in local, state and federal government.

"The president should sign an executive order requiring that digital communications between executive branch employees be transmitted in such a way as to allow retention for the public record," says Callaghan. "Likewise, the State of California should update its open government laws to prohibit the use of private email accounts and devices to conduct public business." (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)

In an interview with Madame Mars, Margaret McLean discusses the ethical issues involved in our potential presence on Mars.

"The decisions we make and the actions we take will likely have a larger impact on future human generations and potential Martian life forms than they have on us," McLean said. (AP Photo/NASA/JPL)

In an article for Daily Press, Hana Callaghan comments on the circumstances of a real estate acquisition in Victorville, CA, and potential wrongdoing by a local councilman/realtor.

"In situations like this, it raises red flags and it may cause the public to wonder, is he acting in the public's best interest or is he acting in his client's best interest?" said Callaghan. "Is this a case where his client got insider knowledge or an inside track that wasn't available to other potential purchasers of the land?" (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)

In an article for National Catholic Reporter, Campus Ethics Director David DeCosse reviews the book Silence by Shusaku Endo.

"Who hasn’t thought that God can be agonizingly silent? Silence is a masterpiece of the examination of this reality of the human condition," DeCosse writes.

In an article for Market Watch by Therese Poletti, Leadership Ethics Director Ann Skeet comments on the ethical red flags for investing in new public companies like Snap.

According to Skeet, some companies have a complex company ownership structures with various classes of stock and limited or no voting rights, and "that lack of transparency is causing some investors to sit on the sidelines.” (Photo credit: AdamPrzezdziek)

In an article for American Libraries, Journalism Ethics Director Sally Lehrman comments on how the Trust Indicator her team is working on will help restore trust in the media.

“These icons would be cognitive shortcuts to route readers to more reliable sources of news,” Lehrman notes. The article also indicates that the Trust Indicator should be available for media use by the middle of 2017. (Photo credit: Terry Johnston)

In an article for IAPP, Internet Ethics Director Irina Raicu comments on the challenges of creating a code of ethics for the privacy profession.

“Many times people feel privacy is very important but needs to be balanced against other rights," said Raicu. "It makes it really difficult to develop a code of ethics.”

In a segment for NBC Bay Area, Leadership Ethics Director Ann Skeet notes Travis Kalanick's willingness to take responsibility for his recent fracas with an Uber driver but suggests that the CEO's behavior may be taking a toll on the company.

"I do think you have to start asking yourself if there isn't broader reputational risk to the company in having this person as their CEO," Skeet said.

In an article for The Mercury News, Executive Director Kirk O. Hanson and The Tech Museum of Innovation's CEO, Tim Ritchie, discuss the need to apply an ethical framework to the development, use and application of new inventions coming out of Silicon Valley.

"The potential of artificial intelligence, big data, biotech and other breathtaking technologies gives us reasons to cheer," write Hanson and Ritchie. "These technologies will help us cure diseases, increase prosperity and live sustainably. But we also need to aggressively address the complicated ethical choices that accompany each breakthrough."

In an NBC News article, Hana Callaghan comments on the impact that leaked information can have on government.

"A lot of the ethics laws that govern the different agencies and branches of the federal government came about as a result of Watergate," Callaghan said. "The Office of Government Ethics was created after that." (AP Photo)

In an article for Deseret News by Tad Walch, Ann Skeet discusses the ethical issues involved when groups like MormonLeaks decide what information they will release to the public.

"It's very fair to ask people to tell you, 'What are the parameters you're using, what are the guidelines you're using to decide these things?' " Skeet added. "It doesn't mean that person has to, but it also doesn't mean anybody has to pay attention to that person. There's plenty of people who post stuff and blog stuff all the time." (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

Not all of the lawmakers were as stern as they addressed the CEO of a $486 billion company, leaving the question of regulation an uncertainty, at best.

“I heard … congressmen who directly asked for help in connecting their constituents to the internet,” said Irina Raicu, director of the internet ethics program at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University. “They’re supposed to take him to task, not ask for help.”

Quoted from an article in Mercury News about Mark Zuckerberg's testimony for the use of Facebook data to target American voters in the 2016 election. 

"According to Hana Callaghan, director of government ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University, elected officials have a clear ethical responsibility to provide transparency and accountability to the people they serve, even if they do not have a legal one.

“'Just because something is legal doesn’t necessarily mean it’s ethical,' she said."

Hana Callaghan quoted in ABC6 (AP Photo/Evan Vucci).

"As Ann Skeet, Senior Director of Leadership Ethics at the Markkula Center of Applied Ethics, explains in an article, 'Ethical leadership creates an environment where the goals and values of people working in the organization align with its mission.' If a leader is committed to ethical behavior, he or she should be able to make the decision that’s best for the company — even if that decision is against the leader’s best self-interest. It's often a case of choosing the greater good and putting your own ego aside."

Ann Skeet quoted in Forbes.

"'Companies are faced with particular challenges whenever they're dealing with countries that are under totalitarian regimes, because they're a bit more mercurial,' warns Don Heider, head of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University. Plus, with social media, he says, 'the speed at which information travels, and your reputation can be damaged, has increased exponentially.'"

Don Heider quoted in Inc.

In reference to Google's agreement to pay nearly $1.25 million to fund two Sunnyvale city staff positions, Hana Callaghan says that the agreement appears to create a conflict of interest given the scale at which Google is growing within the city. When asked if the arrangement was made to buy influence, Callaghan answered, "Even if that wasn't the intended effect, it certainly gives the appearance that that might be what is the motivation behind it." Callaghan added, "Even if they agree that they won't get special treatment, is that actually what in fact is going to happen?" 

Hana Callaghan, director of Government Ethics, quoted on NBC Bay Area.

“There are a lot of people suddenly interested in A.I. ethics because they realize they’re playing with fire. And this is the biggest thing since fire.”

Brian Patrick Green, director of Technology Ethics, quoted in CB Insights.

"Ann Mongoven thinks that it is 'almost impossible for modern medicine and research' to be conducted without conflicts of interest. But when it comes to inaccurate disclosures, Mongoven said it comes down to three possibilities: 'Sloppiness, deliberate deceit or highly questionable distinction-making.'"

"Mongoven said that disclosures are an acknowledgement that scientists may not be the best judges of distortion when they stand to benefit financially from a published finding. She likened disclosures to a community check on the way financial incentives may cloud concluding judgements."

Ann Mongoven, associate director of Health Care Ethics, quoted in Yale News.

“People may well watch something in horror and still not report it,” said Irina Raicu, director of the Internet Ethics Program at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University. “Reports suggest that there was a pre-planned, coordinated effort to modify the video so that it would evade automatic detection; the people who posted such versions are much more of a concern than those who just watched but didn’t report it.”

Irina Raicu, director of Internet Ethics, quoted in The Mercury News.

"I think this was a great missed opportunity. It left me wondering who, within Google, was involved in the decision-making about whom to invite. (That decision, in itself, required diverse input.) But this speaks to the broader problem here: the fact that Google made the announcement about the creation of the board without any explanation of their criteria for selecting the participants. There was also very little discussion of their reasons for creating the board, what they hoped the board's impact would be, etc. Had they provided more context, the ensuing discussion might have been different.

"There are other issues, too; given how fast AI is developing and being deployed, four meetings (even with a diverse group of AI ethics advisors), over the course of a year, are not likely to have meaningful impact--i.e. to really change the trajectory of research or product development. As long as the model is agile development, we need agile ethics input, too."

Irina Raicu, director of Internet Ethics, quoted in MIT Technology Review.

Hana Callaghan, a government specialist at Santa Clara University’s Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, said voters might want to consider both the gravity of any candidate’s offenses and the person’s age at the time.

Among the questions voters should ask, she said: “What was the violation? Was it egregious? What does it say about their character – do they believe the rules don’t apply to them?” If substantial time has passed, she added, voters should decide whether the person “learned the error of their ways and no longer engages in those kind of behaviour.”

Hana Callaghan, director of Government Ethics, quoted in The Guardian and Reuters.

"Their attention has primarily been getting markets onto product and maximizing profits, rather than these safety issues. And I think time and time again the safety issues have to start taking precedent."

Don Heider, executive director, quoted in an ABC 7 News story.

"We get a lot of coverage of where is Trump, what's he doing, who's he talking to...and much less around the lived experiences of people who are presumed to be part of the voting electorate. So with a solidarity approach to covering elections, it shifts focus from elite candidates, elite supporters, elite parties and instead looking at where most of the country is which is on the ground, doing the work, and trying to engage not just in politics that happen on the first Tuesday of November every four years but engaging in politics year round."

In this recent article, "How Social Media Has Harmed the Growth of Democratic Culture by Design," published on the Berkley Forum, Subbu Vincent, direcetor of journalism & media ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics addresses how social media platforms by design have for a long time offered equal opportunity to sellers of “Big Lies,” conspiracy theories, and political disinformation.

Subbu Vincent, senior director, journalism & media ethics, published on the Berkley Forum, a publication of The Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University. 

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Thursday he was changing the name of the company ‘Meta’ and described the creation of a futuristic metaverse claiming that privacy and security would be approached with humility and openness.

Don Heider, executive director, expressed doubts.

"They have not moved forward with humility on their basic product, on their basic platform."

"Do we trust them not to emotionally manipulate us?", Heider asks. "The answer is, at this point, no, because they do not have a good track record in this area."

Don Heider, executive director, interviewed about Facebook's rebranding announcement by CBS KPIX.

Is alien life out there in the universe, and if so what does that mean for humanity and faith practices? How have our notions of space evolved along with science and spirituality? Brian Green discussed this and more on the Drew Mariani Show podcast. 

In conversation about the evolution from the heavens to space, Brian Green said "This transition of something that has gone from the sacred to the secular has really opened up a lot of risk in the way we interact with space... there's thinking of touching the heavens, which can lead to problems of hubris and pride."

Brian Green, director, technology ethics and author of "Space Ethics", interviewed on the Drew Mariani Show.