February 9, 2022 at 7:14 PM
Story time!
If you follow Dutch news, you probably heard of a big scandal with the tax office.
It boils down to discrimination and racism towards citizens with a double nationality The consequences of the discrimination were often catastrophic. The previous Dutch government resigned on it.
The scandal reminded me of a manager at a financial institution.
The manager (year 2015, before GDPR) was interviewing for the department I was in.
One of the questions I asked was about integrity. Could they recall a situation in which they did the right thing, regardless of outside pressure.
“Oh yes, a couple of months ago, somebody from the mortgage department came in, asking if we could associate countries with last names.”
“I said we could, but why? His answer was: people from certain countries default more often on their mortgage. The company could benefit greatly from such a model.”
“Well, in that case go f* yourself”
(They didn’t use the f* word, it’s a poetic license).
That no allowed thousands of people to buy a place to live.
That no saved the company from the public shame the Dutch tax office is going through right now — and probably millions in claims!
Companies can do great things with data. They can also do awful things with it.
The difference between the two is drawing a line and saying no.
Learn to say no.