Regional Roundtable: Ethical, Responsible, and Inclusive Use of Technology

Speakers:

• Marcelo Cabrol, Chief Scalability, Knowledge and Impact, IDB Lab
• Raúl Echeberría, Executive Director, Asociación Latinoamericana de Internet (ALAI)
• Rachel Gillum, Global Head of Policy, Ethical and Humane Use of Tech, Salesforce
• Ragnhild Melzi, Vice President of Public Policy Programs and Corporate Relations, Americas Society/Council of the Americas (moderator)

Technology has taken a leading role in our lives and in the world, but its proliferation presents challenges. In this interactive roundtable discussion—done in partnership with Salesforce —experts from different sectors discussed how the private sector and society can work together to ensure the responsible use of technology. The panelists covered consumers' rights to privacy, education, and ethical issues.

Salesforce's Rachel Gillum said companies must be intentional about cultivating diverse perspectives so as to reach more inclusive results. Gillum presented several practices to help accomplish this: “creating a recruiting team dedicated to identifying and recruiting diverse candidates, inclusive hiring training for all hiring managers, as well as diversity training for managers to keep an inclusive environment and to know how to support a diverse employee base,” she said. IDB Lab's Marcelo Cabrol stated, “There are clear returns from [fostering inclusivity in tech]. We are more productive and efficient now that we are a more diverse management team than we used to be.”

On the topic of privacy, ALAI's Raúl Echeberría said, "There are two gaps in internet privacy: one is of expectations and the other gap concerns information." He explained many consumers are unaware their data is managed by internet companies.

The round table was the closing session of a tour from Salesforce—which consisted of five sessions with government representatives and journalists from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico—where they discussed the ethical, responsible, and inclusive use of technology.

This roundtable is part of AS/COA Tech Series.