Can You Stop the Emergence of Digital Corruption
Here are some digital corruption methods you need to know
The company where my friend worked had to conduct digital interviews to ensure social distancing and adherence to protocols. The conditions for such an interview were:
- Candidate and interviewer must both turn on the camera.
- Take multiple screenshots with a timestamp.
- Fill in the questionnaire, give feedback, and send it to HR and the recruiting manager.
This approach is suitable for both the candidate and the interviewer, because —
The interviewer doesn’t have to stretch for hours in the hotel and the candidate doesn’t have to wait in the hotel or on the company premises for their chance.
It’s a win-win situation for both.
But my friend’s company had a completely surprising experience during one such digital interview. This has caused HR to question whether they should really continue to interview digitally or move to physical interviews, as Covid has slowed down a bit.
A candidate came into the office for the joining process. The manager discovered that the person who came in wasn’t the one he’d interviewed. Later, HR confirmed they were two different people.
This stunned everyone. The ethics and compliance department stepped in and put the project on hold. Of course they’d to intervene in such a situation.
They suspended the contract with the vendor to provide contract staff. The candidate who showed up for the interview had interviewed similarly at five other companies, but had joined none of them. Some other unknown persons joined in all those companies.
The problem was that the recruiter doesn’t always take interviews, and it’s difficult to remember the face for days.
Recording doesn’t help either. It just adds another tedious step in the entire recruitment process. It’s not easy every time to identify the face of an applicant from the records. Also, it’s very easy to forge documents.
Covid has sped up the emergence of digital corruption by 10 to 15 years. Companies and people are still figuring out the impact on their lives. They don’t know what to do.
Some don’t even know digital corruption exists. It’s like that old artefact you think you stored safely in the attic, but when you open it after so many years, you find it broken.
The number of deaths from Covid forced companies to overhaul their entire systems and go digital.
It’s hard to find a company that doesn’t use digital payments. The government is happy because they can track the money as there’s a cap on cash transactions in many countries. Of course, it’d help to find links to black money, and will certainly curb unregulated cash transactions.
But every change brings its own challenges. Now is the right time for people, entrepreneurs and the government to understand how digital corruption can sprout up and affect people’s lives in the future.
Now is the time to stop the growth of such seeds of corruption so it doesn’t become a well-branched tree.
There’s a need to identify the places where digital corruption could thrive.
Below are some more examples that, if left unchecked, will lead to growth of digital corruption.
Exams-From-Home
In a recent case, a mother helped her son in the school exams. School conducted exams-from-home. She knew her son would fail and was desperate for him to pass the exams. Her love affected her integrity, and she helped him to cheat and score well.
No one could find out how many students cheated on online exams. It also raised doubts about the deserving candidates. If things continue like this, many kids would see a deficiency of skills only when they’d be adult. This will lead to many mental problems which are difficult to fathom at this stage.
Selling Your digital Identity
Cash donations or under the table income are on a decline. Even real estate kings are noticing this and are more cautious about cash transactions.
Digital bribery will soon replace it. Soon people will offer a digital identity with usernames and password as a bribe. Such identities with millions of followers will be in high demand in the future. For example, if someone needs a permit from an official, instead of cash, they’d offer them a digital identity with xxxxxxxx followers and xxxx regular engagement.
Emergence of an Unregulated Digital Currency
The exponential growth of cryptocurrencies has already helped people to generate wealth overnight. Governments may not track such wealth. Even companies have introduced digital currencies. Bitcoins or other types can hide black money, or people can easily use them to bribe officials, institutions and the government.
Bribery through Payment via Digital Influencers
No government has regulated earnings of digital influencers. There are no laws and no guarantee of service. Any unregulated profession will soon be a way to turn black money into white.
People will bribe by paying to digital influencers and getting the work done worth a penny by paying millions.
Selling People’s Identity
Data is the new gold. Data is intelligence, wealth, and wisdom.
Data will soon be the currency of bribery.
A public official would ask, “Give me the data of 1,000 people in this city if you need a water supply.”
No one knows how the data flows. No one knows its routes, roads and tracks.
Contributing to Someone’s Digital Identity
Imagine what would happen if 1 million people searched for your name or the name of your product on the same day. Google will spit out your name even if someone only types the first letter. They will digitally direct random people to look at you. You’ll become a digital sensation.
All of this could happen in exchange for a favour.
This is the probable future of digital corruption.
Conclusion
Digital corruption will increase as people of all ages accept this new digital world. We can’t stop the growth of the digital world, nor should we. The world needs progress in this technology. But with any growth comes exploitation and corruption. We, the people, the entrepreneurs and the government, must stop watering the seeds of corruption and prevent it from becoming a full-grown tree. The first step is the awareness. We need to be aware and create awareness of such a corruption before we get late.
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