Can Data Help Solve Silicon Valley’s Harassment Problem?

Could part of the answer to Uber’s sexual harassment problem be under Travis Kalanick’s pugnacious — if currently contrite — nose?

As Susan Fowler’s eloquent recent post pointed out, one of the many problems in reporting sexual harassment at a company is asymmetry of information. The company knows whether a particular person (whether an employee, customer, or contractor) has been reported for harassing behavior. Those experiencing harassment often don’t.

Lack of knowledge is a chilling factor for those experiencing harassment. Did they misunderstand? Will they be standing alone in the face of a skeptical HR machine that is often incented to bury problems rather than address them? Will they be told, as Susan Fowler reportedly was, that they are the “common theme” in the complaints?

Without complete information, even a company might have problems identifying, investigating, and terminating repeat offenders — especially a hyper-growth, personality-driven, chaotic company like Uber. Yet there are well-founded concerns and legal requirements about privacy, confidentiality, and fairness to both reporters and suspected harassers.

This is at least partly a data problem — and technology excels at solving data problems.

What if there were a tool that allowed people being harassed to log their experiences anonymously? The system would be a lockbox — those experiencing harassment could input their experiences, with corroborating evidence and a time stamp. They could choose to release that data to HR immediately or, if feeling unsafe, they could wait.

What if those being harassed could also input the identity of their harasser? The information would be released to HR only if someone else reported the same person. This would start to solve the information asymmetry problem, as well as identify patterns in behavior.

This system could be deployed internally at companies or as an external service, so patterns of harassment could be identified across employers in what is, at the end of the day, a small industry. With such a system, SVP of Engineering Amit Singhai might never have been hired at Uber in the first place — sparing the company yet another high-profile embarrassment.

Consider Callisto, a tool to support college sexual assault survivors. Callisto has partnered with colleges to provide a mechanism for survivors to record their experiences and choose when and how to report. Callisto also lets the survivor choose to report automatically if another person also reports the assailant. This is critical in campus sexual assault, where we know a relatively few predators are responsible for a large percentage of attacks.

Could a similar system be applied for sexual harassment — in fact, harassment of all kinds — in workplaces?

Tools like Callisto are not perfect. There are potential unintended consequences, such as people with similar names being accidentally flagged. But this is why HR departments — and law enforcement — have investigation mechanisms. This kind of reporting could help level the playing field and give all parties — those experiencing harassment, HR, and company leaders — more accurate and complete data on which to make decisions.

Technology will never be a complete solution to the problem of sexual harassment. As Elizabeth Weingarten of New America recently pointed out, the real solution lies in changing the social norms that make sexual harassment acceptable. Technology won’t fix brogrammer culture, or broken HR departments, or founders who have trouble acknowledging there’s a problem. What technology might be able to do is tilt the playing field a little more in favor of those experiencing harassment. I believe that is a worthwhile endeavor.

If 60% of women in Silicon Valley say they have experienced unwanted sexual advances on the job, the system is broken. And it is broken in a way that massively favors harassers because, without data, those being harassed have difficulty fighting back.

Uber has the technical knowledge and the resources to support such a system — with all the challenges around identity authentication, security, and design it would entail. Are they willing to step up and put their innovation mindset where their PR is?

Gloria Steinem recently said, “I am hopeful because hope is a form of planning.” Uber has the opportunity here to do more than hope that the public will forget about these controversies. Uber has an opportunity here to plan for — and work towards — a bigger, more inclusive, more exciting future. And that’s what I hope Uber will choose will do.

Then I might reinstall Uber on my phone.

The views expressed are my own and not that of my employer.