Shame: still a powerful weapon in the 21st century
Public shaming was a frequent punishment in the middle ages and other long-gone times. The offender was placed in the stocks in the center of the village or town, and passers by invited to ridicule or humiliate the unfortunate individual. It was still relatively common in the United States well into the 19th century, fell into disuse during the last century, and has been used occasionally in recent years by a few judges in cases such as drunk driving, bullying, fraud, and other offenses about which the courts might wish to raise public awareness.
A Canadian cable television company has decided to publish on its Facebook page the names of customers who haven’t paid their bills, having racked up debts between €100 to up to €1,000. The idea, which comes after other efforts to get these recalcitrant customers to pay their bill, came from an employee who argued that the best way to do so is to name and shame. The company consulted its lawyers first to make sure it wasn’t breaking the law by doing so.
But the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada doesn’t agree with this approach, and has called on the company to remove the data about its non-paying customers. The company has agreed to do so, but not before enduring heavy criticism for making information public that should remain between a supplier and the customer. Obviously, if somebody can’t pay their bills for whatever reason, publishing their name on Facebook — even if it eventually leads to payment — is clearly unethical and not the best way to sort out the problem or help the person in financial trouble.
Does a company have the right to pursue such a strategy? In Spain, where I live, the state can publish information about certain debts it is owed in the official state gazette. And given that the offenders in such cases are not normally well known, what typically happens is that when they are googled, this is the first result that appears. Companies have long come to terms with such practices, and are used to seeing their names plastered on the social networks by irate customers. So should private individuals receive better treatment?
Given how easy it now is to expose somebody simply by typing in a few details to a social network, we are likely to see much more of this type of behavior. Should the right to be paid override the right to privacy? Will these practices become widespread, and will we see a return to public shaming through the media in the 21st century?
(En español, aquí)
