Online Safety...At What Price? A Conversation with Kathryn Kosmides - April 11, 2024

Executive Leadership in Business Ethics

Kathryn Kosmides, Founder, and CEO of Garbo, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving safety and trust in online communities, including dating apps.

In today’s digital age, we are connecting with more strangers than ever before. From finding love to finding a roommate, online platforms have revolutionized the way we interact today. But, between platforms underinvesting in trust and safety and violent bad actors causing harm at prolific rates, users are inadvertently and unknowingly putting themselves in harm’s way. Kathryn Kosmides founded Garbo, a tech nonprofit on a mission to proactively prevent harm in the digital age, including through a new kind of online background check. Recently, however, Garbo choose to shut down their new kind of consumer online background check and end their partnership with one of the world’s largest dating app companies. Both Garbo and Kathryn remain committed to their mission and are deeply focused on what’s next - including how we can balance privacy and protection in the digital age, changing laws that enable repeat sexual perpetrators to hide their histories of harm, and how people, platforms, and policymakers play a role.