Organic, cage‐free or home‐grown? We think about our purchasing ethics in many areas of daily life, but not often in relation to technology. As with any product, though, we should think about the effects of our actions on workers and the environment. The idea of cage‐free phones may sound silly, but for certain types of workers it’s a stark reality.

A mobile phone contains rare minerals that are often linked with violent conflicts. It is produced in difficult conditions by low‐paid factory workers. (And if you’d like to play a game showing the production story of an iPhone, have a look at PhoneStory.) A phone is also difficult to recycle safely at the end of its lifespan. Technologies like mobile phones are often, by nature, small objects purchased infrequently. It’s difficult to put our ethics on the line when the object seems so meagre in size and when you don’t buy one that often.

And it often feels like we don’t have a lot of choice in the ethics of the phones we buy. All mobile phones are produced using the same materials, and some of these come from warzones. So choosing between Samsung and HTC can feel like choosing between a punch in the face and a kick in the guts. Part of the problem is that we really feel like we have no choice but to buy a phone. Can we realistically expect to ‘go without’ a phone when our work, family and friends expect us to be available at all times? And when our carrier invites us to upgrade our phone for next to nothing every two years, what incentive do we have to slow down?

QUESTION

What initiatives could tech companies put in place to ensure they are acting ethically? Would your purchase decision be influenced if you knew one product was ‘more ethical’ than another?