Ethical And Social Issues For Computer Information Systems

Ethical issues from the perspective of stakeholders involved

Discuss about the Ethical and Social Issues for Computer Information Systems.

In today’s world, most of us live depending on information technology. The world has seen a dramatic shift in intangible and tangible objects needed for interpretation, collection and analysis of the data (Casali 2014).  Organizations gather huge amount of data related to the employees, customers and stakeholders and use for various other reasons for example, improving their knowledge about the customers and thereby apply the same knowledge for making profit by capturing the shares in the market (Gutwirth et al. 2012).

Huge quantities of data are measured in peta bytes and they can store information centrally and retrieve easily. There are at present, many issues that relate to the ethical concerns of IT professionals; however, the most important of all is the issue pertaining to security and the use of information for commercial purposes (De Hert and Papakonstantinou 2012). Organizations have the authority to obtain information from the people; however, they should be careful about the application and use of the information available. Appropriate restrictions have been imposed on them for the use of the information available. The report contains a discussion happened recently that is Face book’s unethical use of data and exploitation of the private rights of the users.

Recently, Face Book was criticized for the utilization of personal data that was available. The application of facebook authorizes access to the private data that is available on the application. The authorization is mainly for commercial purposes. Face book allows the usage of personal data to identify the behavior of third party (Fuster 2014). The data, sometimes, is also used to bombard online advertisements and other contents depending on the data provided by the users of face book.

The purpose of forming an application like face book was that people may connect easily with friends and family having a unique identify of their own. The identity was distinguishable and easily identifiable (Tankard 2012). Before a person can create a profile on face book, a number of information has to be provided so that each user experiences different user interface availability from the other user. However, may times it has been noted that the information available has been used for commercial purposes and for making profits by face book. The information that is used by Face book may comprise of photo ids, drivers license and other sensitive information that should not be in use otherwise. This has led to cause great concern among users who claim for discretion over such information (Peng and Gala 2014). Additionally, the data that is gathered by face book is used for other purposes as well and not only for commercial purpose. This has led to social criticism by face book users and it affects the integrity of the functionality of the business operations (Koops 2014).

Solving the issues with an ethical approach rather than legal approach

However, it becomes difficult to comprehend what exactly has led to violation of the privacy as the data collected was supposed to improve the overall customer experience. The reason why face book gathers information from their stakeholders is that they constantly work on improving the experience of their customer (Floridi 2014). However, the users wrongly interpret such an act and they consider it violation of privacy. Thus, it is advisable for companies to use proper data monitoring ways so that they are able to monitor and follow proper rules relating to data protection and privacy. The IT professionals have an important role to play in this regard as they have the responsibility of gathering, collecting and using the available data. The stakeholders such as the users, customers, organizations and governmental body have the responsibility to make sure that a person not having the authorization does not use the private data (Kosta 2013). The stakeholders can use their discretionary power to make sure the kind of information they are sharing with any given organization. At the same time, organizations should also ensure that they share limited amount of data that is made available to them (Ferrell and Fraedrich 2015).

One of the best ways to solve these issues is by using the ethical and social approaches rather than the legal approach. Face book is a well-known organization and if such issues are countered legally, it shall be easier for face book to escape a way out. However, if issues pertaining to security of private data is concerned it should be handled from an ethical perspective rather than legal (Treviño et al. 2014).  A legal issue spoils a good customer and seller relationship, it may provide temporary solution to the problem but it ultimately spoils the long-term relationship. Whereas, an ethical approach is always helpful as it helps in making matter better giving long-term resolution to the problem. Moreover, if security issues are dealt with a social approach they tend to consider the importance of human rights, respect and dignity appropriately (Johnson et al. 2012).  

Organizations have the obligation of using their discretionary power in making sure that they use the information available to them only up to a certain limitation. Organizations should be careful about the use of their discretionary power in such issues (Johnson et al. 2012). They should have appropriate bodies that should take care of the users having issues relating to privacy violation. It becomes important for organizations to have a body that hold others liable in case an act of privacy violation takes place. The body established should be an independent body not having the authority of influencing or being influenced due to the actions of the organizations. In the same manner, it is also an obligation on the stakeholders to be careful before sharing any information with the organizations (Tankard 2012). They should have informed knowledge about making appropriate information available to the websites. Effective compliance is possible only if it is a two way process. Blaming only one party for such an act is not sufficient, as a stakeholder, one should also be careful in knowing the information that is to be shared with the organizations (Casali 2014). Organizations should take appropriate steps for implementation of the policies relating to data protection and take appropriate control steps for protection of the user’s information. Formation of proper data supply chain including analysis, sharing, collection, storage and disposal is important. This reduces the level of privacy violation.

Ethical obligations of all stakeholders towards each other and general population

Moreover, it is also important to determine the issues as to who should exercise appropriate control of information and to what extent. Organizations may have the power to use information for the purpose of commercial advantage however, they should, at the same time maintain contextual integrity. One of the most sensitive violations of data privacy done by organizations is when they make the information available for the use of third parties. Organizations should be careful about such acts leading to data violation.

The ACS was established to help the business organizations from avoiding issues relating to data privacy violation. The following guidelines are provided by the ACS that should be undertaken by face book for protection from data violation acts:

Firstly, organizations should consider public interest as a priority. Their own interests should not influence organizations; rather they should consider the interest of the public as their priority. Thus, organizations should make use of the data available for convenience rather than commercial or personal use (Gutwirth et al. 2012).

Secondly, organizations should follow the principles of honesty and integrity. The data that is available to the organizations should be used for the benefit of the users rather than just for gaining commercial advantage.

Finally, organizations should be highly professional in their approach when it comes to accessing the private information available. The organizations should understand that it is their primary duty to protect the data available of their users (Casali 2014).

Conclusion:

Conclusively, it may be held from the above discussion that today’s society is driven by data involving all the aspects of life whether individual or organization. The growth in the field of information technology has allowed the government officials and business organizations to make use of the data available effortlessly. Huge organizations have the capability of collecting the data available and use it for commercial advantage. This has raised issues concerning data violation and data privacy. It is because of this reason today, that many organizations are facing litigations. These issues can be handled in a more effective manner if handled via an ethical recourse rather than legal recourse. Additionally, it is also important for organizations to understand the concept of data privacy and data violation. Organizations are liable to their stakeholders for protection of data and are answerable in cases where data violation has taken place. Stakeholders mean and include customers, houses and government officials who are responsible for protection of data available. Thus, it is important if such issues are addressed from an ethical perspective rather than legal perspective. It is also important that stakeholders comply with the ethical obligations with each other and also ensure that proper execution of laws take place that are established for protection of data privacy and data violation.

References:

Casali, P.G., 2014. Risks of the new EU data protection regulation: an ESMO position paper endorsed by the European oncology community.Annals of Oncology, 25(8), pp.1458-1461.

De Hert, P. and Papakonstantinou, V., 2012. The proposed data protection Regulation replacing Directive 95/46/EC: A sound system for the protection of individuals. Computer Law & Security Review, 28(2), pp.130-142.

Ferrell, O.C. and Fraedrich, J., 2015. Business ethics: Ethical decision making & cases. Nelson Education.

Floridi, L., 2014. Open data, data protection, and group privacy. Philosophy & Technology, 27(1), p.1.

Fuster, G.G., 2014. The Emergence of Personal data Protection as a Fundamental Right of the EU (Vol. 16). Springer Science & Business.

Gutwirth, S., Leenes, R., De Hert, P. and Poullet, Y. eds., 2012. European data protection: coming of age. Springer Science & Business Media.

Johnson, E.N., Fleischman, G.M., Valentine, S. and Walker, K.B., 2012. Managers’ ethical evaluations of earnings management and its consequences. Contemporary Accounting Research, 29(3), pp.910-927.

Koops, B.J., 2014. The trouble with European data protection law.International Data Privacy Law, 4(4), pp.250-261.

Kosta, E., 2013. Consent in European data protection law. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers.

Peng, G.C.A. and Gala, C., 2014. Cloud ERP: a new dilemma to modern organisations?. Journal of Computer Information Systems, 54(4), pp.22-30.

Tankard, C., 2012. Big data security. Network security, 2012(7), pp.5-8.

Treviño, L.K., den Nieuwenboer, N.A. and Kish-Gephart, J.J., 2014. (Un) ethical behavior in organizations. Annual Review of Psychology, 65, pp.635-660.