Discuss about the Business Ethics for Issues Management.
In the age of information, data privacy has become a pressing issue for IT managers. There is a huge data to handle for them and as discussed in the article by Jeff Relkin in “10 ethical issues confronting IT managers” depicts the major issues of ownership, control, privacy, accuracy and security. These broad themes categorize major security related incidents across the globe. This depicts the basic violation of the Right to Privacy in the name of security and scrutiny.
We will talk about the case of employees being monitored by companies in terms of what sites they visit and other personal details that trends and analytics can suggest on their behavior. We will also look at the case of Facebook and Google sharing data with the government and how can government wield control through this personal data.
Let us first look at what is the ethical issue concerning our stakeholder base. In case of data sharing of companies with for example banks and credit based institutions depicts the basic privacy violation of personal data for misuse by credit card companies. We can see this violation in the type of service they try to offer the customer since they already understand the same with the data shared to them. The use of analytics to generate patterns is in the ambit of the law but use of personal information cannot be considered within the boundaries (Borghoff and Pareschi 2013)
Moving onto the data about sites visited and also the data about the hyperlinks that are clicked. The redirection pages are actually of interest to the employee and can be a fodder to analytics based companies to judge interest.
Facebook releases user reports containing birth and other personal data for government reports. But as per a lot of insiders from the company the government has been pressing for more information. The posts and likes of an individual are also monitored closely by the government and its agencies (Slade and Prinsloo 2013). Massive amounts of data is stored on user patterns in the Facebook data center, thus technology has changed the way data can be amassed and shared. The two types of data sets can be cross referenced and there could be more policing issues if the data is shared without the approval of the individual in question. The designs have always been revolutionary. In the recent edition they have gone wireless. They are also trying to work on holographic analytics screens. This can lead to even more scrutiny of information.
Now let us look at the issue of ethical obligations versus legal obligations to help in understanding data privacy issues. The ethical avenues are very popular and help in the understanding of what information must organizations like Facebook and Google share. They have an ethical obligation to share only some data regarding contact details or birthdates. But there is definitely an ethical obligation to not share data which can cause unrest for the individual. This data can be used to unnecessarily harass an individual with the kind of power government agencies have. We can also see that there are issues of control (Weiss 2014).
The IT companies have been using these for innovation in Artificial intelligence and other pioneering technologies that lead to analytics framework development. The industry reports suggest a technology based on cloud and mobility. They are thus looking at the usage of “SMAC” concept with in their technology framework.
Now let us look at the data usage of organizations for their internal purpose when it comes to employee data. There are always non-disclosure agreements signed by employees. But every employee has a salient past and that experience in the form of information becomes an infringement of privacy. The kind of websites the employee visits when they do not work or say in the time they use the official laptop for personal purposes, depicts the nature of such a concern (Schwalbe 2015).
Under recent reports, 78 percent of data stolen from organizations is the cause of low security and “dumpster diving”. Also the same percentage of close to 80 percent of the organizational crime is due to the inside job and insider trading. Hence the role of security is paramount in these situations. But how far can security infringe upon the free will of individuals and their right to privacy is a cause of concern (Quinn 2014). Then we can also see that what an individual supports and what he or she doesn’t becomes a public domain thing but an analysis on these is a cause of concern.
The ethical obligation of the stakeholders are thus huge. Let us take the Facebook example, Facebook has data about what an individual supports and what he or she doesn’t. It also has information about what they like and what they don’t. Such an information can cause immense problems for individuals who are being tracked and targeted for purchase. Back in 2013, two major news networks reported about Facebook sharing data to government agencies. Thus the sharp line between privacy violation and security concerns is breached. We can look at this with the help of an in-depth analytics of such data. They will reveal future trends and other growth avenues. Thus the efforts seem seamlessly driven and can cause issues (Cherry and Jacob 2015)
Looking the obligation of government towards general population we can see that since most of the governments that are elected by the people such data usage by government agencies to monitor and control individuals is a huge issue for them. They are monitoring people’s behavior without their prior permission. This is in violation of the right to privacy. A number of intelligence officers had pointed out that the surveillance program was so powerful that they could monitor the ideas and thought process of individuals as they type something.
We can see that there is a thin line between the way information can be treated in the debate for privacy and security. There has to be no unnecessary scrutiny of an individual. There has to be a guiding principle of Australian security debate and we will also see what the guiding principles of Australian Computer Society are (Slade and Prinsloo 2013). Thus we need to decipher the amount and the type of information that goes out to other agencies. Also private agencies must not have access to such information. Even if this is available in public domain, if an individual objects to a restricted list of audience for his or her views it must be kept like that.
There are six guiding pillars of the Australian Computer Society, these are the primacy of public interest this talks about the free will of individuals over their personal, business and sectional interests. Next comes the enhancement of the quality of life this relates to the enhanced quality of life by those affected by work. Then comes the discussion of honesty and (Hill, Jones and Schilling 2014) representation of skills and knowledge in an honest manner. Then comes competence and the overall resoluteness and diligence in work. Lastly we talk about professionalism and personal development. These are the six guiding principles that help in understanding of an individual.
Then we can also look at the effects of these guidelines on the way IT managers can function and decide on what can be shared and what cannot be shared.
Conclusion
As we saw in the report, how important is the violation of the right to privacy. A number of intelligence officers had pointed out that the surveillance program was so powerful that they could monitor the ideas and thought process of individuals as they type something.
The ethical avenues are very popular and help in the understanding of what information must organizations like Facebook and Google share. They have an ethical obligation to share only some data regarding contact details or birthdates. Thus the study of psychographics is a cause of concern for us. We can also see how this can lead to troubles for individuals.
The use of analytics to generate patterns is in the ambit of the law but use of personal information cannot be considered within the boundaries. Thus these boundaries must not be violated to infringe upon the privacy of any individual. The amount of surveillance must therefore be curtailed and cannot be allowed to proceed further. Thus the thin line between the two must not be crossed in any given way. The designs have always been revolutionary. In the recent edition they have gone wireless can lead to further issues of privacy and security breaches.
As per the ACS recommendations, representation of skills and knowledge in an honest manner. Then comes competence and the overall resoluteness and diligence in work. This is thus important for employees to understand.
References
Weiss, J.W., 2014. Business ethics: A stakeholder and issues management approach. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
Cherry, B. and Jacob, S.R., 2015. Contemporary technology: Issues, trends, & management. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Schwalbe, K., 2015. Information technology project management. Cengage Learning.
Borghoff, U.M. and Pareschi, R. eds., 2013. Information technology for knowledge management. Springer Science & Business Media.
Friedman, B., Kahn Jr, P.H., Borning, A. and Huldtgren, A., 2013. Value sensitive design and information systems. In Early engagement and new technologies: Opening up the laboratory (pp. 55-95). Springer Netherlands.
Hill, C.W., Jones, G.R. and Schilling, M.A., 2014. Strategic management: theory: an integrated approach. Cengage Learning.
Quinn, M.J., 2014. Ethics for the information age. Pearson.
Rainer, R.K., Cegielski, C.G., Splettstoesser-Hogeterp, I. and Sanchez-Rodriguez, C., 2013. Introduction to information systems: Supporting and transforming business. John Wiley & Sons.
Slade, S. and Prinsloo, P., 2013. Learning analytics ethical issues and dilemmas. American Behavioral Scientist, 57(10), pp.1510-1529.
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