Social And Ethical Consequences Of Computing And Information Technology

Aim of the research

In today’s world where information has become the center of all businesses and exchange of information involves billions of currencies of countries it becomes very important to understand the need for protecting and safeguarding the rights of individuals, communities and societies involved in the process. Even before this it becomes important to understand that right to protect one’s own personal details is a fundamental human right and nobody has the authority to curtail it.

The companies, firms and commercial establishments of the world function on the information databases of their customers or clients. They are also located in various nations of the world which have different and separate rules and regulations pertaining to protecting and safeguarding this information. While the need of protecting the information databases has always been talked about the practical implementations have been comparatively less. This study proposes to understand the concept of data protection in safeguarding the rights of people in the global context.

The aims of this proposed study are:

• To understand the very concept of data protection.
• To understand the concept of human rights and the need to safeguard it.
• To understand the relation between  data protection and human rights
• To understand how data protection is helpful in safeguarding human rights.

The questions of the research proposal are:

• What are the data protection laws in the global context?
• What are the human right legislations in the global context?
• What is the relation between data protection and human rights?
• How is data protection helpful in protecting human right?

The debate on data protection and human rights concerns with the privacy of individuals. This is a very sensitive issue all over the globe with governments trying to enact laws and policies trying to enforce measures on data protection in the form of laws and legislations and companies trying to adhere to them.  The increasing complexities of the economies of the countries with the financial transactions spread over the network of internet, security has become a major cause of concern. Currently, almost all the countries of the world have faced threats in relation to safeguarding the information databases in some way or the other. Moreover, with the emergence of cyber attacks, malwares, cookies, viruses and hackers data protection becomes an urgent need of the hour. Many researchers, social scientists and thinkers have discussed this need previously but the practical applications in achieving results have been very less. Therefore, this study will try to understand all these aspects and find out the distinct role data protection has in safeguarding human rights.

With the global expansion of the usage of information communication technology in all spheres of life all communication that provide details of individuals are valuable and therefore regarded as secret and private. Every person living in a society has the right to protect such personal details and acts and law enactment by governments to protect such privacy has proved this.

All democratic societies today lay emphasis on the much need to protect data and privacy of individuals. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights have focused on ‘privacy’ as a fundamental right. With the advancement of information and communication technologies there has been the emergence of challenges to protect valuable information. The progress of information systems for management of situations of crisis has also given rise to a number of issues which are ethical and legal in nature.

The approaches initially for a universal or globally synchronized interpretation of what privacy and data protection should comprise constituted the Guidelines of OECD on the Protection of Privacy and Transborder Flows of Personal Data from 1980. The European Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC [82] from 1995 are also based on similar school of thought.

Research questions

‘Data’ is widely used in carrying out various operations in our day today life. It can be defined as information which –

(a) is processed by equipments and gadgets like computers, mobiles which are operated automatically in order to give a solution to instructions given for that purpose,

(b) is recorded with the idea behind that it would be used or processed by means of such equipment in future

This highlights the fact that ‘data’ contains all details which are important for accessing information and have the possibilities of being misused. Such details could be a health record of a patient, financial details of a firm or educational records of a student. This aspect calls for the need to protect or safeguard such details which can be misused to for profitable gains. It is also very important to understand here that it is the aspect of ‘processing’ the data that is involved with security concerns. Information is stored so that they can be processed to achieve certain results but, when they are processed with a malicious intention it is then that the security issues are alarmed.

The process by which the data or important information of individuals are protected or secured from being misused can be termed as data protection.  Data protection has earned attention from all the countries of the world and some have gone a step ahead by bringing in legislations in this regard. The Data Protection Act of the UK IN 1998, the EU Data Protection Directive, are laws in this regard. International bodies like the United Nations have also recommended important issues to data protection that have increasing role to play in the world at present. The twentieth session of the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) has taken a decision in writing for the ‘promotion, protection and enjoyment of human rights’ in the internet.  The Convention 108 has also prepared guidelines to give a general framework for applying appropriate policies and measures to make the processing of data more secure.

The idea of privacy has been the center of all debates, planning, implementations and directives pertaining to data protection. Therefore it is very important to understand what privacy in context of data security issues is. The individual discretion to hold, process, disseminate or disclose personal information is termed as ‘privacy’ in context of data. Considering the need to safeguard the protection of personal right to carefully process data of individual details, it is very important to address the autonomy of processing such data. The individual person, authority, organization, agency or anybody that holds the ownership of the data has also the right to protect it.

The legislations and laws governing data protection all over the globe highlights certain key aspects. They are:

• Processing: The data or information necessary for achieving an outcome needs to be processed. Such ‘processes’ involves all ways and means to collect, utilize, calculate, organize and derive conclusions from the information.
• Control: The processing of data has to be controlled or regulated to check whether the results  derived due to processing of information lead to fruitful or harmful results.
• Authority: The processing of information rests with an individual or group with electronic means of proceeding forward with the information to arrive at conclusions. Therefore, such authority must be governed with the practice of use of fair means to achieve results that are in no way harmful.
• Guideline: There has to be a code of conduct or operations for the processing of information. Such can be obtained from the directives of a set standard of rules, regulations and laws that govern international standards.

The research methodology adopted for conducting the proposed research can be explained as the systematic method of research the researcher plans to use to conduct his or her study. It involves the different ways of collecting information as well as the use of various techniques and tools of research to arrive at the conclusion.

Rationale of the research

Research can be divided into several types depending on the application, mode of study, and purpose of study. Depending on the mode of study, research can be broadly divided into two:

• Quantitative: Quantitative research aims at finding out a solution by the use of empirical methods.  For example: a study to analyze the growth rate of industrial production of a country.
• Qualitative: Qualitative research aims at understanding or examining the qualitative aspects of a phenomenon. For example: a study to understand how the student community is impacted by the use of social media.

• Pure research: Pure or basic research is conducted to gather knowledge about some natural phenomena.
• Applied research : The study aimed at arriving at conclusions by applying certain solutions can be termed as applied research

Depending on the purpose or objective of study research can be divided into:

• Descriptive research: Descriptive research is helpful in describing characteristics of a population or phenomenon being studied.
• Correlative research: Such type of study aims at discovering the relationship that exist between two phenomenons or establish the interdependence existing between them.
• Analytical research: This type of research analyzes the information to arrive at a solution.
• Exploratory research: such research tries to explore a new phenomenon to arrive at a conclusion.

The proposed study aims at adopting a qualitative type of investigation depending on the mode of study in order to understand how the issue of data protection is related to safeguarding the human rights of individuals and groups.

In order to conduct a research it is important to collect all relevant information or data necessary for arriving at a conclusion. The methods by which such data are collected are known as the methods of data collection. There are two methods of data collection: primary method and secondary method of data collection.

Primary method of data collection involves the method of direct collection of information from relevant sources to conduct a research. Use of questionnaires, schedules and gathering direct feedback from respondents constitutes the primary data collection procedure.

While, the indirect method of collecting information from relevant sources by referring to already existing work on the concerned topic of study involves what is called the secondary data collection method.

The proposed research will try to use the secondary method of data collection by referring to the already published research papers, journals, books and references to related publications pertaining to the issue of data protection in the realm of safeguarding human rights.

While conducting a research, the researcher comes across several issues in relation to the ethical aspect of the research process. The researcher tries to study and find out relevant information in regards to his chosen topic of study. But while doing so the researcher must adhere to the ethical standards by not violating the copyright of individual authors, writers and publishers whose work he has referred to as a source of secondary data. Moreover, the purpose of a research is to add value to the already existing knowledge bases. Hence, attempts should be made to create value addition through research on a particular topic. An objective mindset and clarity of thoughts are also necessary to conduct a research that is unbiased. Biased and one sided temperament of the researcher is likely to produce results which are not correct and appropriate.

The analyzing of the gathered information in the course of study to arrive at a conclusion refers to the process of data analysis. Data analysis is mainly of two types

• Qualitative
• Quantitative

In order to arrive at the findings of the proposed research, the researcher will use the method of qualitative data analysis. Such a method is useful when the researcher does not want to use any empirical analysis for analyzing the data of the gathered for the study.  Therefore, this method will be helpful in understanding how the issues of data protection have been impacting the rights of individuals. It will also try to understand how the global laws and policies undertaken by different countries have addressed the issue of data protection encompassing the privacy of individuals, groups and communities.

Review of literature

It is very important to understand that a researcher faces various problems which tend to limit the research. The researcher faces the limitations of the lack of resources, constraints in budget and also the constraint of time.

The research plan will be divided into different chapters depending on the stages of conducting the research. The first chapter is the introductory chapter which contains the background, aim of research, research questions and the rationale of the research. The second chapter shall contain the review of the relevant literature necessary to understand the important concepts of the research and the relation that exists between them. The third chapter shall deal with the methodology of the research that aims to explain the types of research, adopted type of research, method of data collection, chosen method of data collection, data analysis, ethical issues and the limitations of the research. The fourth chapter shall analyze and discuss the findings of the research.  The fifth or the final chapter shall contain the conclusion of the entire study. The last chapter shall comprise of the reference list used for the purpose of conducting the research.

No. of stages	Stagewise activities	1st Week	2nd Week	3rd Week	4th Week	5th Week	6th Week	7th Week
1	Indentifying the topic and the selection of sources to derive secondary data
2	Review of literature
3	Description of the research methodology adopted
4	Collection of data after secondary data collection
5	Evaluation of the data to reach the findings
6	Conclusion and comparing with the objectives of the research
7	Final preparation of report
8	Submission of the report

(Source: Created by author)

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