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Information Technology Ethical Issue
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Information Technology Ethical Issue
Introduction
Information technology specifies the elements deployed to keep, fetch, and exploit data at the lower level with the server in an operating network. Information technology has a broad sector of implementations in education, health businesses, and banking sectors. With the leading enhancement in information technology, it is relevant to know ethical issues, privacy issues, security issues, and direct adverse effects of IT (Reynolds, 2014). To deal with these IT issues in society, it is vital to find the ethical issues. The main ethical issue discussed in this paper is privacy.
Privacy
Advancements in technology pose challenges that impact privacy. Users use an operating system to interact with information technology systems comprising hardware and software devices (Reynolds, 2014). As a result, the deployments of these systems on a large scale allow large data transfer, which results in the concealed opportunities of revealing data and breaching the privacy of any person. Consequently, privacy concerns have emerged because of the increased connectivity associated with large information systems. Technology has also increased the accessibility of data by reducing people’s control over their personal information, which creates the risk of data breaches (Florea & Florea, 2020). Additionally, personal information has been used to establish firms that use data-centered business models, creating data privacy risks (Florea & Florea, 2020). The use of digital technologies for government agencies and corporate surveillance has also increased privacy concerns (Florea & Florea, 2020). These concerns tend to be the main problem for IT society and companies to uphold data privacy and integrity. Accidental exposure to improper people and provision to safeguard the data accuracy also emerges in the privacy issue.
A Description of Issues Related to Privacy
In ethics, the concept of privacy is regarded as informational. Based on United States Law, constitutional privacy focuses on an individual’s freedom to make personal decisions without other people’s interference (Van den Hoven et al., 2014). An example of constitutional privacy is deciding to use contraceptives. In informational privacy, the focus is on people’s freedom to exercise control over personal information accessibility (Van den Hoven et al., 2014). Informational privacy is mainly concerned with information disclosed on social media. It refers to an individual’s right to direct or indirect control over the accessibility to personal information, methods that others can use to acquire this information, and technology used to generate, process, and disseminate information (Van den Hoven et al., 2014). Overall, ethical privacy concerns are related to informational privacy.
Ethical debates about privacy mainly involve new technologies. These technologies can range from a variety of subjects such as genetics, sensor networks, and search engines. Van den Hoven et al. (2014) note that the debates revolve around people’s reactions to the impact of new technology on personal information. One of the reactions is that people have no control over privacy in this era (Hoven et al., 2014). In contrast, other people understand the significance of protecting privacy in this digital era (Hoven et al., 2014). Ethical concerns about the use of new technology are associated with privacy.
As mentioned earlier, ethical concerns related to privacy also involve the use of personal information. Personal information refers to any data associated with an individual, such as date of birth and religion (Hoven et al., 2014). It also includes the behavioral information collected through social media and an IP address associated with someone’s computer (Hoven et al., 2014). The use of personal information depends on the industry. For example, in the higher education sector, the analytical analysis of students’ personal information has resulted in the sale of this information to third parties or education stakeholders (Florea & Florea, 2020). This practice poses ethical concerns regarding the morality and legality of those supposed to benefit from personal information.
Ethical issues related to privacy are also associated with trust. Trust is needed for users to use the services of a certain provider because the latter will have access to the former’s personal information. Ethical issues are also related to the law. In this case, a privacy breach that exposes an individual’s personal information poses a security threat. The law is used to punish those who breach someone’s privacy by violating their trust (Lee et al., 2016). Ethics are supposed to aid in determining the practices that lead to privacy preservation. Therefore, privacy violations impact trust and risk posing security threats (Solove, 2008). Commercialization of personal information has also lowered people’s trust and increased the need for controlled access to personal information. Data privacy is about entry, utilization, and collection of data and the data subject’s lawful right to the data. It also refers to the improper deployment of data, freedom from unauthorized access to private information, the right to inspect and update data, the accessibility of data content, and the information subject’s legal right to access.
Other ethical issues concerning privacy are confidentiality and anonymity. Ethical research practices recognize the use of anonymity and confidentiality because they determine privacy (Florea & Florea, 2020). In this context, privacy refers to the sharing of information selectively (Florea & Florea, 2020). In research, confidentiality ensures that an individual’s personal information is not disclosed to those with unauthorized access (Florea & Florea, 2020). Confidentiality limits access to personal information, allowing the owner to control its accessibility. On the other hand, anonymity eliminates the need for privacy by removing the link between personal information and an individual (Florea & Florea, 2020). Anonymity makes it challenging to determine the person that provided the personal information. Privacy influences confidentiality and anonymity.
Despite the ethical concerns associated with privacy, privacy should be balanced against the benefits. For example, in educational research, privacy should not outweigh the benefit of the findings (Florea & Florea, 2020). Similarly, privacy concerns could be disregarded when it is more beneficial to use the new technology. However, privacy concerns that pose a significant security threat should be considered. Ultimately, it is better to balance the benefits of the implementation of technology and privacy concerns.
How Ethical Privacy Issues Cause Harm
The unwanted sharing, disclosure, and loss of entry to an individual’s personal information may cause people serious harm. Some information tends to be more delicate than others and, thus, likely to cause individuals serious harm (Solove, 2008). Privacy tends to be about more comprehensive values than just concealing things. People need refuge from society’s eye and self-monitoring instead of living with each other’s information. In addition, by monitoring online searches and communications, organizations note, assume, and sometimes expose more than the interests and preferences that one openly expresses. Also, organizations, governments, and other institutions gather data about someone they willingly or unknowingly provide out online. The paper will talk about serious harms caused entail physical harm or intimidation, family violence, financial fraud, and psychological or emotional harm.
Lack of privacy also leads to information inequality and injustice. In most cases, individuals cannot negotiate contracts concerning the use of personal data (Hoven et al., 2014). Hoven et al. (2014) add that people cannot check whether those who collect their data respect a contract’s privacy-related terms. For example, it is difficult for a Facebook user to establish whether Facebook respects data privacy by not sharing personal data with third parties. These people can, therefore, suffer from information inequality. Information inequality is also depicted in marketing, political campaigns, and policy implementations (Hoven et al., 2014). Information injustice occurs when there is discrimination. If personal information collected in a medical setting is used in commercial transactions, a person can face discrimination. For example, employers may discriminate against a job applicant because of medical information obtained online. Therefore, personal information can have different meanings in different contexts, resulting in discrimination (Hoven et al., 2014). Overall, lack of privacy can harm someone by creating information inequality and injustice.
In addition to information inequality and injustice, lack of privacy negatively impacts human dignity and autonomy. Hoven et al. (2014) note that lack of privacy exposes people to external forces that may impact their decisions. An example is that surveillances cause people to behave in a different manner because they know someone is watching them. Hoven et al. (2014) argue that technology can violate human dignity when the use of big data application to human behavior is compared to human beings’ private mental states. Respecting privacy implies that technology places more value on human dignity.
Resolving Privacy Issue
Protecting data privacy happens to be very urgent and complicated. Privacy security is relevant due to the ubiquity of the technology-driven and information concerted environment. The requirement for data privacy protection tends to be very urgent because of multidirectional demand. Information protection is a vital information security task that assists in creating and applying strategies to guarantee that data privacy policies, guidelines, standards, and processes are adequately improved, compiled, communicated, and efficient mitigation measures are executed.
Personal privacy can get attained via technical and social resolutions. Technical solutions entail protecting data from accidental or unauthorized access. Social solutions entail developing acceptability and awareness among clients regarding whether and how information is getting deployed and doing so clearly and confidentially (Solove, 2008). In addition, workers need to commit to complying with organizational privacy regulations, and companies need to instruct them on how to evade activities that may compromise privacy actively.
Conclusion
Numerous individuals have their information spread across the digital world. Privacy tends to have evolving legal impacts, but there are ethical contemplations. Personal information is a very critical component of ethical issues in information technology. Additionally, privacy revolves around disclosing and sharing personal information by increasing accessibility to the trusted. Privacy breaches can have negative impacts that harm an individual, resulting in legal action. Privacy protection requires the use of technical and social approaches. Since the use of technology is beneficial, ethical privacy concerns and these benefits should be balanced.
References
Florea, D., & Florea, S. (2020). Big Data and the Ethical Implications of Data Privacy in Higher Education Research. Sustainability, 12(20), 8744.
Lee, W. W., Zankl, W., & Chang, H. (2016). An ethical approach to data privacy protection. Isaca Journal.
Reynolds, G. (2014). Ethics in information technology. Cengage learning.
Solove, D. J. (2008). Understanding privacy.
Van den Hoven, J., Blaauw, M., Pieters, W., & Warnier, M. (2014). Privacy and information technology. Retrieved from December 7, 2021, from https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/it-privacy/
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