I. Introduction
There are various ethical issues that can arise in one’s workplace. For IT companies and their employees, privacy is one of the most pertinent issues that we face today. Maintaining Privacy both at the individual and company level is highly sought for, but is hard to realize. This is because it is a common scenario that the efforts by the companies to protect company information have adverse effects in the privacy of their employees and vice versa. Employees are usually concerned with the privacy of their information and personal communication within and outside the workplace.
The workplace is an environment where individuals from their chosen fields interact with one another. Information Technology or IT, which is my chosen field of study and future career, provides a distinct workplace environment for the present employees – an environment where computers and the internet are extensively used. It is from this unique environment that the IT industry is most concerned with privacy infringement issue. IT firms, essentially rely on the information they have in order to maintain a competitive position within the said industry.
Fortunately, there are different ethical theories that are available for use in creating effective privacy implementation. Such theories include the Rights Ethical Theory and the Act Utilitarianism Theory. These two theories and their application in privacy implementation – with greater emphasis on the former – is henceforth discussed.
A workplace is a type of environment where individuals from their chosen fields interact with one another. Choosing Information Technology as my specialized field can also have issues regarding ethics in its workplace. Issues like the privacy of people using social media and other related things on the internet has been a constant debate for service providers and customers. It is because the customers are cautious and do not fully believe that their privacies are protected by the service providers and do not believe that their information are not shared with other individuals. Another ethical issue is with a connection to privacy: security. Security issues have also been a major concern now since technology and advancement now are capable of breaching it. Other ethical issues that can be related to privacy is the accuracy of outcomes so that the implications of potential errors can be foreseen beforehand or up to what basis should be the level of accuracy of the system in order to be sufficient for responsibility. Ownership has also been an issue related to privacy as well as the level of control of the company. All of the said issues can be connected to various ethical theories and principles.
Many individuals practice various ethical theories in assessing or analyzing different ethical issues. Ethical principle like beneficence can be considered to have connections to the previously stated issues regarding ethics. On the other hand, ethical theories that can also explain and solve the ethical issues are deontology, utilitarianism, and rights ethical theory. Connections between the raised issues in the workplace and ethical theories will be explained and analyzed in the body of this report.
II. Privacy Issues, Security, and the Rights Ethical Theory
- Privacy
Sharing information through the internet can be very risky due to data bankingDatabanking is combining and merging of different databases that have personal information of individuals for commercial or business purposes. Business organization, usually perform databanking without consent from the people who owns the said information. In addition to that, the rapid rise in the number of crackers and hackers is also alarming. These individuals or group of individuals have the ability to infiltrate systems in order to gain access on information that supposed to be private. Such information includes those sent through emails or chat messages, and even those which are protected within private databases; such as, company information or trade secrets. There are varying views as to what privacy on the internet is –what are its bounds and what information should be considered private (Britz, 1996). Nevertheless, these views can be checked and verified using the “rights ethical theory” (Rainbow, 2002).
- Impact of Privacy Infringement
When company information leaks out it results, it may lead to adverse effects. An example of such effects is the loss of client trust. Imagine an IT company specializing in software production for different firms. The software that they make is supposed to be part of their client’s trade secret. When such information leaks out the client will lose its opportunity to bolster its competitiveness. Hence, clients select IT companies who can protect the privacy of their information. In other words, clients look for a company that they can trust. The same is true for employees. No employee would want his or her personal information being sold to business organizations, so the latter can send them an advertisement for products that they do not need.
According to a report by Senator Bod Casey of the United States Congress Joint Committee (2013), The United States is losing millions of dollars every year from privacy infringement issues. China was pinpointed on the report to be the one to facilitate such issues from occurring. Obviously, the Chinese culture does not condone privacy rights and intellectual property rights in the business or industry scale. The result of this is an infringement on valuable company information (p. 3).
UK Telematics Online (2013)) also shows in their research that employees feel distress and less employment or work satisfaction when their rights for privacy are run-over by their employers’ effort to monitor them. So, the irony is, in the efforts of firms to maintain the privacy of their information, they, in turn, infringe upon the privacy rights of their employees. UK Telematics Online notes that one of efforts done by firms is car tracking, which is very appalling for their employees.
The inevitable result of privacy infringement is, therefore, the overall reduction of the IT firms’ competitiveness, and profit making capability, the reason why IT firms must take into consideration privacy protection.
- Rights Ethical Theory and Act Utilitarianism, and their Significance
The Rights Ethical Theory can be applied in addressing the privacy infringement issues aforementioned. Nevertheless, in order to come into such conclusion that the theory suggests, it must first be established what king of information should be considered private property. In other words, the question of ownership must be settled first.
According to Rainbow (2002), rights are set by the society, and these rights must be upheld and protected with utmost priority. The theory, therefore, suggests that it is the society that dictates which information deserves privacy and which do not. However, the entire society may not have enough knowledge to understand the technicalities and the types of information possessed and created by IT firms – because not everyone has a background in IT. In my opinion, therefore, it should be the social circle within an IT business and the entire IT industry which should determine what information should be considered private and which should be considered public properties. The entire social circle within the IT business organization must agree to the rules of privacy that are implemented by the company which can be done by establishing a contract between each employee and the company. It is these contracts that shall bind everyone within the company within a common understanding of what group of information constitute private information and which group can be considered as public information. Along with this contract is privacy policy that includes the consequences one will face if an individual breaks the stipulation of the contract. This opinion is well-supported by Relkin (2006). Accordingly, Relkin explains that when a person gets employed in a company, that person usually signs an agreement regarding the restriction of sharing important information that are deemed to be privately owned by their current company to their future companies that they might be applying to. There are even contracts that disallow them to join a certain company and industry because it might create a competitive advancement when someone will share pertinent information and will not keep the privacy of information to competing companies. Another issue about ownership is that when an innovation is made, what part of it belongs to the organization or employer and what extent of it belongs to the employee’s own knowledge (Relkin, 2006)? These issues regarding ownership can be assessed using ethical principle and theory like beneficence and utilitarianism.
While the privacy rules are easy to set within an IT firm, there could be additional challenges in the industrial or societal level. Fortunately, each nation has its own set of rules when it comes to privacy rights at the industrial level. The UK, for example, has the Data Protection Act of 1998 to dictate what kind of information different firms should have and guidance on how to implement privacy protection. There is also the Employee Practices Code and Human Rights Act, which establishes standard on how to go about performing security measures. More complicated is the establishment industrial level of privacy protection is the an international level. For example, each nation has its own principles of data privacy. China definitely is not in agreement with the western ideas or principles of data protection, the concept of patent, and data privacy. In my opinion, the only solution to this is the establishment of international-organization-based privacy rules. Since the US and China are both members of the United Nations, then they must abide by the rules established by the UN on data privacy protection.
Back to the business organization level of data privacy protection, Britz (1996) suggested that a privacy policy must be done in order to address privacy infringement issues and to protect both the employees and the company. This is made possible because policies could dictate the roles and responsibilities of both employees and the It company with regards to implementing information privacy. The company, for example may establish a department exclusively involved in maintaining information security.
D. Security
Tiwari (2011) explains that there is a variety of ways to implement. Firms, for example, may initiate actions and strategies that incorporate the aspect of protecting the integrity of a system or a network of computers. Security of data includes the protection of computers from external risks and threats which may be from individuals who are outside the company or organization. Data security also includes the protection from internal threats or from individuals who are within the company. The data protection is done because it is a very important matter to IT experts so that they can gain the trust of customers or users as aforementioned.
Relkin (2006) also explains that an ethical issue regarding security is the liabilities of IT managers or IT experts regarding data security breach. Organizations should make sure that the employees will not be able to access and use information that they are not allowed to access. It in this effort to restrict data accesses that managers and experts encounter an ethical dilemma. IT experts and managers, for example, may need to infringe upon the rights of employees to maintain the privacy of their personal emails.
Ethical issues regarding control and monitoring are quite related to the issues regarding privacy. Companies and organizations have the rights in monitoring on how their employees use technology systems and company assets like networks and access to the internet. The question is up to what extent the company should do in monitoring their employees (Relkin, 2006)? Another is the electronic monitoring of employees in the workplace through the use of CCTV cameras. These electronic eyes, though their purpose is to increase the employees’ productivity, might give employees a feeling of being threatened and being watched always and not to mention the invasion of their privacies (Britz, 1996).
Since the issue of privacy is connected to the ethical issues regarding ownership, the rights ethical theory is also applicable in this type of problem. In addition to that, act utilitarianism can also be applicable. Act utilitarianism is one type of utilitarianism which is the performance of actions that will benefit the most number of people giving only little to no consideration of the people or employees’ personal feelings or constraints set by the society (Rainbow, 2002). Although the feeling of being threatened might be there always for the employees, monitoring them will also be for the purpose of security as well as an increase of production for the company, therefore leading to higher profits. Higher profits in return might yield higher compensation to employees that can be viewed as one of the benefits of the issue for both parties. However, companies should always be transparent to their employees the extent of their control and monitoring processes to avoid misunderstanding and confusion in the future.
Nevertheless, there are other ways of protecting information and avoiding security breach. An example of such ways is the establishment of technological capability to restrict access. Restriction of access through specialization of databases, data access protocols, and putting passwords computers within the IT firm establishment are effective ways to prevent data security breaches.
III. Conclusion
Privacy is important from the individual level up to the international level that IT experts and managers exert significant efforts to keep it. Nevertheless, upholding people’s privacy is one of the main concerns of people working and interacting in the digital world. Privacy and other ethical issues related to it as security, ownership, and control can be solved or settled using ethical theories such as the Rights Ethical Theory or the Act Utilitarianism. Choosing the most suitable ethical theory in solving a given ethical issue is one of the most crucial parts that needs to be done smoothly to achieve the best results.
Annotated Bibliography
Britz, J. (1996). Technology as a threat to privacy: ethical challenges to the information profession. Retrieved from:<http://web.simmons.edu/~chen/nit/NIT%2796/96-025-Britz.html>.
J.J. Britz is a professor in the Department of Information Science in the University of Pretoria, South Africa. Though the date of his article is not that new, the points that he raised here are still applicable in our modern days. He was able to explain the threats that technology can bring especially to our own privacy. He also made ethical considerations in explaining how the technology is trying to invade our privacy and how technology is capable of getting access to our personal data and information
Casey, B. (2012). The Impact of Intellectual Property: Theft on the Economy. Retrieved from: <http://www.jec.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?a=Files.Serve&File_id=aa0183d4-8ad9-488f-9e38-7150a3bb62be>.
Bob Casey is a US Senator and is the chairman of the US Congress Joint Economic Committee. His report elaborates the adverse effects of privacy infringement to the US economy. The report emphasizes how China’s privacy policies reduce the US’s economic competitiveness in the world market. This reference is a rich source of information for the negative impacts of privacy infringement.
Rainbow, C. (2002). Descriptions of Ethical Theories and Principles. Davidson. Retrieved from: <http://www.bio.davidson.edu/people/kabernd/indep/carainbow/theories.htm>
Catherine Rainbow is a professor on the Department of Biology of the Davidson College. She used the data of different people who study ethics in her article. The ethical principles and theories that she wrote in her article were explained properly, and we can also see the similarities and differences from these theories. The theories that she mentioned were also applicable in solving the ethical issues that were raised in this paper.
Relkin, J. (2006, August 15). Ten ethical issues confronting IT managers. Tech Republic. Retrieved from: <http://www.techrepublic.com/article/10-ethical-issues-confronting-it-managers/>.
Tiwary, D. (2011). Security and ethical issues in it: an organization’s. International Journal of Enterprise Computing and Business, 1(2): 1-13.
Devendra Kumar Tiwary is an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Applications of Post-Graduate College in India. In her journal, she has shown who or what the possible threats are in the system or in organizations on the Information Technology world. She also stated and explained how information systems give rise to security and ethical problems. She also explained the strategies that we can do in order to avoid these problems.
UK Telematics Online (2013). Vehicle Tracking: Right to Privacy and Human Rights Legislation. Retrieved from: < http://www.uktelematicsonline.co.uk/html/employee_rights_and_vehicle_tr.html>.
The UK Telematics Online is a website dedicated to informing the public about the laws in the United Kingdom about employer – employee relationship. This reference provided significant amount of information in appropriate practices of different firms to protect their respective information to the expense of limiting or violating their employees’ privacy rights.
I. Introduction
Thesis Statement: Privacy is one of the main issues that Information Technology faces and it can be effectively addressed using ethical theories such as the rights ethical theory and act utilitarianism.
II. Privacy Issues, Security, and the Rights Ethical Theory
- Privacy
In this sub-section, privacy is defined as well as the ethical dilemma encountered by both IT firms and their employees in maintaining company information privacy and personal privacy, respectively.
- Impact of Privacy Infringement
The impacts of privacy infringement at the individual, business, industrial and international level were briefly discussed.
- Rights Ethical Theory and Act Utilitarianism, and their Significance
The Rights Ethical Theory and Act Utilitarianism were defined. Out of their definition, their application to maintaining privacy were discussed
- Security
This sub-section discussed the options for information security that IT firm may take in order to balance the needs for privacy between the IT firms and their employees.
III. Conclusion
Privacy especially in the virtual world must always be upheld and protected. Such initiatives require consideration of ethical theories such as the Rights Ethical Theory and Act Utilitarianism. It was concluded in the paper that both theories provide the necessary guiding principles for creating privacy rules.
