The aim of this paper is to argue that identity theft is a moral violation against a person’s right to claim association to a person’s public identity on social media and other online platforms. The reason why this thesis is true is because identity theft on social media is an issue of great concern to social media users, online service providers, law enforcement agencies and governments. Identity theft on social networks could occur due to directed electronic attacks, system vulnerabilities, misplaced documents, physical theft or just pure human negligence. Identity theft victims sometimes also spend considerable resources (time and money) to fix the damages incurred by the misuse of their identities. Victims also experience emotional turmoil and shatter the confidence of users resulting in a distrustful environment that makes it very hard for online service providers to assure consumers on the safety of the information posted online (Mahmood).
The paper also considers the opposing position that it is morally correct for law enforcement and spy agencies to practice identity theft on social media in a bid stop organized crimes such as terrorism and drug trade. It can be argued that identity theft for criminal investigation is for the greater good but this view is misconstrued because it is morally wrong to take up a person’s identity without their express consent regardless of the intentions.
The paper is thus intended to provide an ethical argument that identity theft is a moral violation against a person’s right to claim a public identity on social media and other online platforms. Identity theft refers to the misuse of another individuals’ identity such as name, driver’s license social security number and other personal information, and is considered a criminal offense. The main objective of stealing identities is to perform actions permitted to the owner of an identity such as accessing information, funds transfer and withdrawal, and the issue of documents under the victim’s identity. In this regard, the paper contends that identity theft is a legal-ethical violation of an individual’s right to lay claim to a public identity on social media by presenting yourself, and conducting actions permitted only to the owner of the identity (Lewis).
Identity theft affects millions of people annually leading to considerable time and money expenditures in a bid to recover from and repair the damages caused by the crime. The increased trust and comfort in social media platforms has led to the collection of a vast amount of private information from users. These sites however, are vulnerable to external security breaches based on direct attacks, human negligence or physical theft of data that could lead illegal access of personal information belonging to users. Status updates on Facebook, GPS based app locations, and personal information on public profiles can be used to criminals to misappropriate or steal identities. Identity theft has various impacts on the victims and these include financial burden, modification of personal details, criminal records, bad credit records and deadly medical records. This is because identity thieves can use personal information to get loans, get expensive medical care, purchase expensive items, drain accounts of cash, and even commit crime in the victim’s name (Identity-theft-awareness.com (IMI).
Law enforcement and intelligence agencies may argue that it is justifiable to steal identities of criminals on social or dead persons for purposes of solving crime. This position is justifiable since the intention is to rid the society of crime, and consequently identity theft is committed with “good” intentions. In some cases, police have been known to take on the identities of dead persons and used them as aliases to infiltrate gangs and terrorist units without informing the families of the deceased. However, the argument placed by law enforcement agencies on using identity theft for the greater good does not stand ground since a crime is a crime regardless of who commits it. Again, it is immoral to take on the identities of criminals since these criminals have friends and family who are not guilty and may not deserve the trauma associated with fake identities and actions performed by identity posers. On the other hand, families of dead persons whose identities have been stolen may discover and succumb to more grief which is in itself inhumane (Lewis and Evans).
On the basis of the position taken by this paper on the immoral and criminal nature of identity theft on social media and the resulting implications, identity theft does provide a legal-ethical dilemma on the morality of the act. However, it can be concluded that identity theft is a moral violation of a person’s right to claim a public identity based on information acquired from social media and acquired either due to negligence or directed attacks on databanks. Perpetrators of the identity theft crimes argue that identity theft is a victimless crime since charges such credit cards transactions are reimbursed by the account providers when fraudulent activity is reported. However, these criminals do not consider the psychological impact of their crimes on victims that have lifelong effects such as loss of reputation and broken relationships.
Works Cited:
Bestidentityprotection.net. 'Identity Theft Hard Facts'. N.p., 2014. Web. 12 Dec. 2014.
Identity-theft-awareness.com (IMI). 'Identity Theft Overview and Related Articles'. N.p., 2014. Web. 12 Dec. 2014.
Lewis, Kent. 'How Social Media Networks Facilitate Identity Theft And Fraud'. Eonetwork.org. N.p., 2014. Web. 12 Dec. 2014.
Lewis, Paul, and Rob Evans. 'Police Spies Stole Identities of Dead Children'. The Guardian. N.p., 2013. Web. 12 Dec. 2014.
Mahmood, Omer. 'Dilemmas of Online Identity Theft'. Encyclopedia of Information Ethics and Security 2007: 143-149. Print.
