Business Ethics: Internet Privacy and Users Rights in the Social Networking Site Getintouch - Case Study Example

BUSINESS ETHICS Introduction Business ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility has become a huge concern for companies today (Beauchamp, 2008) andthis field has grown (Boatright, 2008) because of the many advantages that it brings. It creates a positive public image of the companies which helps it to acquire new customers and more importantly, retain old ones in the long run. This paper will outline an ethical issue – Internet privacy and users’ rights to it – that the social networking site GetInTouch will need to address. To justify that this ethical issue needs attention by the management, an ethical theory – the Rights Perspective – will be used to illustrate this issue as an ethical one. As an ethical advisor of the company, it will be advised on what actions it can take to address this issue. Finally, the limitations of this course of action will be highlighted. Ethical Issue and Ethical Theory A major online concern for social networking sites is privacy of its users over the Internet and their right to it. There are many areas of concern under this issue; the amount of information that users are required to submit about themselves that identifies them, how this information is displayed, how this information is used by social networks; whether it is simply stored or shared with other companies that require customer information, and finally whether users are made aware and given control of how their information is displayed and used. The important ethical question that comes to mind regarding Internet privacy is whether social network users have a right to privacy. Social networkers and other internet users are becoming more aware of how social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Myspace read through information provided by users. What is unethical is that users, most of time, think of this information as personal and may not be aware of how this information is being read by second and third parties. Right to privacy also involves the level of control social network users have over the display of their images and information online (Santa Clara University, 2008). In order to justify the issue of user’s right to internet privacy as an ethical one, the Rights ethical theory is an important indicator. Before a link is created to how the rights ethical theory is related to user’s right to internet privacy, the theory itself will be explained briefly – under the rights ethical theory, the rights expressed by a society are given protection and the higher priority than all other things. These rights are then deemed to be morally acceptable and applicable since a large number of people support them (Rainbow, 2002). The Rights Theory is very relevant to the users’ right to internet privacy issue for GetInTouch. In this case, the society is the online society of users that get to express their concerns about internet privacy and what rights they must be given in order to control it. These rights must then be deemed acceptable by GetInTouch and other social networking sites. In response to this acceptability, GetInTouch must take a course of action that will make these rights applicable and valid in the form of a ethically correct privacy policy. Recommended Course of Action in Relation to Ethics Management Tools In order to address the issue of Internet Privacy and the users’ right to it, a comprehensive, ethically correct privacy policy must be created and implemented across the entire GetInTouch organization. More importantly, this policy must be available and displayed to the users of the GetInTouch social network. In order to create an ethically sound privacy policy, following is the recommended course of action for GetInTouch linked together with recognized business ethics and corporate social responsibility management tools: 1. Two important business ethics management tool in any organization are the management team of the organization (ehow, 2010) and training (McNamara, n.d.). For this reason and in order to implement an ethically sound privacy policy for GetInTouch, the first thing to do is to train the management for business ethics. As a consequence, the entire organization will be forced to follow business ethics and a code of conduct. If everyone in the organization has a sense of right and wrong, user information will never be used in an unethical way and new ideas for better internet privacy will be generated in brain storming and other initiative and idea generation sessions. How GetinTouch can go about this is by hiring mediators and trainers to train the staff on a regular basis and schedule ethics management courses for the staff. 2. Another important ethics tool is the policies and procedures related to how work must be carried out (MsNamara, n.d.). In this case, procedures must indicate how the website is to be developed in a way so that it meets ethical standards, as defined in another important ethics tool, the code of ethics. GetInTouch must give its users control over what and how much information it can display over the internet. For this to take place, the social network must be designed in such a way, as per procedures defined, that users are given a number of options in the form of checkboxes as to which information they wish for other people to see and they must also have the option of deciding who these people are. Facebook is a leader in this. It gives its users control over which information they want to share and who they want to share it with. GetInTouch could learn from other social networking sites such as Facebook as to how to give users access to their pages to a selected group of people. 3. An important ethics tool is the code of conduct (McNamara, n.d.). This, along with training and another ethics tool – resolving ethical dilemmas (McNamara, n.d.) – must be implemented so that frontline workers and other staff members know how to deal with customers regarding ethical issues. For this, GetInTouch must have help desks in place. Moreover, these helpdesks must be filled by company representatives who are trained for business ethics and resolving ethical dilemmas. They will deal with customers who have any suspicions about the social networking site or other ethics questions regarding how their information is used, how they can find out if people they are communicating with are what they have described, and many other issues. According to Twin Cities-based consultants, Doug Wallace and Jon Pekel, the following ethical checklist (Figure 1) must be in place (McNamara, n.d.) whenever there is a need to resolve an ethical dilemma. It can be used by GetInTouch help desk representatives as a guide to make informed decisions. Ethical Checklist Circle the appropriate answer on the scale; "1" = not at all; "5" = totally yes 1. Relevant Information Test. Have I/we obtained as much information as possible to make an informed decision and action plan for this situation? 1 2 3 4 5 2. Involvement Test. Have I/we involved all who have a right to have input and/or to be involved in making this decision and action plan? 1 2 3 4 5 3. Consequential Test. Have I/we anticipated and attempted to accommodate for the consequences of this decision and action plan on any who are significantly effected by it? 1 2 3 4 5 4. Fairness Test. If I/we were assigned to take the place of any one of the stakeholders in this situation, would I/we perceive this decision and action plan to be essentially fair, given all of the circumstances? 1 2 3 4 5 5. Enduring Values Test. Do this decision and action plan uphold my/our priority enduring values that are relevant to this situation? 1 2 3 4 5 6. Universality Test. Would I/we want this decision and action plan to become a universal law applicable to all similar situation, even to myself/ourselves? 1 2 3 4 5 7. Light-of-Day Test. How would I/we feel and be regarded by others (working associates, family, etc.) if the details of this decision and action plan were disclosed for all to know? 1 2 3 4 5 8. Total Ethical Analysis Confidence Score . Place the total of all circled numbers here. How confident can you be that you have done a good job of ethical analysis? 7-14  15-21  22-28  29-35 Not very confident  Somewhat confident  Quite confident  Very confident Figure 1 Ethical Checklist (Source: Wallace and Pekel) (McNamara, n.d.) 4. An important ethics tool, especially under the Rights approach, is feedback of the customers. This is important for GetInTouch so that it knows where its privacy policy is lacking. Therefore, if its users have any concerns about their privacy and their information or any other concerns, they must have a forum, other than the help desk, where they can express these concerns. Therefore, GetInTouch is recommended to provide its users a platform where they can give feedback. They must be made aware that this feedback will be used to address their concerns. 5. Finally, as a part of the ethics tool – code of ethics – GetInTouch must make available its privacy policy, exactly how it is, to its users. It must be comprehensive and must inform them how their information will be used. If it is to be shared with other marketing companies, users must also be made aware of this and must agree to it only after which they can make an account with GetInTouch. As a suggestion, the users can be told why their information needs to be shared; so that they can be given value added services by other companies. All in all, the privacy policy must be comprehensive, must give all details to users as required by them and must be ethically sound as much as it can be. Furthermore, users must also be suggested as to how they can protect themselves from invasion of privacy. Limitations The courses of actions mentioned in the previous section are realistic and would do GetInTouch much good if they are to take place. However, the limitations of these actions are that they are not enough. A complete ethics management must take place within the organization in order to make important ethics tools such as code of conduct and code of ethics effective. If ethics management is not taken place as a part of other management processes, ethics management tools mentioned above will have no value for the management as well as the staff. No regard will be given to perhaps the code of ethics, and therefore privacy and other policies will not be designed accordingly. Moreover, another limitation of training and scheduling ethics courses for the management and frontline workers is that it is costly. GetInTouch is a new organization and so will have many other start-up expenses to take care of. At this point, training for business ethics may look like an unnecessary expense. Furthermore, hackers and other cyber criminals have advanced ways of working around the privacy measures that social networking sites take. While developing the website to ensure privacy measures such as checklists for what can be displayed and who can see them, GetInTouch must have a thorough concept of how it can be made foolproof by taking the view of cyber criminals. This may require extensive research and may be costly in terms of time and money. Bibliography Beauchamp, T., Bowie, N. & Arnold, D. (2008). Ethical Theory and Business. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall. 8th edition. Boatright, J. (2008). Ethics and the Conduct of Business. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, Prentice Hall. 6th edition. (2008). Unavoidable Ethical Questions About Social Networking. Santa Clara University [Internet]. Available from http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/submitted/social-networking.html [Accessed February 10, 2010]. (2010). How to Establish a Business Ethics Management Program. Ehow [Internet]. Available from http://www.ehow.com/how_2103180_establish-business-ethics-management-program.html [Accessed February 10, 2010]. McNamara, C. (n.d.) Complete Guide to Ethics Management: An Ethics Toolkit for Managers. Free Management Library [Internet]. Available from http://managementhelp.org/ethics/ethxgde.htm [Accessed February 10, 2010]. Rainbow, C. (2002). Descriptions of Ethical Theories and Principles. Davidson College [Internet]. Available from http://www.bio.davidson.edu/people/kabernd/indep/carainbow/Theories.htm [Accessed February 10, 2010]. Read More