Communications Surveillance, Privacy and Its Ethical Implications - Literature review Example

?COMMUNICATIONS SURVEILLANCE, PRIVACY, AND ITS ETHICAL IMPLICATIONS Communications Surveillance, Privacy, and Its Ethical Implications XXX XXX 5/23/2012 Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Abstract 3 Introduction 3 Communications Surveillance: An overview 4 Expectation of Privacy 5 Audio and Video Surveillance 5 Video Surveillance 5 Audio Surveillance 6 Ethical and Privacy Concerns in Communications Surveillance 6 Conclusion 10 References 10 Abstract This paper presents an overview of ethical and moral concerns in communications surveillance. Communication surveillance is not a new idea. It has been seen in different forms. Organizations have long been used it to monitor their employees whether they are using company time in carrying out business tasks. Organizations pay their staff members for work not for their personal activities. So in order to deal with serious issues communications surveillance becomes essential but it is not ethical. This paper also discusses the ethical validity of communications surveillance in light of Kant’s ethical theory. Introduction It is an admitted fact that in the past few years, surveillance and observation of individuals' communications have been turning out to be more common, more unsystematic and more enveloping, same as our dependence on electronic communications grown. Additionally, almost all the major global laws and regulations on human rights ensure protection of the right of individuals to be free from unnecessary surveillance. On the other hand, this assurance has trickled down into nationwide legal or official requirements ensuring the privacy of communications. In the majority of democratic countries, surveillance of verbal, telephone and digital communications are applied through law enforcement or intelligence agencies simply after approved by a judge, as well as simply in the inquiry of serious crimes (Privacy International, 2012). Up till now government agencies carry on to lobby for improved surveillance facilities and capabilities, mainly as technologies transform. In addition, communications surveillance has gone beyond the digital and Internet communications. In fact, in the majority of countries, security agencies have forced internet service providers as well as telecommunications firms to keep an eye on users’ communications. Also, the many of these actions are performed under the uncertain authorized base as well as remain unidentified to the public (Privacy International, 2012). This paper presents an overview of Surveillance of communications. The basic aim of this research is to analyze the legal, privacy and ethical implications of communications surveillance. Communications Surveillance: An overview In the past few years, telecommunications and computing technologies have seen radical changes. In fact, the typical acceptance of modern communication platforms such as e-mail, mobile telephones and the Web as well as the ever-increasing adoption and implementation of peer-to-peer Voice over IP (VoIP) telephony have considerably changed and improved the way people communicate in the 21st century. In addition, huge increases in computing and data storage facilities and capabilities have provided governments with a wide variety of innovative tools and techniques for eavesdropping on these communications (Brown, 2009). A lot of organizations make effective use of technology to basically transform the way business tasks are carried out, by making use of technology in ways that break the traditional rules of carrying out business activities. For instance, Kmart and Wal-mart are making use of teleconferencing to facilitate headquarters-based merchandisers to provide store managers in the field with direction and recommendation, facilitating them to unite local programs with business objectives (Herschel & Andrews, 1997) Surveillance is defined as an operation or an event during which the actions of a particular individual are monitored and documented. In this scenario, communications surveillance is the act of monitoring people's communications without their permission and approval, by accessing the communication itself. In addition, the state and security agencies still have the most influential monitoring tools and systems, for the reason that they are implemented under the law. On the other hand, at the present levels of state surveillance have augmented, and using computers they are now able to combine a lot of different information sources to create profiles of people or groups in society (Gehringer, 2012).  Expectation of Privacy (Gehringer, 2012) discuss various privacy related aspects that can occur in communications surveillance. According to (Gehringer, 2012), a sensible prospect of privacy is utilized to verify whether the Government's actions in connection with getting proof or data or information are legal. This prospect must be complied with a positive response to these questions: (Gehringer, 2012) 1. Did the subject of the surveillance retain a prospect that their activities were confidential? 2. Is the prospect one that the public identifies as being sensible? Audio and Video Surveillance Video Surveillance Organization should apply the sensible prospect of privacy as an ethical principle. As a general rule, the top management of an organization can keep an eye on the activities of their workers to discover various aspects and issues such as theft, vandalism, substance abuse, corporate espionage and a wide variety of against the law or unofficial actions. In spite of this idea is that the place of work is not a place in which, underneath typical conditions, people think about their activities private. However, surveillance in the place of work must not interrupt in those areas where people think about their actions private. In this scenario, a restroom can be a good example of such a place. In addition, sometimes the public presentation of a warning notice demonstrating that a specific part of the office may be under surveillance have a tendency to diminish a person's expectation of privacy (Gehringer, 2012). Audio Surveillance According to section 2512 of the U.S. Code, production, delivery or supply, ownership and promotion of wire, verbal or electronic communication intercepting devices is illegal. Excluded from this law are officers or workers underneath the agreement to the central government, a State or subdivision thereof. In other words, with appropriate approval and using legal framework, security agencies and governments can be able to make use of the secret audio surveillance. In this scenario, it is essential for the security agencies that they review the laws for their authority before making use of audio surveillance. Without a doubt, unauthorized audio surveillance is not allowed in the private sector (Gehringer, 2012). Ethical and Privacy Concerns in Communications Surveillance Ethics deals with the wide-ranging nature of morals as well as of the particular moral preferences people prefer to choose while building their relationships with others. At the present communications are done using a wide variety of tools and they involve the application of computer hardware, software, and networks to the formation, gathering, storage, recovery, analysis, editing, delivery, and demolition of information. It may be found in the form of text, data, video, sound, and images. It is an admitted fact that computers and network applications help the business organizations supervise and ensure the security and reliability of business data and information as well as to keep an eye on and have power over organizational equipment and operations (Herschel & Andrews, 1997). There are numerous theories and thoughts which can be applied to surveillance communications related aspects. In this scenario, Immanuel Kant's theory of ethics is acknowledged as deontological for a number of different reasons. Basically, Kant divides the ethical dilemma into two parts. In the first part he argues that in order to act in the ethically right way, people must act from duty. While in the second part he claims that it is not the results or consequences of acts that make them right or wrong however the motives of the people who perform the act. In light of these arguments it is clear that communications surveillance depends on the situation in which it is done. For instance, if a government agency monitors the communications of people for the national security purpose then it should be ethical. Through, the act might be wrong but the consequences of the act are positive. Without a doubt, nothing has changed communication in organizations more radically than developments in information technology. In fact, technology has allowed business organizations to conquer the restrictions up to that time forced by differences in place and time. In this scenario, computers facilitate organizations in capturing, analyzing, and sharing information from anywhere in the world twenty-four hours a day. In addition, these new features have fostered major changes in organizational tasks, decision making, and organizational design. With the advancements of technology, ethics has gone far beyond questions of legality (even though the law is without a doubt a significant part) (Herschel & Andrews, 1997). Privacy of communications is one of the more worrying professional and personal concerns of our time. On the other hand, privacy cannot be satisfactorily dealt with without taking into consideration a basic foundation of ethics. In fact, we cannot derive a significant normative result about communications privacy rights and obligations without a basic and widespread understanding of the moral and ethical foundation of justice as well as a thorough understanding of individual and governmental concerns and motivations (Hartman, n.d). In addition, the privacy of communications is a significant ethical subject in today’s society. These days, information and commutation technology, with its a lot of attributes, like for example communication done on computer networks, has lifted a wide variety of ethical issues regarding privacy, in view of the fact that a large amount of personal data and information is communicated over computer networks every day. In this scenario, computer ethics, which encompasses privacy, is a comparatively new field within applied ethics, lifting new kinds of ethical problems (Horniak, 2004). Additionally, the computer ethics is a field within applied ethics, where concerns related to computers (such as communications surveillance) lift new kinds of moral issues, to which it is essential to apply the suitable moral opinion. In view of the fact that the civilization has historically developed from an agricultural society through an industrial; to contemporary information society where computers and IT supported tools and applications have changed the way people live and make decisions. On the other hand, this type of society has also generated new ethical concerns and questions never faced by humans in the past, and these concerns increase in number in conjunction with the advancements of the technology (Horniak, 2004). Moreover, the majority of workers at an organization make use of computers to maintain an e-mail account and on a regular basis check their mail at work. Though, it is necessary for the reason that internal communications of an organization are transmitted by means of e-mail. However, it is normally seen that people also use the company computer and email to send and receive personal messages. In this scenario, new tools and technologies not only facilitated the organizations to monitor e-mail communications, however other Internet activities for instance listservs, chat rooms, and even Web browsing. In this scenario, the basic purpose of monitoring the communications of employees is to make sure that their workers are utilizing their time for performing business tasks. On the other hand, the monitoring of Web traffic generates a wide variety of ethical concerns, mainly for the reason that the motive behind visiting a Web site cannot be identified only by identifying that an individual visited a particular web site (HostIP, 2012; Swank, 2011). Furthermore, this concern has reached far beyond the organizational environment. In fact, concerns over governmental or private communications surveillance of individuals on the Internet opens up a wide variety of serious ethical issues. In view of the fact that the intention behind visiting a particular kind of communication or site can be unidentified to external monitors, thus there is a considerable chance of confusion, misconception, and mishandling of such acquired data. In the late 1990s and early 2000s the clash between company surveillance and personal privacy of communications as well as other computer activities was one of the most extensively exposed computer-ethical debates. Despite the fact that organizations claim that the monitoring of their own systems to make sure their correct use and the advantageous use of company time is essential to carry on competitiveness, the ethical right to personal privacy was frequently emphasized (HostIP, 2012). In short, communications surveillance can be essential to national security, however it may not be ethical. In addition, there are plenty of times where laws are approved that are acknowledged as unethical, however are still ready to offer some form of protection to the people (Swank, 2011). Conclusion In conclusion, surveillance of communications has always been one of the most sensitive trends where security agencies all over the world have applied strict rules and regulations in an attempt to increase their power and authority free from legal supervision in recent years. For this purpose, there is a wide variety of laws that deal with such kind of acts. In this paper, I adopted the approach of Kant’s ethical theory. Kant divides the ethical dilemma into two parts. In the first part he argues that in order to act in the ethically right way, people must act from duty. While in the second part he claims that it is not the results or consequences of acts that make them right or wrong however the motives of the people who perform the act. In light of Kant’s ethical theory, communications surveillance seems legal but it is surely unethical to keep an eye on other’s communication without their permission. In short, communications surveillance is essential for positive activities but it is unethical for the reason that people don’t know that they are being monitored. References Brown, I. (2009). Regulation of Converged Communications Surveillance. Retrieved May 14, 2012, from http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1261192 Gehringer, E. F. (2012). Study Guide. Retrieved May 15, 2012, from http://ethics.csc.ncsu.edu/privacy/surveillance/study.php Hartman, L. P. (n.d). Technology and Ethics: Privacy in the Workplace. Retrieved May 18, 2012, from http://www.nd.edu/~rbarger/privacyintheworkplace.html Herschel, R. T., & Andrews, P. H. (1997). Ethical Implications of Technological Advances on Business Communication. The Journal of Business Communication, Volume 34 . Horniak, V. (2004). PRIVACY OF COMMUNICATION - ETHICS AND TECHNOLOGY. Retrieved May 17, 2012, from http://www.idt.mdh.se/utbildning/exjobb/files/TR0390.pdf HostIP. (2012). Computer Ethics - Privacy. Retrieved May 18, 2012, from http://ecommerce.hostip.info/pages/244/Computer-Ethics-PRIVACY.html Privacy International. (2012). Communications Surveillance. Retrieved May 15, 2012, from https://www.privacyinternational.org/issues/communications-surveillance Swank, T. (2011). Privacy and Surveillance. Retrieved May 17, 2012, from http://gator.ndm.edu/~tswank/privacy.html The Policy Laundering Project. (2012). Communications Surveillance. Retrieved May 16, 2012, from http://www.policylaundering.org/issues/comm/ Read More