Ethical Issues in Technology - Case Study Example

Privacy in the Workplace It is important to acknowledge the fact that information technology has brought a hugeboost in the way we execute our day-to-day activities. Among the areas that have been immensely benefiting from information technology are organizations, businesses and other work areas (Volastro, 2014). Regardless of the uncountable number of merits that information technology has brought forward, a significant number of ethical issues have always been raised in the work environment. To be precise, the ever-advancing use of information technology such as the internet is a great concern for employers, employees and other stakeholders in the work environment. In this sense, this paper focuses on ethical issues in technology via an account of the subject, privacy in the workplace. Introduction It is vital to note that the subject of privacy in the workplace has in recent years brought so many concerns to employees, employers, information technology professional and the community at large. This topic is very crucial in that it lays major emphasis on figuring what activities are ethically correct to be practiced in the work environment. Privacy in the workplace further plays a huge role in outlining the ethical rights of employees specifically on sharing of personal and company information. That is, this topic identifies the ethical dilemma experienced by employees as they experience challenges from their employers, who nowadays enjoy significant authority and opportunity to check their employees’ personal and private data. In essence, the subject of privacy at work aids in identifying the need for employers to review the ethical dimensions in an organization or at work (Green, 2014). Upon a close scrutiny of the need to have employees enjoying top privacy it comes out that there are three crucial questions that need to be addressed. The first question entails the following. What policies need to be applied in the use of company e-mail accounts to send and receive e-mails? The second question is; should monitoring of employees’ computer use by employers be considered as an ethical activity? The third question is; is it ethically all right for an employee to chat with friends and relatives during office hours? As indicated in the first question, there exists a wide set of debatable concepts on the use of e-mail by employees to send and receive messages or share files with another employee or any other party. This other party can still be a fellow employee in the same company but different department or branch, an individual (customer) or an employee from another company. Several sets of research works indicate that employees have in many cases used company e-mail accounts to send messages for personal business activities. Due to this practice, employees have been knowingly or unknowingly ended up revealing their respective company’s trade secrets to third parties (Stamatellos, 2007). To curb the risk of directly exposing crucial company details to a third party, a large number of employees turn into using their personal e-mail accounts at work. In other words, most employees nowadays prefer using their personal e-mail accounts for the transfer and receipt of information that they consider to be private (“Software Engineering Code,” 2014). However, a thorough analysis of this subject reveals that, even after separating the use of the two types of e-mail accounts, companies still face the same threat where trade secrets become vulnerable to a third party. This occurs in situations where an employee receives a fake mail with a link, which after clicking, it ends up infecting (through viruses or Trojan) the computer and sends the details to a hacker. In fact, there are also some other circumstances where an employee intentionally sends crucial company details to his own mail using a company e-mail account, which later exposes the company to immense vulnerabilities. These activities provide massive side effects to many companies leading great losses and even failure of company projects (Laudon & Laudon, 2013). It is therefore very essential to make it clear that, a policy has to be implemented where employees should only use company e-mail account for company transactions. Another policy is that no employee should use a personal e-mail account to share company information with any person including oneself (Shanks, 2014). The question of employers monitoring the use of computers has in many cases been also a fundamental subject of concern as regards to ethical computing practices. A significant number of research professionals outline that, since an employee has been appointed to a certain position, it is the employee’s responsibility to ensure that the right work is done on the computer. Essentially, this tends to prove that it is unethical that an employer monitors computer use by an employee (Steen, 2013). On the other hand, research indicates that, since no man is always perfect, there are so many times where an employee spends most of the office time working on issues that are completely not related to the day-to-day duties assigned to the employee. This is usually a huge loss to company since a lot of resources end up wasted while making payments to services, which are actually not perfectly fulfilled. In some other circumstances, a certain employee can be communicating and sharing vital company data with a hacker from a remote location. This is another enormous threat to the privacy of a company’s monetary details, trade secrets and intellectual property rights (Hoffman & Podgursk, 2013). Upon a thorough analysis of this question, it is vital to note, the success of a company is always highly influential in promoting the economic stability of the company, government and the society at large. However, from an ethical and logical sense, monitoring one’s use of a computer renders him so uncomfortable in doing the appointed daily duties. This is due to the fear of the unknown where one can be worried of having a blame mistakenly be placed on him or her (Steen, 2013). In this sense, employers should make use of current technologies just to monitor information flow through company routers and switches. This will aid in filtering any suspicious data. The data packet can then be easily tracked back to the source computer and then have employee be held accountable. This is clearly a better way of securing a company’s privacy. Therefore, the act of monitoring an employees’ computer should be considered as an unethical activity (Northcutt, 2004). Thirdly, the question of an employee chatting on a social site with friends and relatives has also been generating random views on whether it is ethical or unethical (“Big Data,” 2014). A considerable number of professionals consider that for one to give all his or her best, it is important that he or she is allowed to freely communicate with friends and relatives. In other words, chatting with friends and relatives is viewed as one of the best ways for providing an individual with a significant piece of mind. This piece of mind is generally regarded as a quality mechanism for ensuring that one has a settled mind necessary for delivering the best at work. In general, this concept tends to ascertain that it is ethical to allow employees to chat on social sites with friends and relatives during office hours (Shanks, 2014). However, a deep scrutiny of this subject reveals a number of question marks and negative effects to the continuity of an organization. Research indicates that, for one to deliver the best in a certain piece of work then total concentration is always a prerequisite. Essentially, imagining a practical situation where an employee is performing an official duty and at the same time chatting with a friend or relative, then there are great chances of the employee committing a number of errors and omissions. Additionally, office hours are always limited and it is only within that timeframe that one is expected to deliver the best. Therefore, if one keeps on replying chats from friends and relatives, a lot of precious organization time will end up being wasted. In this sense, it important to clarify that allowing and employee to chat with friends and relatives online is completely unethical and can lead to huge losses in an organization (Volastro, 2014). In conclusion it is important to acknowledge that three considerable questions of concern in addressing privacy in the workplace. These questions revolve around the subject of policies for e-mail use in a company, monitoring of employee use of computers and employees chatting with friends and relatives during work hours. For the first question, it became clear there is need for clear policies on when to use company e-mail accounts and personal e-mail accounts in communication. Secondly, a number of quality deductions indicate that monitoring an employee’s computer use is unethical. Lastly but certainly not the least, the subject of employees chatting with friends and families during office hours is also a completely unethical practice. References Big Data and the Future of Privacy (2014). Electronic Privacy Information Centre. Retrieved from http://epic.org/privacy/big-data/default.html Green, B. (2014). Transhumanism, Ethics, and the Internet: A Dispatch from the "Transhuman Visions" conference. Retrieved from http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/focusareas/technology/transhumanism.html Hoffman, S & Podgursk, A. (2013). Big Bad Data: Law, Public Health and Biomedical Databases Northcutt, S. (2004). IT ethics handbook: Right and wrong for IT professionals. Rockland, MA: Syngress Pub Shanks, T. (2014).The Case of the Cyber City Network. Retrieved from http://www.scu.edu/ethics/dialogue/candc/cases/cybercity.html Software Engineering Code of Ethics and Professional Practice. (2014). Advancing Computing as a Science and Proffesion. Retrieved from http://www.acm.org/about/se-code?searchterm=ethics+at+work Stamatellos, G. (2007). Computer ethics: A global perspective. Sudbury, Mass: Jones and Bartlett Publishers. Steen, M. (2013). The Ethics of Working from Home. Retrieved from http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/focusareas/business/Working-from-Home.html Volastro, A. (2014). Some Companies Give Workers Unlimited Vacation. Retrieved from http://www.nbcnews.com/business/careers/some-companies-give-workers-unlimited-vacation-n32266 Laudon, C & Laudon P. (2013). Management Information Systems + Mymislab With Pearson Etext Access Card Package. Pearson College Div. Read More