Privacy Issues in the Workplace - Assignment Example

Running Head: LEARNING JOURNAL Learning Journal Insert Name Institution Module 4, Ethical and Professional Issues Privacy demands respect in a work place. Privacy can be termed as the interest that a person normally possesses in getting a personal space free being interfered by other people or institutions. Most of the privacy complications we encounter in electronics are as a result of us having given our information away. We can concur with some believers that privacy in digitalized era is gone. The anthropological view on privacy is that, a need that has been created socially and that it varies historically cannot dominate value in a society. Everyone is entitled to privacy. No one should tamper with our privacy. This could be environmentally or principally determined. Rights with personal information include the right to take steps that [certain] facts do not get found out spying someone normally violates these rights. Privacy right is slowly waiving and also tradeoffs could still affect. Activity So many companies do collect information about us, some are known to us while some are not. Information one might want to protect is that which has not been publicized or information revealed in public but may still wish to control the information. This private information may have been gathered through surveillance, caller ID, public record that maybe present online like bankruptcy, web tracing data , loyalty card and web-tracing data. Information maybe protected but some problems are encountered, like wrong information being corrected, implementing the corrections, data obtained illegally and revelation of information to other parties. Obtaining the data illegally can be described as theft. The collection of data has risen. Measures taken to curb such problems in Australia include enforcement of legislation to make it a crime to produce counterfeits. Copyrights act add trademark acts have been seriously improved and applied, when the pirated materials are found they are destructed. Moreover the IP rights enacted on borders help in reducing importation of counterfeits. These measures are not enough because still some cases are found, the law ought to be stiffened and the crime addressed with more seriousness. Data mining can be referred to as the process of getting hidden patterns from some data. Privacy may be helped by cookie disablers; audit trails (Baase, 2002). If my body was scanned, I got the right to the information. Parents should not implant microchips, because this will somehow interfere with their privacy. E-mail Privacy There is postmaster in an E-mail system that maintains software for the email system and also deals with wrongly addressed or misaddressed mails. Postmaster serves the E-mail system, the people using the email and also those who provide the system. This protects people’s privacy in E-mails. The simple codes in maintaining ethics for postmaster include, upholding of system policy, problems not addressed by policy, integrate level is high, responsibilities observed and information kept confidential. Surveillance In a workplace, this monitors the work, workers, makes suggestions and changes relationships. However, surveillance leads to stress, negative competition and reduction of commitment. Privacy in Health Sector This includes any suicide attempt, drug abuse, disease diagnosed, psychiatric help gotten or incase of STDs present. Virtual patient records are normally electronic and medical. Updates of the patient are regularly accessed. However, even though they are helpful in some ways, publishing patients illness for public view is not correct. Wrong medical information can also be present in internet or emergence of cybercondriac. There are also Virtual Pharmacies which provide drug information enabling one to order the drug over the web. In my view, these virtual pharmacies are okay since they simplify the whole thing. Threats to patients’ privacy include, an accident disclosed incase there is an overhearing in a conversation or curiosity by the staff this leading to them abusing their privileges. Disclosure of patients’ information can be disturbing, since things like abortion, STDs, HIV status or abuses should be private. Technological Threats include, browser bugs opening cookie files. This is done where software called cookie gets placed on the hard disks of a visitor. This helps in tracking information like password and previous purchase. Module 5, IT in Work Place Many have lost jobs; this is due to automation that lessens work and computer efficiency which leads to fewer jobs. Also this may accelerate emergence of jobs because people will be needed when operating these machines. Technology is thought to benefit big companies and solves no real problems and also it deskills people. In global workforce, internet reduces commuting. However, IT can be used in mentoring of employees. For example, in data entry, using phones, and retail transactions to reduce any theft. Employees maybe monitored to protect information, prevent employer’s facilities from being misused, to check for illegal software and in looking into possible crimes. The principles followed are that right to set own policies belongs to employers. Surveillance of employees incase of something fishy cannot be assumed, but employees should be made aware of this. An employee can do other projects without necessarily being unethical. Moreover, anyone who is a professional should work to the best interest of the employer. However the employees possess the right to know the method being used to analyze their performance. The privacy of the employees should not be interrupted. Professional Responsibility For one to do a through job and be accountable, one should make the authorities know of any problem, should refuse any unreasonable constraints and make the problems being experienced more public. The one using the machineries or the products should be professionals and responsibilities and authorities should be assigned. Moreover products ought to perform as expected. Still, the professionals should not entice others in violating ethical laws but should guard their interests. However we are the ones responsible in protecting our rights. The responsibility of protecting our interests is solely ours. Avoiding a responsibility is wrong. Getting a system that is weak and reporting should not be used as bait. Apparently, giving a service that is risky and has benefits is not considered as being unethical. Activity Digital Divide is the difference between those having access to both digital and information technology and those without access or having very limited access. Global digital divide describes major disparities in chance to get access to internet plus the information and benefits arising from the access. The social divide refers to the difference between those with information and those without in a society. Globalization is whereby national, local or regional phenomena become integrated on a global scale. It mostly refers to globalization of the economy. Telework is the use computers or telephones at home, this in turn enables a person to work when at home and also maintain communication with customers and colleagues. Faulty output may result incase there is no fault tolerance present. Also currently, there are chances of manufacturing many ICs without any defect. Defectives can be detected during manufacturing but some parts may give the correct output only for some operating conditions but may not be recognized over the production because the tests are not always perfect. Also this may arise incase of a software that requires masking (Baase, 2002). Module 6 Intellectual property could be intangible property made by a person or a corporation. Problems that affect those who own intellectual property include it is usually cheaper, easier to use, can be distributed largely and presence of high quality copying. Generally, the legal protections provided include copyright for wordy expression and patent for mechanical inventions. Copyrights are normally statutory grants providing ownership to the creators of intellectual property long but somehow limited time. Copyrights owners can take fee from people copying their work, can produce and distribute copies or make derivatives of the work. Internet has facilitated in making copyright more public. Fair use of copyrighted material means using it for educational or activities not meant to make profits. Incase profits are gained; the owner should get some royalties. In fair use, permission is not required but guidelines to determine fair use are gotten in law. Not all types of intellectual property are covered in Australia and US by copyright. Trademarks, circuit layouts and patents, separate legislation covers them. For a society that aims at being fair to everyone, innovation ought to be encouraged. The people who are innovative maybe rewarded and they should own the work. Though owning and getting the property rights is a complicated issue, patents and copyright are some of the methods that people and organizations can protect their intellectual properties they work hard to create. Following digital technology and also internet introduction, intellectual property protection has been faced with new challenges. Technological solutions which may help in protecting people’s intellectual work include, encoding expiry date, coming up with copy protection schemes. Activation features may be installed, hardware dongle should be present and finally encryption schemes should also be availed. Reverse engineering is whereby information is abstracted from a lower level of abstraction to a higher one. It involves decomplilation of computer programs. Patent A patent gives the holder rights on an invention for several years. Software companies get patent for inventions related to the software. A patent provides wide protection for technological implemented software. This is done to enhance program performance, see the security in software or correct errors. E-commerce and software patents received criticism in that it is possible to deal with the problem the same by many computer programmers in similar way but using known techniques. E-commerce provides returns in investments, encourages research and prevents copying inventions. Software Piracy This is illegal software copying. It has become very serious like in US, 24 % of programs installed are pirated (Baase 2002). Definitely use of all these laws is not enough to curb piracy and others. Also people ought to change how they think regarding other peoples work. Also tougher devices should be invented to curb these irregularities. Protecting Intellectual Property Incase the product is produced independently or significant improvements are done to the software, this leads to the development of a new product. This goes far to as even though the function of the new product is the same as the original; assumptions are made like source codes were not copied. This may be ethical but can be illegal too. Standards, conventions or public formats cannot be copyrighted anymore, than are the general shapes of other products like cars or coffee makers. Basically, the property law is that copyrights protect the way a program is worded rather than the function of the program. This is referred to as a program that has come up independently but has been produced in a different way. Where the software is copyrighted but unpatented, the new program is assumed to be different and independently produced. This is because no proprietary has been stolen. One should subscribe to services or charge fee from the users or the main organizations. Intellectual property should also be metered on network. Moreover, discounts should be given to educational users and one should take an initiative of enlightening the public the importance of intellectual property belonging to creators. Module 7 Use of internet for communication has led to revolution in the ways by which societies function. The WW Web is the widely used on internet. Other activities in it are email, telnet and e-commerce. These allows for customer transactions and distance chatting. Internet allows people to maintain long distance relationships and teleworking from all locations. Lack of restriction in speech on the website has however faced many challenges. These are due to differences in religious and political stands, posting of pornographic materials, rebellious statements, abortion information and alcohol advertisements. Free speech however leads to flaming and spamming. Flaming is exchange of insults by those using the internet in a hostile way, or through sending emails. It is meant to hurt other people’s feelings and not even a way of conversation. It may also be an attack on a number of people who differ in interest with the flamer. Spamming is sending a copy of similar message to people who do not need it, mostly as an advertisement of products. it costs very little to the sender but a lot to the receiver. However, there is software designed for those who want to avoid the spam messages. Activity I think the behavior of Email users cannot change even after a fee is imposed because people will still need to pass their messages. The fee will also not end the issue of spam because most spam emails are commercial adverts which are sponsored to inform internet users of the products. Therefore the cost will be passed on to the producers of the products to be advertised. However internet users, to avoid spam emails should set up software to detect spam. Censorship Censorship means to hold back entire parts of, books, news and letters. Reasons for censoring materials include sedition, subversion and incitement of hatred due to racial, religious and cultural differences. In Australia, censorship is controlled through Australian Classification Act. The act is based on the principles such as: adults are free to view what they want, protection of children from offensive materials, and taking account of community concerns. Activity Internet censorship helps in saving the children from pornography. It also protects cultural believes of others which if exposed would lead to hatred once people realize their differences. One harm of internet censorship is that people’s opinions cannot be accessed since they are blocked, therefore there will be no benefiting from other people’s ideas. This may be viewed as dictatorship. Legal Issues and the Internet Legal issues and the internet legal acts are applied in internet particularly due to jurisdiction of trademarks and company names on the internet. This can be minimized by limiting the degree of interaction, restricting access to website, or posting rules governing use of website or self regulation. Privacy protection is important for notification of consent for potential users and disclosures of information, accuracy of stored data, security of data storage and limitation on access to data by government. Activity The government should control the internet to protect the users from jurisdiction, spamming and flaming but this should be different from regulations on other communication channels. Module 8 Computer crime Computers are used in our everyday activities as tools, but they are also avenues to crimes. Computer crime is the use of an information system to perform an illegal act or acts and is becoming more of an issue as the use of information systems grows. Information systems, data and knowledge are important corporate resources and the organization needs effective strategies to reduce risks (competitive, operational and ethical) to these resources. This module identified the types of risks related to information systems, explored issues of computer crime, examined the vulnerability of systems and finally looked at activities that can be adopted to manage and minimize the exposure to these risks and vulnerabilities. Activity Many computer crimes committed today are not reported therefore not documented. There is therefore lack of reliable statistics on cases of computer crimes. However computer scientists say that computer crimes are increasing rapidly. There is limited evidence on the increase of computer crimes over the last ten years because those affected do not report, however those occurring in banking and insurance industries have led to loss of large amounts of money. Hacking and Hackers Hacking is the popular term for illegal access to an information or communications technology system. Hacking may be associated with other crimes like information theft or alteration, fraud, or software piracy; however the term is more usually applied simply to act of illegal access. Hackers have accessed banks, universities, or government department. In the US it is a crime to reach, change, tamper with or destroy information on a computer without authorization. On-line scams have also emerged in recent times; including fraud, identify theft and forgery. Customers must be educated in the potential problems, including the need to read seller "reviews", and the use of third-party escrow. Fraud over the internet comes in various ways which include fraud of stock through the internet which targets small investors. This involves spread of false rumours about the prospects of certain companies touted by the fraudulent stock promoter. There is fraud in electronic auctions and also in the sale of bogus investments and businesses. I.T. Security As an organization increasingly places its information and corporate knowledge in electronic format and relies more and more on IS support of business activities, there is an increasing need for management to be aware of the risks that accompany this reliance on IS. The risk of IS failure and/or misuse should be planned for and appropriately managed due to the following: accelerating concern for data/information security, greater data sensitivity, reliance on honesty of computer, and public awareness. Activity Failure of information security in business could lead to market loss when information about a product falls to competitors. In an individual’s life, information security is important for privacy. This can be prevented by creating personal password for information and limiting access to the password by unauthorized parties. Computer Security To assist organizations whose systems come under attack a number of countries have established teams that act in response to computer failures. As we move more and more to mobile computing the challenge of securing systems becomes even more daunting. There will at all times be the individual who, for whatever reason, will be tempted to undertake an illegal act - it comes down to opportunity and incentive. The vulnerable points in computerized systems are people and procedures in addition to hardware, software, and data. Activity A significant number of attacks, misuse of systems, fraud, etc do not get reported to the community at large. this is because the organization doesn't want to undermine public confidence in its systems, management are not keen to draw shareholders attention to weaknesses in the organization’s systems, reducing the public exposure of such attacks assists in minimizing the likelihood of "copy cat" attacks, and so on. The media reports also do not cover all of them since they refuse to get exposed by the media. Risk management Risk assessment and management are practiced as a way of reducing the risks that are associated with IS. Risk analysis is a systematic process directed towards the reduction of loss to an entity due to the unforeseen happenings. It consists of the identification of risks and risk measurement. The development of a Risk Matrix is a useful technique to provide a means of recording what are the risks to be managed and how can we minimize or eliminate the likelihood of the risk occurring. Module 9 The IT Professional Professional codes of conduct have been developed as means to help in these situations. Starting from the IT professionals down to the general public. System Reliability Computers stop working because: The job they are doing is inherently difficult, and the job is done poorly. The causes of computer systems failure are: developers not considering human sense in computer usage, too much confidence in data accuracy and possibility of errors, information not updated or corrected and lack of accountability for errors. Activity System developers are not free of obligation in the event of substantial system failure because it is their duty to ensure that the systems are free of errors. Reliability and Safety can be increased by following Professional Techniques: observing proper software practices, ensuring professionalism when developing and using computers, incorporate self-checking where appropriate, and follow good testing principals and techniques. These measures are effective when there are laws to enforce them. However the developers should take this as their obligation. Professional behavior Ethical behaviors which computer professionals are to maintain includes: honesty, punctuality, and job perfection. The ethical behaviors espoused by various codes of conduct cover areas such as: honest and fair; respects confidentiality; maintains professional competence; understands relevant laws; respects and protection of personal privacy; avoids harming others; and respects property rights. Quality software processes and practices can aid professionals in achieving high quality systems and go a long way to contribute to good professional practice. Ethical theories identify rules and guidelines which are important. This module links the content of all previous eight modules in a discussion of the responsibilities and accountabilities of IT professionals. The module begins by posing some challenging questions and concludes by pointing the key areas addressed in this course which may provide answers to the ethical and professional expectations of those involved in the IT industry.   References Baase, Sara. (2002). An award of Fire: Social, lawful, and principled subjects for Computers and the Internet (2nd Ed.). San Diego: State University. Read More