M3 Explain the role of ethical decision making in organisational IT security.
Just because something is legal does not mean
that it is ethical. It may not be legally wrong to do something however it may
be morally and therefore ethically wrong. Ethics are different from person to
person as they are based on what you believe is right and wrong and what is
acceptable, this makes it very had to write down a set of ethical rules that
people should follow.
Organisations have to make ethical decisions about a lot of things but mainly about personal information.
Freedom of information is how government information can be available to the public on request. Before the internet examples of this where things like phone books, but now you can request all sorts of information about government spending etc. which is good because it means the public isn’t always kept in the dark about everything.
Freedom of information can also be a very bad thing. Using a website like yell.com you can very easily find someone’s name address and telephone number, and then use something like google street view to then see what the outside of their house looks like, and you could even look them up on Facebook to see if the posts the times that they’re working or if they’re going on holiday etc. this could make it extremely easy to burgle a house.
Organisations have to make ethical decisions about a lot of things but mainly about personal information.
Freedom of information is how government information can be available to the public on request. Before the internet examples of this where things like phone books, but now you can request all sorts of information about government spending etc. which is good because it means the public isn’t always kept in the dark about everything.
Freedom of information can also be a very bad thing. Using a website like yell.com you can very easily find someone’s name address and telephone number, and then use something like google street view to then see what the outside of their house looks like, and you could even look them up on Facebook to see if the posts the times that they’re working or if they’re going on holiday etc. this could make it extremely easy to burgle a house.
Permission is a major thing when it comes to
ethical decisions. If you go to a school or college they will usually give you
a permission slip to sign to say that they can take and use photos of you for
things like their website or prospectus. This is not a legal requirement
however it is ethically right.
Google maps, for example, have recently started blurring out faces on street view. This again is not a legal requirement however they have decided that it is ethically right to do this. If they didn’t do this it might also cause a lot of complaints if people were in an incriminating position when the photo was taken. They can’t ask everyone that they took photos of for permission for the images to be online so instead they just blur out EVERYONE.
Google maps, for example, have recently started blurring out faces on street view. This again is not a legal requirement however they have decided that it is ethically right to do this. If they didn’t do this it might also cause a lot of complaints if people were in an incriminating position when the photo was taken. They can’t ask everyone that they took photos of for permission for the images to be online so instead they just blur out EVERYONE.
Personally I think that in quite a few companies
a lot of ethical decisions may be overlooked because they be extremely time
consuming or expensive (for example handing out permission slips or going through
and blurring every single person’s face on street view) and since they don’t
have a legal obligation to do these things they do not.
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