Assessment item 3Assignment 3Value 20Due date 28-Se.docx
- 1. Assessment item 3 Assignment 3 Value: 20% Due date: 28-Sep-2015 Length: Minimum 1,500 words and Maximum 2,000 words Submission method options Alternative submission method Task Instructions Choose one ethical issue arising from the use of ICT that has been reported in the press in the last one year, and discuss it in depth. Show why or how the technology creates or contributes to the problem. Produce an article, discussing both sides of the issue (pros and cons) drawing on both technical and philosophical literature. In addition, argue for your own view of the matter, giving your reasons for your point of view and showing why you believe that they are better than opposing views. You will be assessed on your ability to reason, analyse and present cogent argument for the particular case. You should outline the main statement you wish to make about your chosen ethical issue along with your reasons and others’ objections to it. You may use any appropriate technique to set out the basic structure of your article.
- 2. Examples 1. In the recent years there have been considerable discussions on Internet content regulation. In an examination of this issue, you may like to present a discussion of the pros and cons of censorship in general, and how these general principles apply to the Internet, and also some of the technical issues associated with Internet content regulation. Your main focus statements could be, for example: Internet content ought to be regulated (alternatively, Internet content ought not to be regulated); information wants to be free and Content regulation is just censorship under another name. 2. Privacy is a perennial issue. Hardly a week passes without some report in the press about something that is causing concern, whether it be new data manipulation tools, online social media, search engines, new legislation, or whatever. Your main focus statements could be, for example: privacy on the internet ought to be protected; both government and relevant industry sector should come together to ensure personal privacy on the internet. There are of course many other arguments that could be presented about the issue of privacy. You are required to submit the following: A comprehensive and coherent article containing your critical analysis of the ICT related ethical issue. Your article should present: - the main point(s) of the issue.
- 3. - the pros and cons for the main point(s) (your reasons and objections as well as those of others) including a critique of the effectiveness of the arguments presented. - conclusions logically drawn from the analysis presented. the ethics technique worksheet you used to form the basis of your analysis. Online submission via Turnitin is required for this assignment. Rationale This assignment relates to the following subject learning outcomes: be able to discuss various philosophical theories of ethics and how these relate to the ethical and legal issues raised by current practices involving ICT; be able to apply ethical theories and concepts to analyse ICT related ethical dilemmas; Depending on the ethical scenario chosen, the assignment also relates to one or more of the following subject learning outcomes: be able to discuss professionalism and professional responsibility in the context of the ICT profession; be able to critically analyse and apply the various concepts of professional ethics; be able to critique ethical issues related to privacy, intellectual
- 4. property and regulating the cyberspace; be able to analyse and evaluate social and work related ethical issues and principles. Marking criteria CRITERIA STANDARDS FL PS CR DI HD 1. Description of scenario to be analysed Marks: 10 Major omissions. Description of the scenario to be analysed has been presented. Some omissions. Mostly clear and comprehensive description of the scenario to be analysed. Some omissions. Mostly clear and comprehensive description of the scenario to be analysed. Clear and
- 5. comprehensive description of the scenario to be analysed. 2. Identification of relevant ethical issue(s) Marks: 10 Major omissions. Ethical issues involved in the chosen scenario identified and introduced. Some omissions. Ethical issues involved in the chosen scenario clearly identified and introduced. Some omissions. All ethical issues involved in the chosen scenario clearly identified and introduced. Minor omissions only. All ethical issues involved in the
- 6. chosen scenario clearly identified and introduced. 3. Evidence of research Marks: 25 Either no evidence of literature being consulted or irrelevant to the assignment set. Literature is presented uncritically, in a purely descriptive way and indicates limitations of understanding. Referencing style mostly correctly used. Some errors. Clear evidence and application of readings relevant to the subject; uses indicative texts identified. Referencing style mostly correctly used. Minor errors only.
- 7. Able to critically appraise the literature and theory gained from variety of sources, developing own ideas in the process. Referencing style correctly used. Developed and justified own ideas based on a wide range of sources which have been thoroughly analysed, applied and discussed. Referencing style correctly used. 4. Reasoning/Analysis (subdivided as follows) Marks: 45 - Knowledge and application of ethical principles Marks: 20
- 8. Major omissions. Relevant ethical theories are applied to substantiate arguments. Some omissions. Relevant ethical theories are appropriately applied to substantiate arguments. Some omissions. All relevant ethical theories are mostly appropriately applied to substantiate arguments. Minor omissions only. All relevant ethical theories are appropriately applied to substantiate arguments. - Balance of pros and cons in arguments Marks: 15 Major omissions. Pros and cons in arguments are presented. Some omissions.
- 9. Pros and cons in arguments are mostly appropriately balanced. Some omissions. Pros and cons in arguments are mostly correctly presented and are appropriately balanced. Minor omissions only. Pros and cons in arguments are correctly presented and are appropriately balanced. - Coherence and logical presentation of ethics technique worksheet Marks: 10 Major omissions The Ethics Technique Worksheet is presented in the Appendix. Some omissions.
- 10. The Ethics Technique Worksheet is mostly complete and correctly presented in the Appendix. Some omissions. The Ethics Technique Worksheet is mostly complete and correctly presented in the Appendix. Very minor omissions only. The Ethics Technique Worksheet is complete and correctly presented in the Appendix. 5. Presentation (including title, subheadings, 1 1/2 spacing, paragraphs) and grammar and spelling. Writing style not fluent or well-organised, and many grammatical and spelling mistakes.
- 11. Writing style not always fluent or well organised and grammar and spelling contain errors. (Value: 10%) Mostly fluent writing style appropriate to the assignment with mostly accurate grammar and spelling. Minor Mostly Fluent writing style appropriate to assignment with accurate grammar and spelling. Fluent writing style appropriate to the assignment with accurate grammar and spelling. Marks: 10 omissions only. Total marks: 100
- 12. ITC 331- Ethics and Professional Practice Assignment 2 ITC 331- Ethics and Professional Practice “Facebook Tells people Where You Are” Facebook is a free social networking service that lunched in February 2004 has over one
- 13. billion active users by September 2012. It lets a user to create profile and add others as a friend and share photos, messages and other information’s. (“Facebook,” n.d.) Since the lunch of the Facebook it has raised many privacy issues. As the networking site keep introducing new features to keep them up more interesting and lucrative new privacy issues are arising as well. One of their new feature is “Places”. It is a feature that allows users to share their physical locations with their Facebook friends. It also lets them to identify friend’s locations and visited places weather they have visited or not. Wherever they go they can use ‘check in’ options which tells the location they have checked in as well as they can tag their friends which shows who they have checked in with. Even though, if they do not check in a place with a friend they can still tag them which shows they are with that friends. (Fowler, 2010) Moreover, users can look through nearby venues, markets, restaurants, shops etc to find out what other friends are around. This features raised a great privacy concern to many
- 14. organisations and individuals as it can be a great threat to individual’s security as well as a great concern of individual’s privacy. (Kiss, 2010) As any user can tag any of their friends and share their location with other friends on Facebook without tagged users consent. This feature may jeopardize the tagged persons privacy as well as security. Moreover, they do not even have to be physically with the friend to be tagged which is another huge issue of the feature. This can be used to embarrass or harm ones good reputations. Even though, users agreed to the Facebook policy and lawfully they are not doing anything illegal, but it is very unethical as when people lose their privacy in the society and sometimes exposed their private life to others that they do not want to be seen by others. On the other hand, many advertising companies are using the shared data without users consent which are being collected from Facebook and those data has been using in advertisement purposes. Another issue is the same data are being used to monitor user’s activities by individuals and by organisations.
- 15. Even though, Facebook claims that the default setting of the feature is ‘friend only’ which means the information will be shared only with the friends by default. Users can remove the tag later on if they do not want to share the information. So, they have certain controls over the feature. However, according to the Electronic Privacy Information Centre and the American Civil Liberties Union of ITC 331- Ethics and Professional Practice Northern California said the control of the privacy settings of the feature is not enough to minimize risks and privacy concerns. They also stated Facebook should provide a clear privacy settings of “don’t allow” option when a friend first tag another friend rather than allowing them to tag in the first place and later remove the tag. (Fowler, 2010) This feature is directly or indirectly bringing harm to users which have impact on society as well. Before analysing the ethical issues and implications, it is important to define what privacy is
- 16. and how it could be violated? “Privacy is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves and thereby reveal themselves selectively”. Even though, it may varies culture to culture but in general it is ones right to disclose themselves from others what they think its personal and would be defended if shared. It is a choice of sharing, storing and a way of leading that will not worry others life. ("Privacy", 2011) So, when someone’s personal information’s, life style or certain information that they would not want to be shared but somehow reveals by someone to others or something that reveals without their consent is violation of one’s privacy. According to Deontology, “It is the study of duties and rights. It focuses on the fundamental of human rights and the various entities responsibilities towards these rights: right to know, right to privacy and right to property” (Tavani, 2007). When Facebook shares user’s locations and places they have visited, it is actually violating user’s privacy even though users agreed on some extent. User’s
- 17. information’s are their property and that cannot be shared with third party without their consent. According to utilitarianism, “It is when the action benefits all parties such as customer and company plus the action is right if the benefit outweigh the overall cost involved” (Tavani, 2007). Even though the feature benefits both companies and users but it is still a concern of privacy issue for many others. If most of the people are happy with the action and according to utilitarianism the action is right, however, lack of knowledge on the consequences of the action and desire of getting few benefits are few reasons behind their acceptance. On the other hand, Facebook is playing an egoism role here as it maximise their benefits in various ways while they ignore users privacy and security. According to Kant’s categorical imperative “never treat people merely as a means to an end but as an end in themselves (respect others)” (Tavani, 2007). Some of the information that shared by the feature may not be disrespect for some but may be disrespect for many others.
- 18. ITC 331- Ethics and Professional Practice People do not want to be tagged in everything they do with their friends and sometimes they might be harmful for their self respects or even at workplaces. From the ethical analysis, it is obvious that this new feature that Facebook has introduced has privacy issues that may not be illegal but in many cases it is not ethical. Therefore, certain action needs to be taken to address the issue. Such as, Facebook may completely remove the feature for the overall wellbeing of the society as well as minimize the privacy issues. It can give user absolute control over their privacy setting. Moreover, they need to monitor the whole feature to make sure people’s privacy is not being invaded. People need to be educated as well. They should know how to control the privacy and the importance of it as well as the consequences of losing privacy in this information world. If more people get educated the more people will be concern about their privacy and they will act according to what’s best for
- 19. them. Facebook needs to be more honest when it comes to store and share customer’s information. They should not share customer information with third party for advertisement purposes. There should be strict law regarding sharing customer information’s with third parties. There are number of things can be done to safeguard people’s privacy. Now the question is what are the options Facebook may follow to address this situation? They can remove the feature or give more control to users over privacy setting as well as educate them on the best use of privacy settings. However, many will argue that removing the feature is not right solution as it does have many benefits. Such as, people can find other friends around them, it may assist to track or monitor people that may be good for society. In a large location where it is hard to find friends, this feature may help to find them easily. (Kirschner, 2010) But when it comes to privacy it is more ethical to address the situation in a way that it would not
- 20. grow in future. It’s like rather than cutting a tree from the top every day, cut the root. To make both parties happy, I would recommend the second option which is giving users absolute control over privacy settings and educate them. Users should be able to set their privacy settings “don’t allow” tagging, controlling over timeline location history as well as educating users so that they can decide how they would appropriately use it. This is a better solution for both users and Facebook company as the company can still implement the feature without compromising the privacy of users where else users would be happy as well as they will choose to use it or not. Moreover, user’s that doesn’t want to be tagged they could avoid ITC 331- Ethics and Professional Practice being tagged by friends. More users will be aware of the implications of this feature as well by being educated of the features pros and cons. To sum up, it is very important to understand technology is to serve human being not the
- 21. other way round. If any technological advancement has bad impact on society weather it is ethical or unethical, legal or illegal it should be illuminated for the betterment of the society. If that is not possible then it should be addressed carefully to minimize the bad affect of it whether it is security, privacy or any other issues. So does, Facebooks new feature “Places” needs to be addressed seriously to confirm that technology is still serving the humanity for their betterment, not the other way round.
- 22. ITC 331- Ethics and Professional Practice Bibliography: Fowler, G. A. (2010). Facebook Fights Privacy Concerns. In The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703579804575 441871011613474.html Kirschner, J. (2010). Facebook Places Tells Friends Where You Are - Here's How it Works. In Techlicious. Retrieved from http://www.techlicious.com/blog/facebook-places-tells-friends- where-you-are-heres-how- it-works/ Kiss, J. (2010). Facebook Places Location Tool Unveiled, Sparking Fresh Privacy Concerns. The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/aug/19/facebook- places-location-tool-unveiled Tavani, H. T. (2007). Ethics and Technology: Ethical issues in an age of information and communication technology. Hoboken: John Willey. unknown. (2011). Privacy. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved from
- 23. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privacy unknown. (n.d). Facebook. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook ITC 331- Ethics and Professional Practice Ethics Technique 1) What is going on? Facebook has introduced a new feature which they named ‘Places’. It lets people to share with others their location and places they have visited. This feature raises lot of concerns regarding user’s privacy. 2) What are the facts?
- 24. • The new features that Facebook has introduced allow users to share their locations and places they have visited. • It raises issue about user’s privacy. • Advertiser using users information without their consent • It has been using to monitor users activity without users authorisation. • Facebook claims the default setting of the feature is ‘Friend’ which means the information will be shared only with friends by default. 3) What are the issues? • Violating others privacy even though lawfully it’s not illegal. • Sharing unauthorised information with third parties. • Unauthorised monitoring. 4) Who is affected? • Facebook users. 5) What are the ethical issues and implications? • “Deontology is the study of duties and rights. It focuses on the
- 25. fundamental of human rights and the various entities responsibilities towards these rights: right to know, right to privacy and right to property” (Tavani, 2007) • When Facebooks shares user’s locations and visiting places it is violating user’s privacy even though users agreed on some extent. • User’s information’s are user’s property and that cannot be shared with third party without their consent. • “Utilitarianism is when the action benefits all parties such as customer and company plus the action is right if the benefit outweigh the overall cost involved” (Tavani, 2007) • Even though the feature benefits both companies and users but it is still a concern of privacy issue for many others. May be maximum people are happy with the action and according to utilitarianism the action is right. However, lack of knowledge on the
- 26. consequences of the action and desire of getting few benefits are few reasons behind their acceptance. On the other hand, Facebook is playing an egoism role here as it maximise their benefits in various ways. ITC 331- Ethics and Professional Practice • According to Kant’s categorical imperative “never treat people merely as a means to an end but as an end in themselves (respect others)”. • Some of the information that shared by the feature may not be disrespect for some but may be disrespect for many others. People do not want to be tagged in everything’s they do with their friends and some are harmful for their self respect. 6) What can be done about it? • Facebook can completely remove the feature or give users more control over privacy setting.
- 27. • They should educate users regarding strong security settings and its importance and consequences. • They should avoid sharing data with third parties for any kind of advertisement purpose or monitoring purpose without users consent. 7) What options are there? • Completely remove the feature from the Facebook. • Give users absolute control over privacy settings. • Educate users. 8) Which option is best and why? Giving users absolute control over privacy settings and educating them is the best solution to address this ethical issue. It will make both parties happy. Facebook can still have the feature where users get more privacy control and being educated will assist them to aware of their privacy and rights.