Essentially, ethics is a set of moral principals that affect how individuals and organisations make decisions, live and work.
Also known as moral philosophy, ethics attempts to answer questions that centre around:-
It is easy to see how asking questions like these can be applied to such topics as war, murder, theft, animal rights, abortion, capital punishment and so on. It's less easy to see how it could be applied to business, data storage and access rights.
Rules of behaviour or working to a moral code may seem to have little to do with gathering data, storing and using data. But it's exactly the area where ethics should be applied.
Most ethical questions revolve around the issue of consent or permission given by the user to the organisation to hold data about them. And if they give consent, what exactly does that give the organisation permission to gather and to do with that data.
Other areas include about how the data should be looked after, who it should be shared with and who should have access to it.
It would be easy to deny organisations permission to keep, store and use the data, but would be impossible to do. Banks wouldn't be able to keep financial accounts, on-line shopping couldn't take place, social-media would have to close down and probably the whole of the internet.
Its also good to share, communicate and engage with others. So this requires some gathering and sharing of data. Businesses can operate, social and medical progress can be made. So the ethical questions are where do you draw the line and say 'you can't do that with my data'.
| Activity | Ethical Questions |
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| Collecting data
Organisations can collect massive amounts of data, either by tracking users to see where they go, or from forms that users complete online. Many organisations collect data with the aim of improving their service to you or providing you with access to resources or services directly related to your interests. Sometimes the passing on of data to others helps them provide free services that benefit users. For example free Google mail and other Google services that are paid for by advertisers. |
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| Sharing data
Once collected, data is shared between people in the same organisation. Sometimes it is sold or passed onto other organisations. |
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Confidentiality
Once data is collected, there are a series of issues around who should see it and who it can be disclosed to. For example, should insurance companies be made aware of medical details before providing health insurance? Would it be a good thing if your medical details were shared with medical research companies that could help in producing a cure? |
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Storing the data
Once collected, data has to be stored somewhere and being collected on-line from around the world, it is highly probable that the data is going to be stored in a different country from the data subject. Then the issue becomes under whose laws apply to the protection of the data subject. The laws of the country where the subject lives, or the laws of the country where the data is stored? |
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Ethics, not some county close to London, is often overlooked when it comes to the web and security. They are however the 'rules' by which companies and organisations are held accountable.
Create a new page in your notebook titled Ethics and complete the following tasks.
Looking at the table above:
This is a famous 'thought experiment' problem first proposed by the philosopher Phillipa Foot.
A runaway trolley is hurtling down some tracks. Ahead are five people unable to move, are tied to the tracks. You are standing next to a lever which if pulled will divert the train off on another track. Unfortunately, a single man is tied to the rails on this track. So, you have two options:-
You have to decide which is the most ethical choice
Would it make any difference if the single man was a doctor and the five people criminals or the single person a child and the five old age pensioners? What if the position is reversed?
If you don't feel confident in meeting any of these performance criteria, ask your teacher or re-read the information again.
