Ethical Issues of Information Technology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Ethical Issues of Information Technology - Essay Example Computers are special technology that raises special ethical issues (Moor, 1991) and that such issues and problems are unique to the field. They would not have been issues had it not been for the technology itself (Maner, 1996). Ethical issues of information technology are called many names like computer ethics, information ethics, and cyberethics. In the whole of information systems management, whatever its name, the new technology radically reshapes life styles, at the same time creates challenges in the areas of privacy, property, security and individual identity (Information systems, 2007). The following discussion covers issues in consumer or online privacy, copyright, patents, trademarks, trade secrets, legal jurisdiction, and online contracting that manifest in the field of information technology. The details come in the form of definitions and philosophical reflections or historical events elucidating the issue. The paper then ends with a note on probabilities for the future. Computer and information technology may be used interchangeably throughout the paper and may mean the same. The Ethical Issues Online Privacy. The cheap, fast, painless encryption technology provided by the computer has transformed the privacy debate completely. While before, people worried about the wearing away of privacy, the concern now is about the computer-generated privacy "afforded to every criminal with a computer and half a brain." (Maner, 1996). Electronic mail has replaced telephone and inter-office mail communications as the principal medium of business communications and this has made work easier. Throughout it all, however, suddenly, one's email address has become known to merchandisers and one begins receiving a lot of unsolicited email daily about products being advertised. Identity theft generally involves obtaining data from individual consumers' financial transactions on the Internet or elsewhere, and either billing the consumers' credit cards for nonexistent transactions or services, or using consumers' personal data to conduct actual transactions that are billed to the consumers(Internet Fraud, 2000). Identity theft is an Internet fraud. There is a need for email privacy in the workplace and the blocking of bulk E-mail solicitations called "SPAM." How had the address been known to others The sale of personal information, or its use by a successor, according to Zaharoff (2001) may constitute "unfair or deceptive" act even if it is not a breach of contract. The Computer-Processed Personal Data Protection Act was passed in 1995, governing official agency as well as non-official agency (Yang & Chang, 2007). At present, however, the only eight categories of non-official agency governed by it are credit information, hospital, school, telecommunications, financing and banking, securities, insurance and mass communications (Yang & Chang, 2007). This means these agencies having to do with these concerns must apply