TECHNOLOGICAL AND PRIVACY ISSUES

JUNAID AJMAL
013-18-0018
Table of Contents

1. Introduction......................................................................................................................................................3

2. Ethics................................................................................................................................................................3

3. The Concept of Privacy....................................................................................................................................3

3.1 Definition of Privacy..............................................................................................................................3

3.2 Different Categories of Private Information..................................................................................................4

3.2.1 Private Communication...........................................................................................................................4

3.2.2 Privacy of the Body.................................................................................................................................4

3.2.3 Personal Information...............................................................................................................................4

3.2.4 Information about one’s possession........................................................................................................4

3.3 The Expressed Will to Privacy.......................................................................................................................5

3.4 The relationship between Privacy and Confidentiality..................................................................................5

4. The Ethics of Privacy.......................................................................................................................................5

5. Corporate Response to Privacy........................................................................................................................6

6. Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Workplace.........................................................................................................6

6.1 Transparency..................................................................................................................................................7

6.2 Justice.............................................................................................................................................................7

6.3 Non-maleficence............................................................................................................................................7

6.4 Responsibility.................................................................................................................................................7

6.5 Privacy............................................................................................................................................................8

7. Some real-life examples...................................................................................................................................8

7.1 The Wikileaks................................................................................................................................................8

 7.2 LinkedIn.........................................................................................................................................................9

7.3 Facebook........................................................................................................................................................9

References..............................................................................................................................................................10
Outline
1. Introduction

2. Ethics

3. The Concept of Privacy

3.1 Definition of Privacy

3.2 Different Categories of Private Information

3.2.1 Private Communication

3.2.2 Privacy of the Body

3.2.3 Personal Information

3.2.4 Information about one’s possession

3.3 The Expressed Will to Privacy

3.4 The relationship between Privacy and Confidentiality

4. The Ethics of Privacy

5. Corporate Response to Privacy

6. Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Workplace

6.1 Transparency

6.2 Justice

6.3 Non-maleficence

6.4 Responsibility

6.5 Privacy
7. Some real-life examples

7.1 The Wikileaks

7.2 LinkedIn

7.3 Facebook

Conclusion
 1. Introduction

We live in an era in which the flow of information from one corner of the world to the other
is just a touch away. This efficiency in spreading news is made possible with the help of
technology. The development in technologies made the flow of information among people
around the globe so easy that all you need is to tap on a button and boom! The entire world
can see whatever you have posted. Technology respects no border; it can cross the barriers
erected by the governments of different countries in just a matter of time. This is the power of
technology.

However, as the famous saying goes, everything has a cost. The cost for this technology
enhancement is that we have lost control of our lives. Therefore, everything is decided by
technology users, who have enormous power over our choices of what we should see, what
we should buy, which lifestyle we should apply, etc. Furthermore, the use of technology has
threatened the privacy of individuals. The free flow of information is sometimes misused, and
many people have paid a hefty cost because of this free flow.

In this paper, I will try to put some ethical issues relevant to the privacy of individuals to the
fore. Several threats posed by technology will be discussed shortly.

2. Ethics

Word “Ethics” can be described in general terms as those actions that are regarded suitable
by society are called ethical actions. Ethics determines what is good and what is evil.

3. The Concept of Privacy

3.1 Definition of Privacy

The Word privacy can be defined as a right of an individual to be left alone, or a person has a
birthright to keep their life secret from others, and s/he has a right to live alone without
justifying it to anyone. The Right to privacy is given by nature that eventually opens room for
legal protection.

In many democratic countries, including Pakistan, there are specific laws that protect citizens'
right to privacy right to privacy is as important as the right of freedom and the right of
personal autonomy is. Because there is a relationship between all the mentioned rights. For
example, if a person has a right to privacy, eventually, he has a right to freedom and
autonomy.

However, the right to privacy is not an absolute duty that means it can be compromised if
needed. For example, Law enforcers can break this right of privacy by spying on criminals or
seizing their properties; moreover, a government can collate citizens’ data to ensure order and
harmony in society.

3.2 Different Categories of Private Information

There are different categories in which private information can be classified. As described
aforementioned, privacy is a right of individuals to keep their life private or the right to be
left alone, so the different classifications of privacy are:

3.2.1 Private Communication

This form of privacy is about what that person only wants to keep to themselves. It can be an
interview or a personal chat that people do not want to break on others.

3.2.2 Privacy of the Body

Any medical report or illness that a person does not want to make known to others falls into
this category. For example, the father of a nation, Quaid-E-Azam, who kept his disease secret
from others, is also an example of the privacy of the body.

3.2.3 Personal Information

It is a constitutional right of every individual not to let others know about his personal
information unless it is necessary to get access to the information that is specific to the
person. The information under this section is names, addresses, financial statements, etc.

3.2.4 Information about one’s possession

This section is about the right of individuals to keep things secret pertinent to private
properties. For example, no one can bound an individual to tell them where they keep their
wallets.
3.3 The Expressed Will to Privacy

The things expressed or regarded by a person to keep it secret will be considered an

expressed will to privacy. The best example for the said thing can be a person who has
developed software for cellphones and did not keep it free, so it is the duty of those buyers
who have paid money for his software not to share that software with anyone else because it
is not accessible for all software. No one cannot share software that is paid unless the
developer relinquishes the desire of getting money in exchange for the software.

3.4 The relationship between Privacy and Confidentiality

It is also essential to differentiate between privacy and confidentiality/secrecy. As

confidentiality is not only applicable to the categories as mentioned earlier but may also refer
to other things, including trade secrets, highly sensitive government reports, etc.

4. The Ethics of Privacy

The world is evolving very rapidly. Since the pandemic’s start, many businesses that were
first reluctant to shift to online forums were propelled to shift their businesses virtually as all
the physical businesses activities were cut off. We all know that everything has a cost; this
digitalization and the rapid flow of information pose many threats to our private lives.
Nevertheless, the cost for this reliance on technology is our privacy is at stake.
Notwithstanding our desire to have our life secret, we sometimes fall victim to compromising
our privacy. Therefore, we do not know the intentions behind collecting the data; we need to
form a trade-off between transparency and privacy.

Moreover, as the commercial transactions take place using mobile phones or other online and
payment is often made through credit cards and the shipment of goods to the recipient’s home
address, in this case, they are prone to the compromise of their privacy. The opponent party
can use the data for mala-fide intentions.

The real-life example that I would love to quote here is my personal experience. In the sixth
semester, we were taught Methods of Business; our final assignment was to collect data from
people using an online questionnaire. It was easier said than done. We have forwarded that
questionnaire to more than a thousand people but hardly got a response from around 100
people. Even people closest to us were reluctant to share their data, saying it might bring. We
ensured them that their data would remain confidential, but they did not fill out the
questionnaire notwithstanding because many of them had already fallen victim to the data
leakage.

Companies use the data they collect to recognize customers, execute transactions, and
improve to be more user-friendly. However, the companies can use the data for reasons other
than the mentioned one. For example, the data can target banner ads at users, harass them
with gracious emails, or sell the collected data to third parties. For example, the well
renowned social media platform FACEBOOK found itself in hot water when the users
accused it of stealing their data and selling it to third parties in exchange for money. The
situation worsened so much that the FB Company had to issue a communique explaining that
no data was stolen or sold off to any third party.

5. Corporate Response to Privacy

After realizing the demands of the consumers to ensure their privacy, many companies have
introduced Chief Privacy Officers (CPO), whose duty is to make sure that no data is used for
purposes other than that for which the consumers have given their consents. To breakdown,
their tasks, gathering information about social and legal views about privacy, conceiving the
new strategies for the company, sharing information of the handling of information to internal
and external stakeholders, and underscoring the commitment of the company to ensure
privacy. Furthermore, many companies carried forward the privacy issue to the next level by
posting it on their web pages to let the customers know how much they respect their privacy.
The original idea behind positing these things on their websites is to disclose to the
consumers how their data is stored in safer hands.

6. Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Workplace

If you ask me a question, what is the most significant innovation science has given to the
world? Without thinking for a moment, I will straightly name Artificial Intelligence as the
most important innovation Science has ever done. However, as every coin has two sides, so is
the case with AI, it has some limitations. The biggest hurdle of AI is it is overhauled by
humans, which means the results can be subjected to biases.

Furthermore, a survey regarding the usage of AI was conducted by Deloitte. The findings of
this survey are summed up in the chart below.
Moreover, there is a global consensus about the principles that must be made sure before
using Artificial Intelligence in the workplace. The ethical principles that giant business
people put forward around the globe like Elon Musk are transparency, justice, non-
maleficence, responsibility, and privacy.

6.1 Transparency

The ability to understand the decisions made by Artificial Intelligence

6.2 Justice

Keep judging Artificial Intelligence to mitigate the risk of bias.

6.3 Non-maleficence

Never try to use Artificial Intelligence for purposes to harm other people. The purpose can be
discrimination, Violence of Privacy, or physical harm.

6.4 Responsibility

The developer of Artificial intelligence should be held accountable if anything wrong

happens after accounting Artificial Intelligence in the workplace
6.5 Privacy

An ethical Artificial Intelligence system considers privacy both a duty to uphold and a right
to be protected.

7. Some real-life examples

Additionally, Artificial Intelligence is more vulnerable to cyber-attacks. It can be hacked, and

hackers can access all the data. The most significant allegation in the history of AI was made
in 2016 when the candidate for the president of the US was accused of manipulating the data.
The opponent had some Russian hackers hack the emails of Hillary Clinton. The latter had
won the elections, and the former had accused the Russian hackers of defeating her.

This is how technology can sometimes play the role of bugler and break into your personal
lives that too without letting you reek the situation. Because of this reason, many people are
susceptible to technology being used as a tool in businesses.

7.1 The WikiLeaks

Since the launching of this site, WikiLeaks has time and again shaken the entire world. Some
of the significant leaks done by WIKILEAKS are the footage of the Iraqi invasion by the US,
some highly sensitive reports of the FBI, secret talks between the topmost leadership of the
world, etc. This is, however, sabotage of people’s right to have the freedom to be left alone.
The entire world was on the target of WikiLeaks; Pakistan is no exception. Even Pakistan
was blamed for selling its citizens’ highly confidential data to the US and UK security
agencies. NADRA had, however, denied the claims.

Undoubtedly, we give up much of our privacy in the shape of emails, contacts through online
forums, and filling personal forms for the government. All the data get stored somewhere on
internet servers. Then hackers like WIKILEAKS try to gain unauthorized access to it once
they succeed in accessing that data. We ultimately lose our privacy. This is the biggest flaw
of technology that is yet to be addressed. Unless we are fully secure that our data is really our
data, we cannot put all our data on online forums or supplant the traditional system of storing
things with online databases.
7.2 LinkedIn

In June 2021, data linked with 700 million LinkedIn members were released on a dark
website, affecting more than 90% of the company's user base. Data scraping techniques were
utilized by a hacker known as "God User," who exploited the site's (and others') API before
releasing the first data collection of about 500 million consumers. They then boasted that they
were selling the whole 700 million-person consumer database. While LinkedIn claimed that
the incident was a violation of its terms of service rather than a data breach because no
sensitive, private personal data was exposed, a scraped data sample posted by God User
contained information such as email addresses, phone numbers, geo-location records,
genders, and as well as other social media details, which, according to the UK's NCSC,
would provide malicious actors with enough of material to design plausible follow-on social
engineering assaults in the aftermath of the release.

7.3 Facebook

Two datasets from Facebook applications were discovered to have been exposed to the public
internet in April 2019. The data includes phone numbers, account names, and Facebook IDs
for more than 530 million Facebook members. However, two years later (in April 2021), the
data was made publicly available for free, suggesting new and genuine criminal intent. Given
the large number of phone numbers exposed and readily available on the dark web due to the
breach, security researcher Troy Hunt added functionality to his HaveIBeenPwned (HIBP)
breached credential checking site that allowed users to check if their phone numbers were
included in the exposed dataset.

“I’d never planned to make phone numbers searchable,” Hunt wrote in a blog post. “My
position on this was that it didn’t make sense for a bunch of reasons. The Facebook data
changed all that. There are over 500 million phone numbers but only a few million email
addresses, so >99% of people were getting a miss when they should have gotten a hit.

Furthermore, recently, Facebook’s other product WhatsApp was accused of selling its user’s
chats to the business companies to understand what customers talk about profoundly. Using
this information, they could design their marketing strategies. When this thing opened on the
users, they protested. Most users uninstalled their accounts and shifted to a similar social
media app, namely “Telegram”, that promised high security for personal chats. Seeing users
uninstalling the app, FB Company was compelled to explain that no data was being used
without consent from the users.

8. Conclusion

To conclude, we all know very well that in this highly competitive environment, no firm can
survive without accounting technology in their business to achieve efficiency and outperform
their competitors. However, knowing that technology can damage the right to privacy if not
eliminate it. So, it is recommended to form a trade-off between technology and privacy issue.
Businesses should not adopt technology at the cost of compromising the privacy of
individuals.
References

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