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Chapter 4 Privacy

AN OVERVIEW OF ETHICS

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Sami Benamer
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Chapter 4 Privacy

AN OVERVIEW OF ETHICS

Uploaded by

Sami Benamer
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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PRIVACY

University of Benghazi
Faculty of Information Technology
Computing Ethics and Society (IT301)
PREPARED BY: SAMI BENAMER (MSc CS)
Reference: ETHICS IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY-Sixth Edition BY George W. Reynolds
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
As you read this chapter, consider the following questions:
▪ What is the right of privacy, and what is the basis for protecting personal privacy under
the law?
▪ What are some of the laws that provide protection for the privacy of personal data,
and what are some of the associated ethical issues?
▪ What are the various strategies for consumer profiling, and what are the associated
ethical issues?
▪ What is e-discovery, and how is it being used?
▪ Why and how are employers increasingly using workplace monitoring?
▪ What are the capabilities of advanced surveillance technologies, and what ethical
issues do they raise?
PRIVACY PROTECTION AND THE LAW

▪ The use of information


technology in both
government and business
requires balancing the needs
of those who use the
information that is collected
against the rights and
desires of the people whose
information is being used.
▪ Information about people is
gathered, stored, analyzed,
and reported because
organizations can use it to
make better decisions.
INFORMATION PRIVACY
▪ A broad definition of the right of privacy is “the right to be left alone the most
comprehensive of rights, and the right most valued by a free people.”
▪ Another concept of privacy that is particularly useful in discussing the impact of IT on
privacy is the term information privacy, first coined by Roger Clarke, director of the
Australian Privacy Foundation.
▪ Information privacy is the combination of communications privacy (the ability to
communicate with others without those communications being monitored by other
persons or organizations) and data privacy (the ability to limit access to one’s personal
data by other individuals and organizations in order to exercise a substantial degree of
control over that data and their use)
KEY PRIVACY AND ANONYMITY ISSUES
1. Consumer Profiling
2. Electronic Discovery
3. Workplace Monitoring
4. Advanced Surveillance Technology
KEY PRIVACY AND ANONYMITY ISSUES
1. Consumer Profiling
▪ Companies openly collect personal information about users when they register at
websites, complete surveys, fill out forms, follow them on social media, or enter
contests online.
▪ Many companies also obtain personal information through the use of cookies text
files that can be downloaded to the hard drives of users who visit a website, so that
the website is able to identify visitors on subsequent visits.
▪ Companies also use tracking software to allow their websites to analyze browsing
habits and deduce personal interests and preferences.
▪ The use of cookies and tracking software is controversial because companies can
collect information about consumers without their explicit permission.
KEY PRIVACY AND ANONYMITY ISSUES
▪ Consumer Profiling Risks
▪ A data breach is the unintended release of sensitive data or the access of sensitive
data (e.g., credit card numbers, health insurance member ids, and Social Security
numbers) by unauthorized individuals.
▪ The cost to an organization that suffers a data breach can be quite high by some
estimates nearly $200 for each record lost.
▪ Nearly half the cost is typically a result of lost business opportunity associated with
the customers whose patronage has been lost due to the incident.
▪ Identity theft is the theft of personal information, which is then used without the
owner’s permission. Often, stolen personal identification information, such as a
person’s name, Social Security number, or credit card number, is used to commit
fraud or other crimes.
KEY PRIVACY AND ANONYMITY ISSUES
2. Electronic Discovery
▪ Electronic discovery (e-discovery) is the collection, preparation, review, and
production of electronically stored information for use in criminal and civil actions and
proceedings.
▪ Electronically stored information (ESI) includes any form of digital information,
including emails, drawings, graphs, web pages, photographs, word-processing files,
sound recordings, and databases stored on any form of magnetic storage device,
including hard drives, CDs, and flash drives.
KEY PRIVACY AND ANONYMITY ISSUES
3. Workplace Monitoring
▪ Cyberloafing is defined as using the Internet for purposes unrelated to work such as
posting to Facebook, sending personal emails or Instant messages, or shopping
online.
▪ Many organizations have developed policies on the use of IT in the workplace in order
to protect against employee’s abuses that reduce worker productivity or that expose
the employer to harassment lawsuits.
KEY PRIVACY AND ANONYMITY ISSUES
4. Advanced Surveillance Technology
▪ A number of advances in information technology—such as surveillance cameras and
satellite-based systems that can pinpoint a person’s physical location—provide
amazing new data-gathering capabilities.
▪ Camera Surveillance Surveillance cameras are used in major cities around the world
in an effort to deter crime and terrorist activities.
▪ Vehicle Event Data Recorders A vehicle event data recorder (EDR) is a device that
records vehicle and occupant data for a few seconds before, during, and after any
vehicle crash that is severe enough to deploy the vehicle’s air bags. Sensors located
around the vehicle capture and record information about vehicle speed and
acceleration; seat belt usage; air bag deployment; activation of any automatic collision
notification system; and driver inputs such as brake, accelerator, and turn signal
usage.
KEY PRIVACY AND ANONYMITY ISSUES
4. Advanced Surveillance Technology (con.)
▪ Stalking Apps Technology has made it easy for a person to track the whereabouts of
someone else at all times, without ever having to follow the person. Cell phone spy
software called a stalking app can be loaded onto someone’s cell phone or
smartphone within minutes, making it possible for the user to perform location
tracking, record calls, view every text message or picture sent or received, and record
the URLs of any website visited on the phone.

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