Ethical Issues in ICT

“Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.”  Aristotle

____________________________________________________________________________________

The advancement of technology in the Information Age has given rise to legal and ethical concerns in the society. Whilst technology has benefited the society its usage and abuse may also bring negative impacts. Some ethical issues needs to be address when leveraging ICT.

Data Mining

According to Investopedia, "Data Mining is a process used by companies to turn raw data into useful information. By using software to look for patterns in large batches of data, businesses can learn more about their customers and develop more effective marketing strategies as well as increase sales and decrease costs. Data mining depends on effective data collection and warehousing as well as computer processing."

Customers has knowingly and unknowingly disseminate data such as personal profiles, credit cards information and online purchase, during their daily activities. These data may be used for companies' database and some may share with other companies for marketing purposes. Though this may be legal, it may not be ethical as this may breach the individual's privacy.

With the dramatic development and growth of ICT, data are enabled to be stored manipulated and utilized efficiently and effectively, however through data mining technology the negative consequences would be  unregulated, ineffective and misdirected use of information mined.

Social Networking

Communications has been so easy for individuals all over the world with the existence of social networking platform such as Facebook, twitter, MySpace and many more. Through these social medias, individuals may share and post their status, personal information that may be used by other parties for their benefits. Most social networking sites claimed that the clients' data and information are be secured and protected. It may protect individual rights to speak, write and gather freely so far as it does not cause harm or incite violence (Verga, 2007), however, the postings may not be private and protected. For example, if an employee has posted bad comments on the employer. The employee has the right to speak in the open forum but he may not be protected from the action of the employer. Facebook states that it will do everything possible to protect the information posted on its sites but “cannot and will not guarantee that user content will not be viewed by unauthorized persons” (Facebook, 2008).

Spamming

The term "spam" is Internet slang that refers to unsolicited commercial email (UCE) or unsolicited bulk email (UBE). These unsolicited emails, or junk emails,  are used by businesses to advertise their products and services and has caused great annoyance to its recipients.

Due to its nature, Spam has raised perennial issue computer activity that is privacy issue. Spamming has often made people feel violated and their security being compromised. In addition to that, the recipients may want to know how the business got the email address and to what extend the information related to their email has been shared or violated. It has also become an ethical issues where advertising ethics are concerned. Spammer will become unethical when they have no right to spam the content of the emails because a customer may be deceived and misled by information that is factually untrue by the unauthorized spam.

Intellectual property

Intellectual property is property that is created from an individual's or corporate creativity. They are copyrighted patented and has trade secrets. In other words their usage are protected by laws. The most alarming issue related to the intellectual property is plagiarism. Plagiarism is using the work of others as their own. It is taking illegal ownership of the property without the consent of the rightful owner. For information to be legally and ethically shared, the work of others must be consented and cited. With easy access to the information from the internet, plagiarism has been an critical issue, both legal and ethical. 

CONCLUSION

To curb the ethical issues of ICT, the followings (non-exhaustive) may be observed:

ICT Usage Policy

A policy regarding the acceptable usage of ICT must be developed and in place to form as a best practice guideline. This should include the definition and outline for privacy and confidentiality of data and information; the proper use of ICT; adherence to relevant laws and observe the spirit of such laws; and last but not least to include the professional ICT and ethic codes.

Education and Awareness Program

Organizations, businesses and learning institutions, to name a few, should conduct periodical Education and Awareness Program on Intellectual Property Rights and Copyrights Issues to avoid plagiarism and legal issues.

Usage of other Information resources

Users may use other information resources besides the Internet.