Assignment: Privacy and Ethical Issue Essay

Submitted By brittorose
Words: 4554
Pages: 19

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents

Ethical Issues 5
Ethical Issues – Case One 5
Ethical Issues – Case Two 6
Stakeholders 6
Stakeholders – Case One 6
Stakeholders – Case Two 7
Stakeholder Actions 7
Stakeholders Actions – Case One 7
Stakeholders Actions – Case Two 8
Personal Actions 8
Personal Actions – Case One 8
Personal Actions – Case Two 8
Conclusion 9
References 10
Appendix A 12
Appendix B 18

PRIVACY AND SURVEILLANCE ETHICS

INTRODUCTION
Privacy and surveillance ethics are apparent in many different areas. Privacy is an individual’s right to control his or her own information. Surveillance is a method in which has the ability to breach an individual’s privacy. It is the monitoring of people by using techniques such as data collection and observation. Surveillance of individuals is a method is which large organisations implement through the use of technology.
Technology such as computers and mobile phones are tools in which is heavily utilized in the workforce, it is increasing in popularity and is a quick method to receive and send information throughout a large company. Employee monitoring is a major ethical issue in today’s technology driven society. Many employees would consider their computer and the information within it as company information and would be open to electronic monitoring, however there are groups of employees who considering electronic monitoring as an invasion of privacy (Ahamed, 2007). Trying to determine what is ethical and what is unethical can be extremely difficult in this situation.

CASE ONE
One of the cases in which will be analysed in the following essay is the case of a teacher privacy rights and the result of email monitoring in the workplace.
In this case the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has implemented surveillance method’s in which involves monitoring the employee’s private emails and online activities. The FDA has software in which can record every key stroke made by an employee done their computer. The FDA had gained access to passwords, account information and all other personal details. In this case 80, 000 pages of employee information made its way into the possession of a contractor by the name of Quality Associates Inc. of Fulton, in which they then posted online (Johnson, 2012)
There is currently an investigation of FDA ongoing in order to determine how much information they have obtained and if they have any information on other companies doing the same. Six employees are currently suing the FDA for monitoring their emails without their permission, in which they believe the monitoring began when they questioned the approval on unsafe medical devices. Two of these employees were fired, two of the employee contracts were not renewed and two still work at the FDA. The employees are being represented by the National Whistleblowers Centre (NWC) (FDA scores victory against whistle blowing case as lawsuit continues, nod.).

CASE TWO
Another case which portrays ethical issue in privacy and surveillance is the use of CCTV Cameras in Businesses. The second case in which will be analysed follows the story of a restaurant based in Wagga by the name of Three Chefs owned by Karl Kelly. Karl installed CCTV Cameras as the numbers of break in were increasing in the area and believe it was a necessary safety measuring for the employees. Unfortunately Karl was unaware that his 10 security camera he installed in his restaurant was streaming live on the internet for everyone to watch at anytime.
When Karl was made aware that his video surveillance was streaming live on the internet, he worked quickly to restrict the access with usernames and passwords. Karl states the camera were placed in the restaurant to provide security and with the video feed being accessible on the internet this resulting in the opposite effect (Gleeson, n.d.)

ETHICAL ISSUES
ETHICAL ISSUES - CASE ONE
There are many different ethical issues that are apparent in this case.