Question

Computers have made many workers more productive. However, this new technology has raised concerns with respect to ethics, privacy, and workplace security. Discuss each of these concerns as they would pertain to public and nonprofit agencies. How may these concerns be addressed and what roles do issues such as accountability and transparency play how they may be addressed?

Answer 1

Absolutely, Computers have made many workers more productive. However, this new technology has raised concerns with respect to ethics, privacy, and workplace security. Let us discuss on these topics as below:

Ethics- In this digital era of growing technology, computer is used in many situations involving ethical issues. For example, a customer provides a credit card number for an online transaction. A hacker uses the computer to track the credit card details for misuse. This is in public or private sector enterprises. In non-profit agencies, computer is used to maintain a database of the community for its well-being. The attacker might use this information for his/her personal use focusing on profit maximization.

How to address this issue- the person in both public sector enterprises should be honest, transparent and accountable in what they do. Employees in the nonprofit agencies should have more ethical and moral values while using a computer and must aim at providing good work to the people and the society.

Privacy- Computers pose threats to the privacy of an individual. For example, employers use software in computers to monitor the work of the employees. This practice hinders the privacy of the individuals. Employee monitoring has become a serious concern in the workplace. Both public sector and nonprofit agencies face these issues. In public sector Company, the computer is used to monitor the performance of the employees. Is the employee using the production hours effectively or is the employee spending time in viewing movies. In nonprofit agencies, the employee is monitored if the employee performs to the well-being of the society or is the employee uses the computer for any illegal use.

          How to address this issue- Employees in public sector companies should have responsibility and accountability in what they do and goal oriented to achieve the organizational goals. The employers should be transparent in their actions in terms of computer usage. In nonprofit agencies, the employees should have the responsibility to contribute effectively to the society.

Workplace security- Computer is used by corporate to store huge data. Cloud computing is a growing trend in today’s business environment. However, any technological advancement has a threat involved. The data stored in computers can be hacked and used for other purposes. An attacker can hack the computer and steal all the sensitive information. For example, Equifax is a largest credit bureau in the United States. The vulnerability of the websites has led the attacker to steal sensitive data such as Social Security Numbers, birth dates, driving license numbers, etc of about 143 million customers.

          How to address this issue- The computer personnel should always be alert on the threats surrounding the company and the data. The computer personnel should be highly responsible and not be negligent in any aspect. For nonprofit agencies, the competency of employees should be honesty and integrity. Since there is no profit as its goals for nonprofit agencies, the employees should have transparency and responsibility in collecting and storing the community data.