Question

What are the SIX Ethical dilemmas and the Analysis that are related to social, legal and ethical issues of the privacy on web.

You are expected to:

(i) Analyze these ethical dilemmas, evaluate their importance, research and understand the viewpoints of multiple stakeholders.

(ii) Provide divergent view when examining the ethical dilemmas from a perspective of a specific stakeholders.

Answer 1

What are the SIX Ethical dilemmas and the Analysis that are related to social, legal and ethical issues of the privacy on web:

Privacy, trust and security are closely intertwined, as are law and ethics. Privacy preservation and security provisions rely on trust (e.g., one will allow only those whom one trusts to enter one’s zone of inaccessibility; one will not feel secure unless one trusts the security provider). Violation of privacy constitutes a risk, thus, a threat to security. Law provides a resolution when ethics cannot (e.g., ethics knows that stealing is wrong; the law punishes thieves); ethics can provide context to law (e.g., law allows trading for the purpose of making a profit, but ethics provides input into ensuring trade is conducted fairly). Privacy breaches disturb trust and run the risk of diluting or losing security; it is a show of disrespect to the law and a violation of ethical principles.

The Six Data Protection Principles:

1. Data Collection and Purpose Principle:
   • Personal data must be collected in a lawful and fair way for a purpose directly related to a function/activity of the data user (i.e., those who collect personal data).
   • Data subjects (i.e., individuals from whom personal data are collected) must be notified of the purpose and the classes of persons to whom the data may be transferred.
   • Data collected should be necessary, but not excessive.
2. Accuracy and Retention Principle: Personal data must be accurate and should not be kept for a period longer than is necessary to fulfill the purpose for which they are used.
3. Data Use Principle: Personal data must be used for the purpose for which the data are collected or for a directly related purpose, unless voluntary and explicit consent with a new purpose is obtained from the data subject.
4. Data Security Principle: A data user needs to take reasonably practical steps to safeguard personal data from unauthorized or accidental access, processing, erasure, loss or use, while taking into account the harm that would affect the individual should there be a breach.
5. Openness Principle: A data user must make personal data policies and practices known to the public regarding the types of personal data it holds and how the data are used.
6. Data Access and Correction Principle: Data subjects must be given access to their personal data and allowed to make corrections if the data are inaccurate.

(i) Analyze these ethical dilemmas, evaluate their importance, research and understand the viewpoints of multiple stakeholders:

Stakeholders are groups of people who share a common interest, for example, the 'consultancy company', the 'project management', 'the villagers', 'the local authorities' etc. But, within any of these, there are sub-categories of stakeholders with differing interests which they may or may not be prepared to subsume in the general collective interest. Analysis might conclude that the concept of 'villager', as a collective stakeholder, is quite meaningless because the various groups of people living in a village have so little in common; some villagers might consider that they have more shared interest with the representatives of the local authorities than with their next door neighbours. Similar issues arise in formal institutions, such as government ministries. Competition between departments or individuals may be stronger than commitments to the institutions as a whole. There may also be crosscutting interests, such as on an ethnic basis, both within the institution and affecting outside relationships.

Stakeholders can be divided into two very broad groups:

Primary stakeholders are those ultimately affected, either positively (beneficiaries) or negatively (for example, those involuntarily resettled). In most projects, primary stakeholders will be categorised according to social analysis. Thus, primary stakeholders should often be divided by gender, social or income classes, occupation or service user groups.

Secondary stakeholders are the intermediaries in the aid delivery process. They can be divided into funding, implementing, monitoring and advocacy organisations, or simply governmental, NGO and private sector organisations. In many projects it will also be necessary to consider key individuals as specific stakeholders (e.g. heads of departments or other agencies, who have personal interests at stake as well as formal institutional objectives).

Key stakeholders are those who can significantly influence, or are important to the success of the project. Influence refers to how powerful a stakeholder is; 'importance' refers to those stakeholders whose problems, needs and interests are the priority of the funder's aid - if those important stakeholders are not assisted effectively then the project cannot be deemed a 'success'.

(ii) Provide divergent view when examining the ethical dilemmas from a perspective of a specific stakeholders:

Stakeholders are broadly defined as anyone who is impacted by a decision-maker’s decision. Some examples of corporate stakeholders would be shareholders, employees, customers, suppliers, financiers, families of employees and the community in which the corporation is located. Stakeholders could also be less directly related to the operations of a corporation.

An ethical dilemma occurs when you have a moral obligation to abide by two different courses of action, but circumstances of the situation only allow for you to choose one of the two courses. However, there are two ways to look at your situation to help you come to a decision. The first way is to evaluate the potential actions you can take and then pick the course that is least morally problematic. The second involves analyzing the potential outcomes of your actions and selecting the course of action with the most benefits or least harm.