Homework Assignment (for Tutor Nicole2)

This assignment provides an opportunity to analyze a key IT-related organizational ethical issue, related to privacy subject to relevant laws, regulations, and policies. The following sites provide sources, and an excellent backdrop for issues relating to privacy protection and the law.

EPIC Privacy Issues at:  http://epic.org/privacy/  

The site includes sub-topics discussing information privacy, privacy laws, applications and court rulings (case law is usually an extension of the basic law based on the facts from specific cases and real-world court decisions), and key privacy and anonymity issues. The site provides many interesting topics; please choose one of the following sub topics:


  • Government surveillance

  • Location privacy

  • Uber privacy policy

  1. Use the template below and the list of suggested workforce privacy topics from the site above to produce a matrix to map a key organizational ethical issue and how this issue is affected by laws, regulations, and policies. Use the list of normative ethics principles below to help you complete the matrix. Choose any three (only three) of the following list of twelve (12) principles of normative ethics described below.


Normative Ethics List

  1. Autonomy: is the duty to maximize the individual's right to make his or her own decisions.

  2. Beneficence: is the duty to do good both individually and for all.

  3. Confidentiality: is the duty to respect privacy of information and action.

  4. Equality: is the duty to view all people as moral equals.

  5. Finality: is the duty to take action that may override the demands of law, religion, and social customs.

  6. Justice: is the duty to treat all fairly, distributing the risks and benefits equally.

  7. Non-maleficence: is the duty to cause no harm, both individually and for all.

  8. Understanding/Tolerance: is the duty to understand and to accept another viewpoint if reason dictates doing so is warranted.

  9. Publicity: is the duty to take actions based on ethical standards that must be known and recognized by all who are involved.

  10. Respect for persons: is the duty to honor others, their rights, and their responsibilities. Showing respect others implies that we do not treat them as a mere means to our end.

  11. Universality: is the duty to take actions that hold for everyone, regardless of time, place, or people involved. This concept is similar to the Categorical Imperative.

  12. Veracity: is the duty to tell the truth. 



  1. Prepare the Ethical Issue matrix and include the following explanation (200 words) —double-space your narrative—below the matrix:

    1. Why I chose the dilemma;

    2. Why I chose the three principles; and

    3. An analysis of the research used to identify the actions in the matrix.


The completed matrix allows you to weigh the different issues involved and assign a rank as to the importance of the actions based on the effect on the stakeholders.

  • Indicate appropriate APA in-text and source citations for all sources. 

A sample template for the matrix is shown below.

Ethical issue:

Stakeholders

(Principle 1)

(Principle 2)

(Principle 3)

Step 1: Identify the ethical issue that you want to analyze, as described above. An example might be the falsification of your personal profile in a social networking site.

Step 2: Identify the stakeholders involved. You, someone who reads your personal profile in a social network site, potential employers, etc. Be sure that each stakeholder category is unique and not similar to another category you use.

Step 3: Choose any three (only three) of the principles that might apply to your issue such as autonomy, publicity, and veracity.

Step 4: identify how the ethical issue affects each stakeholder based on the principles you identified. Put this statement in the matrix next to the stakeholder.

Sample Completed Matrix

Ethical issue: falsifying your profile on a social networking site

Stakeholders

autonomy

publicity

veracity

1: Yourself

You have the duty to maximize the right to make your own decisions.

You have the duty to take actions based on ethical standards that must be known and recognized by all who are involved.

You have the duty to tell the truth

2: Other users of the networking site

They have the duty to make their own decisions

They make these decisions based on ethical standards that should be recognized by the person falsifying their profile

They assume that the person falsifying the profile has the duty to tell the truth.

3: The social networking site

The autonomy of the site is limited by law (Goldman, 2007)

Users of social networking sites are content publishers, as such the site must take actions based on legal and ethical standards and must notify users of these standards so they are known by all.

As providers of content the site must conform to the laws regarding truth or be held responsible for legal issues as defamation (making harmful false statements about someone else) or copyright infringement. (Goldman, 2007)

FYI


Tutor Nicole, this assignment is directly related to next week’s assignment. The ethical issue identified in this assignment will be used in next week’s assignment. Next week’s assignment is to write a policy that corrects the ethical issue described in this assignment..