• Posted on January 7, 2021
• Unique Submission Team

Case study: Ethical Theory

Introduction

The concept of ethics is considered as a branch of philosophy which guides the right or wrong code of conduct.  However, ethics also helps in resolving various issues related to false practices. It is found that ICT is becoming the point of concern in regards to raising the ethical issue (Noddings, 2013). In the selected article, ICT is indicated by the social sites which integrate different human communication.

This report discusses the ethical issues in the article of CNBC. In addition to this, the article presents the arguments related to social issues for society. It is identified that growing usage of social sites platform tends to pose the high risk that needs to be considered in order to reduce the ethical issues. There are various types of ethical issues occur with the social sites are accessing of people personal data and use such facts for social experimentation. At the same time, the regulation on the social sites is also minimal which does not contribute high towards the saving of ill and false practices over the social sites such as Facebook and twitter etc (Hinson et al., 2010).

Moreover, this article clearly shows the social experimentation, terror attack of 2001and 2008-09 financial crises are the results of unethical consideration in the field of social sites. In regards to this, there is no regulatory body to deal with the ethical issues which are becoming a serious concern for the society as well as for the economic development (Zadek et al., 2013). In the context of this study, the ethical issues are analyzed as per the ethical theories such as utilitarianism, deontology, virtue, and contract. Based on this, certain arguments and recommendation will be covered.

Summary of Article

The article presents the ethical issues which arise with the social media platform (Dhar, 2017). It involves mainly the collection of personal data and uses it for the social experimentation and less regulation of higher authority is tend to be another ethical issue. Due to such issues, the risk of terrorism, economic failure is also increasing. For instances, the terrorist attack of 2011 occurs due to the hacking of personal information from the facebook and twitter. Such action clearly stated that the lack of privacy, high cyber-crime and less regulation over social sites are the ethical issues of ICT. These issues are growing day by day with the large use of social site platform. In order to analyze the ethical issues, the Utilitarianism, Deontology, Virtue and Contract classical ethical theories will study.

Utilitarianism

Characteristics of Utilitarianism	Article or Case Study	Critique of Utilitarianism	Recommendations based on Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism theory states that action is judged based on the consequences rather than motive.	There is absence or presences of the characteristics in the article.	The theory does prove to be much usefulness in regards to understand the article.	It is recommended that there is the requirement of automated KYC on the digital platform but with the more added of restriction.

Evidence

• Utilitarianism theory states that action is judged based on the consequences rather than motive. Therefore, the act is considered as moral only if its result spread the greatest happiness among the majority of people (Grant et al., 2012).
• There is absence or presences of the characteristics in the article. It is present in the form of the majority of people happy with the social sites in order to communicate or gain information about various things. On the other side, it is absent because accessing of personal information and manipulation of data is increasing which is unethical.

Analysis

• The theory proves to be much usefulness in regards to understanding the article as theory depicted that act morality is only judged by its consequences. Similarly, social sites also reflect its both positive as well as negative consequences. But, its negative aspects are growing more comparative its positive once.
• In order to bring improvements, it is recommended that there is the requirement of automated KYC on the digital platform but with the more added of restriction so that accessibility of private information could be reduced by the hackers.

Deontology

Characteristics of Deontology	Article or Case Study	Critique of Deontology	Recommendations based on Deontology
Deontology ethical focuses on the rightness or wrongness of the action.	There is presence of theory in the article	The theory is helpfulness for understanding the article.	There is a need to better guidelines around the ethical use of data.

Evidence

• Deontology ethical focuses on the rightness or wrongness of action instead of judging the consequences of an act.
• Deontology theory is present in the article in such a way that if the action of the hacker to accessing the private information is right without having any negative purpose. Thus, such practices clearly reflect the characteristic of deontology ethical theory (Groves & LaRocca, 2011).

 

Analysis

• The theory is useful in regards to identifying the action of the individual behind the accessing of personal information of people. If the individual extract the facts for the right purpose then it is considered as ethical as per the deontology ethical theory.
• There is need to include the better guidelines around the ethical use of data. Especially around profiling and social manipulation areas.

Virtue Ethics

Characteristics of Virtue ethics	Article or Case Study	Critique of Virtue ethics	Recommendations based on Virtue ethics
Virtue ethics emphasis more on the character instead on actions or consequences.	There are absences of virtue ethics in the article	The judgment of theory tends to be useful to understand the article (Clark  & Roberts, 2010)	It is recommended to use the highly well-equipped IT system in order to reduce such problem

Evidence

• Virtue ethics emphasis more on the character & virtue rather than on one duty action and consequences of such action
• The virtue ethics theory is absent in the article because hackers doing wrong actions or duties in the form of access personal information and regulate less to social sites platform.

Analyse

• The judgment of theory tends to be useful to understand the article in regards to this analysis that hackers uses personal people information more for the social experimentation (Barclay et al., 2012).
• It is suggested to use the highly well-equipped IT system in order to reduce such problem and protect the data from the frauds and misleading.

Contract Ethics

Characteristics of Contract ethics	Article or Case Study	Critique of Contract ethics	Recommendations based on Contract ethics
Social contract theory stated that people whose follows the society norms are considered as a moral.	There is an absence of the theory characteristic in the article.	The theory is useful for the understanding of the article.	It is recommended that business or society should follow the IRB policies.

Evidence

• Social contract theory stated that people which follow the social norms. It means they live morally and take the right decision.
• This ethical theory is not present in the article as companies, hackers or individual using the personal information of someone against the society interest or norms.

Analysis

• There is usefulness occur in regards to understand the article as it is found that people goes against the society interest in terms to hack someone personal information.
• It is recommended that business or society should follow the IRB policies. Other than that, business needs to stop selling the customer private information for the sake of money. Such practice could reduce the maximum frauds, misleading and false practices (Mäkelä & Näsi, 2010).

Conclusion

From the above study, it is concluded that there are various ethical issues arise with the excessive use of social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram etc. the issues arise in the form of accessing of personal information and less regulation on the social sites etc. In regards to this, Deontology is the only classical ethical issue that is present in this article in a way in such a way that it depends upon the hacker action regarding they use private information is rightful manner without having any negative purpose. Thus, such practices clearly reflect the characteristic of deontology ethical theory. Other than that, all the remaining ethical theories such as Utilitarianism, virtue and contract ethics etc are considered to be absent in the article because of growing the ill-practices with the social sites. Based on this, certain regulations, KYC on the digital platform and advanced IT system is recommended to eliminate such ethical issues.

References

Barclay, L. A., Markel, K. S., & Yugo, J. E. (2012). Virtue theory and organizations: considering persons with disabilities. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 27(4), 330-346.

Clark, L. A., & Roberts, S. J. (2010). Employer’s use of social networking sites: A socially irresponsible practice. Journal of Business Ethics, 95(4), 507-525.

Dhar, V. (2017). Social media platforms present dangerous issues for society. They need to be regulated.  NYU Stern School of Business. Retrieved from: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/21/its-time-to-crack-down-on-facebook-and-twitter-commentary.html

Grant, S., Kajii, A., Polak, B., & Safra, Z. (2012). Equally-distributed equivalent utility, ex post egalitarianism and utilitarianism. Journal of Economic Theory, 147(4), 1545-1571.

Groves, K. S., & LaRocca, M. A. (2011). An empirical study of leader ethical values, transformational and transactional leadership, and follower attitudes toward corporate social responsibility. Journal of Business Ethics, 103(4), 511-528.

Hinson, R., Boateng, R., & Madichie, N. (2010). Corporate social responsibility activity reportage on bank websites in Ghana. International Journal of Bank Marketing, 28(7), 498-518.

Mäkelä, H., & Näsi, S. (2010). Social responsibilities of MNCs in downsizing operations: A Finnish forest sector case analysed from the stakeholder, social contract and legitimacy theory point of view. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 23(2), 149-174.

Noddings, N. (2013). Caring: A relational approach to ethics and moral education. Univ of California Press.

Zadek, S., Evans, R., & Pruzan, P. (2013). Building corporate accountability: Emerging practice in social and ethical accounting and auditing. Routledge.