Ethical Issues in IT Industry

Ethics is defined as, “the discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation.”. In the IT industry where there are no comprehensive standards in place, with the emergence of new technologies, ethical and legal issues are also arising increasing thus demanding more efforts and attention towards policing them and reaching resolutions to prevent any of these issues. Every now and then we see new scandals about ethics and the tech industry, hence it’s very important for a consumer of Information Communication Technology (ICT) to know of its implications.

The following are some of the most common and pressing issues in the IT industry:

Privacy

With the vast amount of information being exchanged with the help of IT. Now anybody from any part of the world, at any time can exchange information with others. The large amount of data that has now spread throughout the digital world including private information as well as public information, the risk of that data being accessed by unintended sources is always present. To what extent the data may be disclosed and violation of privacy takes place is a huge concern due to it’s potential.

Plagiarism

With the freedom of information exchange through different mediums. Over such data the establishment of ownership is a very difficult task and very hard to control as things can be easily copied and pasted without anyone’s intervention or policing. This makes intellectual property very hard to protect.

Security & Hacking

Security breaches and exploitation of backdoors present in digital systems and networks may allow unauthorized personnel or more accurately known as hackers, to get their hands-on sensitive data such as personal identification information, stolen identities, bank credentials, confidential information or classified govt secrets. Websites can be hacked; malware and spyware can make its way into a user’s computer and gain access to data.

Piracy

The illegal use and theft of software and content available through different digital mediums, is also a very serious problem. It is estimated that nearly 50% of all programs on PCs are pirated copies. This is very serious issue for corporations in particular and can significantly damage profit margin. Following are some key piracy statistics from datapro.net:

126.7 billion viewings worth of US-produced TV episodes are pirated every year.
There were over 17 million stream-rippers in 2018.
70,000 jobs a year are lost in the United States due to music piracy.
TV shows remain the most-popular content among pirates; there were 106.9 billion visits to pirate websites in 2017.
Illegal downloading of copyrighted materials takes up 24% of the global bandwidth.
Annual global revenue losses from digital piracy are between $40 and $97.1 billion in the movie industry.

References

5 Legal and Ethical Issues in IT. (n.d.). Retrieved April 18, 2020, from https://www.bestcomputersciencedegrees.com/lists/5-legal-and-ethical-issues-in-it/
Letić, J., Budanović, N., & Jovanović, B. (2020, February 21). Piracy statistics for 2020 - People would still download a car. Retrieved April 18, 2020, from https://dataprot.net/statistics/piracy-statistics/
ATU O. Michael. (August 2016). Ethical issues in IT – A Conceptual Approach. Retrieved April 18, 2020, from https://www.iuokada.edu.ng/journals/5B6AA29B40ADBA7.pdf
Shinder, D. (2005, August 2). Ethical issues for IT security professionals. Retrieved April 18, 2020, from https://www.computerworld.com/article/2557944/ethical-issues-for-it-security-professionals.html
Essays, UK. (November 2018). Ethical Issue Facing The Technology Industry Commerce Essay. Retrieved from https://www.ukessays.com/essays/commerce/ethical-issue-facing-the-technology-industry-commerce-essay.php?vref=1
Contributor, G. (2006, August 15). 10 ethical issues confronting IT managers. Retrieved April 18, 2020, from https://www.techrepublic.com/article/10-ethical-issues-confronting-it-managers/

Ethical Issues in the IT industry