GLOBAL ETHICAL

ISSUES IN
INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY
SECTOR

VEDANT TRIPATHI| IPG-MBA |

2018IMG-070 | ABV-IIITM
Atal Bihari Vajpayee Indian
Institute of Information
Technology and Management,
Gwalior
WHY IS ETHICS IMPORTANT IN IT SECTOR?
Ethics is significant in IT Sector because

 We could not expect our life without IT, neither we could expect our life without
ethics. So for IT to be integrated with our life, it should be first integrated with
ethics.
 IT touches almost every aspect of modern life. So every aspect of modern life could
be vulnerable to Cyber Crimes.
 Now a days IT plays an important role in framing our mindsets. So inappropriate
content may effect psychological health of individual.
 IT contributes to connected society and networks and with increase in
connectivity increases the vulnerability.
 Our generation has developed lifestyle around these devices. So it has become
more important for it being ethical.
 IT services make up large portion of our economy.

So it is very important for an IT Professional to maintain the standards of ethical

practices.

SOME GLOBAL ETHICAL ISSUES IN IT SECTOR

1. THREAT TO PRIVACY
 The electronic monitoring of people in the workplace.
[justification by companies for the use of such
technology is to increase productivity]

 The interception and reading of E-mail messages.

 Real Time Tracking Using GPS-based Location

Services

 Permissions required by apps to work. Malicious apps

will probably misuse the permissions you grant it by
installing it.

 Some apps gain Remote access Control of your device

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  Cookies: Tiny files downloaded by Website to visitors hard drive to help identify
visitors browser and track visits to site.

 Web Beacons/bugs: Tiny graphics embedded in email and web pages to moniter
who is reading message.

 Spyware: programs that illicitly collect and transmit data from a computer.

 Recently Cambridge Analytica breached people’s privacy.

2. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY VIOLATION:

The owner has complete control of what can be done and to what extent with his
original intellectual work. But due to increasing accessibility to information,
Economic interest of the owners of intellectual property are violated and it has
became an ethical issue.

 Copyrights Infringement[piracy]
It refers to the unauthorized duplication of copyrighted content that is then sold at
substantially lower prices in the 'grey' market. Free music and file downloading
sites are popping up on internet every day , lots of original work like music albums,
books , are being downloaded for free. Many original creators of these works are
losing the credibility. This is apparent violation of copyright laws at tremendous
expense to the owners of those copyrights. It can significantly damage profit
margins.
Some movies are released on torrent sites before its actual release.

 Patent infringement
Patents are protection for any invention whether it be a product or process in the
field of technology. Patent infringement is the violation of the rights secured by
the owner of a patent, when someone makes an unauthorized use of anothers
patent.

Intellectual property Rights are important for entrepreneurs in competitive

economies.

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3. PLAGIARISM
 The act of presenting ideas/work of another as your own.
 With all the information that is now available on the Internet it could be done
easily.
 It has became common practise among student and Researchers.
 Plagiarism is considered academic dishonesty and a breach of journalistic ethics.

4. Uncensored and uncontrolled flow of information

 DESENSITISATION-
The more fiction violence a child watches, the more acceptable aggressive behavior
becomes for that child. Frequent viewing of fiction violence may cause children to
be less anxious about violence. Therefore those who become desensitized to
violence may perceive it as “normal” and be more likely to engage in violence
themselves.
Web series these days are showing some kind of objectionable content.

 ANTI-SOCIAL ACTIVITIES
With increasing flow and access of information it has become very easy to spread
hatred. Almost behind all kind of anti-social activities, there is Information
technology backing.
Social media posts could trigger Terrorism and Communal violence .

 FAKE NEWS
Fake news often becomes viral, making it difficult to identify the source and hold the
user responsible.

 PORNOGRAPHY

 CYBER-BULLYING
Once you have posted something, it is not yours anymore and it can go viral as fast
as a fire in the forest without asking for your permission which then can’t only
affect your reputation but also the person or company you were disparaging about.
Trolling is most common form of cyberbullying.

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5. Improper Anonymity and Distorted Endorsements
If one represent himself with wrong affiliations, credentials or expertise, it is unethical to
become anonymous but showing yourself to be someone different than you are. There are
people who provide companies with their anonymous feedbacks which are not true and it
has caused a lot of damage to companies by the fake stories of consumers of their
products.
Honey Trap is also an example.

6. Misuse of free expertise and contests

Crowdsourcing for soliciting design ideas, the participants have the risk of making their
secrets open with no reward. Most of the times, design ideas are rewarded to the most
profitable partners of the social network sponsor leaving many with unrewarded work.
This abuse is especially unethical if the sponsor knowingly gathers superior design ideas
from contestants they have no intention of compensating.

7. TRADE SECRETS
Massive theft of intellectual property from corporations could degrade economic
competitiveness for generations.

8. SPAM
Spamming refers to bombarding a user with some kind of information which does not
interest him. Over-publicizing unasked promotional messages is also considered as an
unethical act.

9. TARGETTED MARKETING

IT services tracks and records your interests, online purchases etc. using cookies and use
that information to determine what products and services could be advertised to you.
Sometimes the information could also be used in wrong way and lead to fraud.

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10. CYBER ATTACK
Cyber threats are very serious issue to our nation as a whole, to our nation’s economic
vitality and to our nation’s security.

 Hacking
Hackers break into databases of financial and retail institutions to steal customer
information, and then use it to commit identity theft, blackmailing and other ill-
intentioned things.
SONY STUDIOS CARLIFORNIA : Sony lost $80 millions “The Interview” due to
hacking activities.
 SPEAR PHISHING
Spear Phishing are designed to trick users into giving up network access.
 RANSOMEWARE
A malicious virus which threatens to destroy your files until you pay a fee.
Ukraine’s Odessa Airport is one of the victims.
 MALWARE
A malicious code which allows to take screenshots and capture keystrokes.
Democratic National Committee was the victim for over a year.
 Cyber attack could degrade nations military ability to defence itself.
 It could inflict massive disruption on our way of life in ways that we have never
imagined before.
Due to hacking SONY STUDIO chairperson Amy pascal had to resign as her Racist
comments became public due to hack.

Cyber threats are changing at the rate of growth of IT.

IMPACT OF UNETHICAL BEHAVIOR IN IT SECTOR

 Due to Plagiarism, Quality of new researches is decreasing .
 People hesitate to use an organization's Internet-based and e-commerce services if
concerns exist about the integrity of these systems.
 Businesses can lose profits.
 Schools can lose the online teaching platform.
 Governments can lose the efficiency and cost-savings of having public services
available via the Internet.

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 Unethical behavior by IT personnel or hackers can bring entire industries to a halt.
 Businesses that have suffered setbacks because of unethical behavior within the IT
department may put a freeze on new IT hiring, which would affect the number of jobs
offers graduating IT students receive out of college.
 These practices creates a great breach of trust between the consumers and the
company. The consumers assume that due to the breach in security, the reliability of
the product could be compromised, and they avoid purchasing it altogether.

REFERENCES
 https://www.iuokada.edu.ng/journals/5B6AA29B40ADBA7.pdf
 https://smallbusiness.chron.com/negative-impact-unethical-behavior-information-
technology-34387.html
 https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/when-social-media-
becomes-anti-social/articleshow/64607156.cms
 https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/it-privacy/
 https://www.123helpme.com/view.asp?id=147058
 https://vrevzine.wordpress.com/2012/10/17/ethical-issues-in-social-media/
 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282701876_Ethical_Issues_in_Social_Networking
 https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/definition/piracy
 http://www.bracheichler.com/?t=5&LPA=3219&format=xml&p=5537
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_Pascal
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSWPoeBLFyQ

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