Ethics

Ethics in Information Technology Technology is developing rapidly and the usage is increasing daily. With this development came many ethical issues in the field of Information technology. Some of the Ethical issues are licensing of software, online privacy, communication using Internet these are raised at individual level and society level.IT Professionals have access to important information and tools required for business, so they have ethical responsibility as technical knowledge. Technology Technology is the organization of knowledge, people and things used to meet specific, practical human needs and goals. Modern technologies did not develop over time in a planned, linear direction. Instead, our current technologies evolved as a result of nonlinear, random events, prompted by the desire to satisfy certain human needs or to solve specific human problems. When a society passes from a pre-industrial to an industrial state, its citizens become less dependent upon nature and more dependent upon one another technology is usually developed to meet a specific human need or to solve a specific human problem. The Global Economy The global economy shows increasing linkages forming between the high and low income countries these linkages are forming through: Trade, finance, production and an increasing number of treaties. Globalization is multidimensional characterized by specific features • Technology advancement • Liberalization of trade • Financial flow increases • Increase in corporations and growth • Shrinking space and time • Disappearing borders Globalization holds the potential for promoting and protecting human rights through economic growth, increasing wealth, increasing linkages among people and evolving development opportunities. Social Networking People across the world like to interact; share opinions photos and videos with friends and family members, developers came up with many websites like Facebook, orkut and twitter. As the usage of the website increased they came up many ethical issues some users of the face book profiles and personal information had been disclosed and there is no privacy for the information. All the information needs to safe guard by the company. E- Mail Spam Spam occurs when a commercial message is send to many users without their permission. Email providers are saying that they are blocking the spam messages but I see these there are 5-10 spam emails in my mail account daily. And some of the accounts are being hacked and information stored is being read and causing concerns for the users. Companies should take proper care in protecting spam messages and protecting user accounts. Filtering Online Content Information needs to be filter before displaying on website. Some of the websites which contain improper information needs to be blocked. Religious groups, adult websites need to be properly restricted. Internet service provider must provide proper care and privacy for the users. Sensitive Information IT professional have access to personal and company data information which needs to be protected from other employers and companies. Companies must provide proper care by setting network access, email accounts and other technology access. They must adhere to strict confidentiality data. Business World Organizations are developing and they are trying to expand their business to other countries to establish the company globally. Employees need to be protected and for successfully running of organization business ethics are needed. Economic and political conditions varies in each country so organizations need to regulate there polices for good business and to gain good will of the community. Making money along with proper ethical behavior is need for succeeding in this corporate world. Corporate ethics can be improved by having proper corporate code, training employees on ethics, setting good standards to be followed, and good trading by the laws. Companies have been fined for improper ethical behavior. Organizations must balance against other business needs and issues. Organizations must maintain properly relations with the customer in terms of price fixing and advertising, ethics of buyers must be considered and they should not be exploited by fraud or passion. Good ethics should be maintained in hiring and firing of employers, paying proper fair, sharing the profit with employees, maintain good working conditions and maintaining privacy between working and company life. Conclusion With help of Information Technology business world has changed, but the change in Information technology is challenging us to anticipate the consequences and prevent the harmful impact. Security of Information Technology is of importance to protect confidential data, safeguard private customer and employee data .Using antivirus software which scans for a specific sequence of bytes and continually updating with latest virus definitions. Deleting compute accounts, login IDs and passwords for departing employees. Keeping track of well known vulnerabilities like system administration, networking and security, back up critical applications and data regularly. There is no single representative organization to impose sanctions for violations of professional behavior. Absence of a single organization does not impede the development of professional ethics standards; it’s the individual professional’s responsibility. References Lau, Cubie. (2010). 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