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The Ethics of Online Privacy
Ethics Mind Map
Maggi Szeles
Is privacy more important than convenience?
Is there such thing as true privacy in the digital age?
Whose responsibility is it to provide responsibility?
The Utilitarian Argument
The ethical answer is to do the action that produces the greatest good for the greatest amount of people. The utilitarian approach is to reduce consequences while maximizing happiness.
The Rights Argument
The ethical action is the one that best protects the moral rights of the ones affected. Individuals have the right to be treated as an ends, and not a means to another ends.
The Fairness Argument
The idea that all individuals should be treated equally. If treated unequally, in nature based on a standard that is defensible.
The Common Good Argument
The ethical approach that life as it is, in a community is good, and that our actions should contribute to. This argument approaches an idea that there are common conditions that are important to the common welfare.
The Virtue Argument
A very traditional approach to ethics is the argument that we must follow traditional values such as honesty, and trust as a foundation for our lifestyles.
Algorithms, new data types, and small changes in designs which measure a users every move, search and identifies all categorical personal information. This growth hacking has allowed for facebook to monetize its data, and ultimately its users. This analysis and collection allows for facebook to manipulate a consumers experience and sell the ad space with personal data to third party buyers.
Despite attention and confontation drawn on facbook for selling access to users media, 1.5 billion people still access and use facebook everyday.
Despite the backlash recieved from few on the data selling to third parties, many don't realize the threat to democracy that the privacy invasion imposed. It defied the basic human rights, privacy, public health, and innovation. This threat brings up the debate of ethics and which argument to best percieve when privacy outweighs buisness in a capitalistic society, especially regarding individual rights and foreign nations as a third party buyer.
The greatest good for the greatest amount of people when considering facebook would be when the most good is utalized, or the least harm is caused. In this argument, if there is minimal harm then the data can be collected, if users recieve good while operating the devise despite the privacy breach then utility, has been reached. The utilitarian approach is an argument as long as there is a large populas that is not recieving good, or recieving maximum harm.
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The ethical action is the action that best protects the moral rights of the users. With this ethical approach the privacy breach done by facebook would be an ethical violation of our rights and the privacy would be ethically more valued than convenience.
The fairness approach addresses that all individuals were to be treated equally. With this condition, ethically, as long as all participants are having equal data and information being collected and sold, the ethics of fairness is being sought.
This approach addresses that life in a community is good, and every member must contribute. In this sense, it could be argued that personal data to enhance the common resource would be ethically a piece of completing the common good.
Following different virtous beliefs, if the ethical approach was to pursue honesty, compassion or fairness, then facebooks policies and breaches would have violated the virtue approach. To follow a virtue approach, a favored or popular virtue would sway the arguments and show the breach to be unethical.
In Conclusion, the Facebook privacy breach with selling data to third parties is unethical in a majority of the ethical arguments and where restrictions and laws have ceased to limit this, future legislation could be a step in a progressive direction.
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