Business Ethics .

0 | P a g e
Business Ethics

1 | P a g e
Table of Contents
Overview of Article 1.................................................................................................................2
Identification of ethical issues and stakeholders........................................................................3
Discussion of the ethical issues and linked to ethical theory.....................................................4
Recommendations for addressing the ethical issue....................................................................7
Conclusion of Article 1..............................................................................................................9
Overview of Article 2...............................................................................................................10
Identification of ethical issues and stakeholders......................................................................11
Discussion of the ethical issues and linked to ethical theory...................................................12
Recommendations for addressing the ethical issue..................................................................15
Conclusion of Article 2............................................................................................................17
References................................................................................................................................18

2 | P a g e
Overview of Article 1
The first article which is selected is posted by The Guardian titled ‘Facebook to lodge
appeal against ICO’s £500,000 fine (Hern, 2018).’ This article was posted on 21 November
2018, and it is obtained from the website of The Guardian. This article is written by Alex
Hern, and it contains 607 words excluding the title of the article. The key issue highlighted in
this article is relating to the recent Cambridge Analytica scandal in which private data of 87
million Facebook users were breached. A fine of £500,000 was imposed by Facebook, and
the company has lodged an appeal regarding this fine arguing that the penalty challenges
basic principles of how people should be allowed to share information online (Osborne,
2018). The ethical issue raised in this scenario was relating to failure of Facebook to ensure
that the privacy of its users is protected and they are not used for illegal purposes.
Due to the unethical actions of Facebook, the private data of more than 87 million
users were violated after which Facebook failed to ensure that security of its users which
resulted in violation of data of 50 million users (Statt, 2018). This report will identify the key
ethical issues raised in this article and evaluate the key stakeholders who are affected by these
actions. This report will discuss the ethical issues by linking them to relevant ethical theory to
determine whether the key ethical challenges in this case. Lastly, recommendations will be
given which can assist Facebook in addressing the key ethical issues raised in the scenario.

3 | P a g e
Identification of ethical issues and stakeholders
The key ethical issues raised in this article are violation of private data of more than
87 million users and failure of Facebook to protect the privacy of its users (Hern, 2018). The
key stakeholders who were affected in this scenario include Facebook, shareholder of
Facebook, government, and people who used Facebook. The issues started in 2010 when
Facebook launched a program for its developers called Open Graph. This program allowed
the developers to collect the private data of Facebook users along with their friends. The
developers were allowed to access the data of people who were added in the friend list of a
person who has given permission to the developer to access his/her data. In 2013, an
application was launched by Global Science Research called ‘thisisyourdigitallife.’ This
application allowed Facebook users to create their psychological profile by asking many
psychology-related questions from them. Around 300,000 users played the game. In 2014, the
privacy policies of Facebook were revamped, and the company discontinued its Open Graph
platform (Hern, 2018). In 2016, it was reported in news that the private data of Facebook
users were collected and used in order to support the presidential campaign of Ted Cruz.
The major issues arose in 2017 when it was reported in the news that private data of
50 million users were affected and their data was used to find potential voters to support the
presidential campaign of Donald Trump (Kozlowska, Gershgorn & Todd, 2018). Later, the
number was revised, and it was reported that 87 million users were affected in the breach. It
was found that users who give permission in ‘thisisyourdigitallife’ application were affected
in this breach. Due to the availability of the Open Graph platform, the company was able to
collect the data of 87 million users by gaining access to permission from only 300,000 users.
This shocked the internet and investigations started against Facebook since the company
failed to ensure that the data privacy of its users is protected. The inability of Facebook to

4 | P a g e
ensure that the private and data of its users is protected raised many questions against the
social media giant. This also raises many ethical concerns because there are over 2.27 billion
active users who share their personal data on the website (Statista, 2018).
The CEO of the company, Mark Zuckerberg, appeared before a committee in which
he admitted that it was a mistake made by Facebook for which he is liable. He also provided
that Facebook will change its privacy policies, however, the company did not stop the
collection of private data of users (Lin, 2018). The corporation only sent a notification to its
users regarding the applications which were collecting their data and made it easier for them
to stop any applications from accessing their data. However, it did not stop third-party
developers from accessing the private data of users. Moreover, due to the lack of strict
privacy protection measures, login details of more than 50 million Facebook users were
stolen by hackers (Statt, 2018). This incident shows that the private data of Facebook users
are not protected, and they are vulnerable to cyber attacks. It raises key ethical issues
regarding the governance of Facebook which is focused on increasing the profitability of the
company rather than protecting the privacy of its users.
Discussion of the ethical issues and linked to ethical theory
The ethical issues arise in this case regarding incapability of Facebook to protect the
private data of its users and failure to take appropriate measures which are required to ensure
that the privacy of users is maintained. Facebook was affected by this incident, and it suffered
substantial loss because its share prices dropped rapidly. The shareholder of Facebook also
affected after this incident as well. The incapability of the government to stop and regulate
these issues is shown in this incident as well. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)
in the United Kingdom imposed a fine of £500,000 on Facebook which is the highest fine
which it can impose. However, Facebook generates more revenue than £500,000 in less than

5 | P a g e
18 minutes (Ghosh, 2018). Facebook has also lodged an appeal against this order to terminate
the fine based on the claim that it challenges the way people are allowed to share their
information online. Lastly, people who used Facebook were the key stakeholders who were
affected in this case. The private data of these users were breached by cyber criminals who
used them for illegal purposes. This incident shows that even the social media giant such as
Facebook that has appropriate resources is not able to ensure that the private data of its users
is secured (Corfield, 2018). They also lack the will to implement strict policies to protect the
data of their users because they focus on increasing the profitability of the company through
the private data of users.
The key ethical theories which apply in this scenario include Utilitarianism and
Deontology ethical theory. The Utilitarianism ethical framework focuses on evaluating the
morality of a situation based on evaluating the consequences of actions taken by parties rather
than actions themselves (Bose, 2012). As per this theory, if the consequences of a situation
are positive, then it is considered ethical. According to this theory, greater happiness of a
greater number of people should be achieved based on the actions of the parties. As per this
theory, the actions of Facebook in this scenario are considered as unethical. The
consequences of the actions of Facebook resulted in adversely affected 87 million people.
The corporation decided to launch Open Graph platform in order to increase its profitability
by expanding its user base (Lin, 2018). The company also wanted to attract more developers
to its platform through this program; however, it did not consider the negative consequence
of this decision. After this incident, the corporation still failed to ensure that corrective
measures are taken by the company to protect the privacy of its users.
After this incident, the company continued to collect the private data of its users
which was breached in another attack in which the login details of 50 million users were
collected by hackers (Statt, 2018). The actions of the company adversely affected a large