This essay analyzes the ethical issues faced by Google, Facebook, and Twitter, focusing on privacy, data collection, and copyright infringement. It applies consequentialist and non-consequentialist theories to understand these issues and offers recommendations for improving ethical practices in the social media sector.
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BUSINESS ETHICS IN ACTION
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Table of Contents INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1 Ethical issues faced by Google, Facebook and Twitter..........................................................1 CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5 RECOMMENDATIONS.................................................................................................................5 REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7
INTRODUCTION Ethical issues is defined as a problem or a situation where there is requirement of a person or a particular organisation in order to choose between various alternatives that must be evaluated as right or wrong (Achtenhagen, 2017). Thus, in following report, Social media sector has been selected in which Google, Facebook and Twitter has been taken into consideration. These are multinational companies of technology that are specialised in services that is related to internetrelatedproductsorservices.Thesewebsitesorsocialmediaplatformsincludes technologies of online advertising, search engine. Social media are technologies that are based on computers which leads in facilitating creation and also sharing of ideas, information and many other forms of expression via networks and virtual communities. This sector refers to as websites or applications that make users enable in order to create and share their content so that they can participate in social networking. In this report, ethical issues that has been faced by the three social media platforms has been discussed in deeply with the help of Normative theories as consequentialist and Non- consequentialist. In Consequentialist theory Utilitarianism and in Non consequentialist theory Virtue ethics will be discussed. Further, this study or report is completely based on various ways in which technologies have been deployed by the people. Thus, the actual focus of this is on moral character of technology in order to show possibilities and also interventions in terms of ethics. It is not every time helpful that rules are different online. People are having lack of tolerance level for the emails that are unexpected from favoured sites. Thus, crisis management is the latest topic in which there are some of the things that has to be avoided. Thus, some of the ethicalissuesthatisfacedbythissectorincludesUnreportedendorsements,improper anonymity,compromisingprivacythatisrelatedtopeople,employeesthatareoverly enthusiastic and also using of online community in order to get free work. Further, if these issues of social media is avoided than there is no more safety in this sector because this issues can be increased which will be further done intentionally (Bertrand, 2018). Facebook is an American online social media and social networking service company. This company is based in Menlo Park in California. While. Twitter is an American online news and social networking service on which the users post and interact with messages known as tweets. 1
Ethical issues faced by Google, Facebook and Twitter The ethical dilemma of the Facebook Privacy Breach was a major scandal recently. This scandal started when Cambridge analytica, a private company based in UK was identified to have been utilising Facebook for their statistics for data mining (House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts, 2016). Users of Facebook unknowingly shared their interest, education and work-related history along with their religious and political affiliations(Kolhatar, 2017).Google street view cars were roamed in China to photograph street scenes in order to create google maps. Thus, while roaming and doing this, they founded Wi-Fi hotspot. Therefore, the data protection of Germany requested some kind information from Google. They said that while collecting information, they mistakenly collected various samples related to payload data that was sent over the networks of Wi-Fi. Google claimed that it was the mistake of engineers that modified the scanning software and provided by some other organisation (Chell, Spence, Perrini and Harris, 2016). They mistakenly inserted the wrong sniffing code when they took an experiment with that software and also failed in order to discover the error that occur while they installed this software into street view cars. On the other hand, Facebook recent crisis is just another issue related to privacy that the organisation is dealing with. In the year 2006 the company faced user outrage due to the introduction of News Feed. Those issues related to privacy are now center and front, loose handling of the company to handle data acquired by app developers has cause the biggest crisis for the Facebook(Brunsden, 2017). The fact is that the business model of Facebook is itself a reason of the issues. It offers free services, gather private information of the users and then sell it to advertises and other entities. Along with Google and Facebook, Twitter is another social media platform which faces issues related to data related to individuals and organisation. Userâs post that includes useful information on twitter can be accessed by anyone, therefore it is a major concern for the company(Lanchester, 2017). Reusing work of other people is also a major issue faced by Twitter. The information or data on the internet is protected by copyright, nobody has legal right to copy peopleâs work of make it public on the internet. These is another main issue twitter face. Google was also facing the ethical issues that was among stakeholders. As their operation in China had been created a storm of criticism when they agreed in support with this that is to comply with demand of Government and also censor. Another issue or ethical dilemmas that Google mainly faced includes issues that is related to privacy. The cited sector select and gather 2
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information related to data on those people who use their respective search engine. Thus, website of this organisation states that all the information are been recorded in order to increase the efficiency level of cited organisation Google. Thus, it is deleting cookies after two years. While, this information can be used by Government to investigate on various informations and find out individual that visited that websites. They have also raised the questions that is related to privacy. Google has also faced with issue of Copyright Infringement. In order it was made possible to view millions of volume online by Google books. Therefore, they generated lawsuit over plan of Google in order to change some books without taking permission from the actual holder of that particular copyright. The cited organisation argues for this that they will show only small portion of that book if it is available fully and it is legal under law (Kudina and Verbeek, 2018). To analyse the ethical dilemmas of social media sector, consequentialist and non- consequentialist theory has been taken into consideration. Consequentialism is termed as class of normative theories that is based on ethics. The holding of this is that consequences of one's conduct and the judgement of that conduct in right or wrong way is the ultimate basis. In other words, it differs in defining moral goods (Mattox Jr and et.al., 2017). There are two examples of this theory that includes utilitarianism and hedonism. Utilitarianism is termed as an idea in terms of actions as they are right or wrong in morally way and also depending on effect it has on social media sector. In this theory the act of a particular person is right in moral way only if the happiness that is produced by that individual is as much as other person may perform at that same time. This act does not follow traditional rules. As per the social media, this act allows user to post anything on social media that they want their friends to look (Taplin, 2017). While the post is based on any political views and religious beliefs than it always comes under virtual threats or reaction. In addition to this, cyberbullying also takes place that can have huge impact on this sector. This type of behaviour of an individual may cause anger. Therefore, according to utilitarianism act negative post must not be posted and must be avoided. Because this type of posts can lead people in feeling depressed and also they harm themselves. There are some of the arguments that may go against this theory that includes that there are many people who says that bullies are of no harm (Yu and et.al., 2018). All this has nothing to do but they are causing harm to number of people. Sometimes this negative comments on 3
social media can be useful and profitable for business as they can fix their problems which is therefore addresses by their customers with negative comments on social media websites. But it has also been analysed that this kind of negative comments must be posted only in business websites for the review purpose so that they take it as a challenge. This will help business in fixing their problem that is leading people to update negative reviews for a particular business on a website. While to turn from negative comments into positive way is done and is possible only by business, not by an individual. Non consequentialist theory of ethics has been defined as general normative theory of morality that is non consequentialist. This theory basically denies about the statement that rightness or wrongness of conduct is therefore determined solely with help of goodness and badness of consequences of rules towards which those act varies (Patterson, Wilkins and Painter, 2018). Virtue ethics are those that basically provides as a framework. Virtue ethics is one of the other three approaches that are used in normative theories of ethics. These ethics is basically determined as one that emphasises the virtues or moral character in contrast of particular approach that emphasises rules or duties. There are several distinctive features of virtue ethics that makes it the most unique approach of ethics (Shvartzshnaider, Apthorpe, Feamster and Nissenbaum, 2018). Further, it has been analysed that the world is moving rapidly and it is really hard to find out about how best one can respond to this changing world. While in recent years it has been granted into background that social media has become blinded by technological behemoths power like Google, Facebook or Twitter (MartĂnezA, 2017). Today the glamorous world in terms of social media and also digital future has now tarnished with conflicts in terms of fake news and also data that are really helping in harvesting scandals. All these events have evoked complaints in terms of ethical malpractice. Thus, there were variety of response that were finding governance, regulatory and technical fixes. While lack of attention is therefore given in order to examine assumptions in ethical manner that leads in shaping operations of a particular business as all they assist in building the society that is full of information. In addition to this, digital ethics along with values and principle sand also along with recommendations has influenced the technology world in extreme manner rather than any other forces in this world related to technology or social media. Virtue ethics defines the nature in contextual manner of ethical dilemmas (Winkler and Zeadally, 2016). Further, there includes a fact that is required by 4
the moral excellence in terms of skilled responsiveness of a person to the such type of contexts that are changing. In addition to this, it has been claimed that the prudential wisdom is therefore exhibited by the person that is virtuous and requires the thoughtfulness that are variable and also entails careful study of that of particulars (Friend, 2017). CONCLUSION From the above report it has been concluded that there are number of ethical issues that is faced by social media which includes Google, Facebook and Twitter.Further, it has been analysed that rule of normative theories have been served as a guide towards the ethical behaviour on sites that is related to social media like Google, Facebook and Twitter. It has been analysed that the most faced problem or ethical issues is related to privacy.Therefore, various recommendations has been provided in order to make this social media sector in finding way to get all this under control. RECOMMENDATIONS The issues that was encompasses as Googles privacy policy and also ethical practice of their business is actually a vast issue that they have to tackle. On data gathering backlash of Google, it is really easy to trust such company when they ask to enter information on their browsers. Therefore, the privacy concerns that were raised which includes that if anyone has something that must be not known to others than Google must retain this information for sometimeandthisbecomesextremelyimportant.FacebookandTwittermustmakeall information available to that of authorities. They must also fix their bug in which it was allowed to have access in unintended manner to some kind of private documents which was stored by service. They must also build community engagement in order to maximise engagement on page overall.Further, Google must also make their privacy easily visible and accessible so users may not have to hunt around for search of it. They must also communicate the change in clear manner if they enter into any type of deal or acquisitions that may affect the policy in terms of privacy. They must also try to avoid passive language as we will or we may and must communicate in multi layered approach across their services. In addition to this, they must also provide with various tools that leads in managing personal data of an individual between all services that are related to Google. While this can be done by making present dashboard visible and more accessible.The other step that they can 5
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follow is to prepare statement that is basically related to Objections.The cited firm must also present current privacy policy as a general guideline about Googles processing operations and further references must be made to more detailed information about various processing. The another way to avoid this is that they can develop interactive presentations that may help in allowing users in order to explore the content that may have huge impact on the privacy related to users. They must also allow users to explore those content in terms of notices that is related to privacy without having to read much long and linear documents. Therefore, this are how this social media sector including Google, Facebook and Twitter can improve and solve their ethical issues. 6
REFERENCES Books and Journal Achtenhagen, L., 2017. Media EntrepreneurshipâTaking Stock and Moving Forward. Bertrand, C.J., 2018.Media ethics and accountability systems. Routledge. Chell, E., Spence, L.J., Perrini, F. and Harris, J.D., 2016. Social entrepreneurship and business ethics: Does social equal ethical?.Journal of business ethics. 133(4). pp.619-625. Kudina, O. and Verbeek, P.P., 2018. Ethics from within: Google Glass, the Collingridge dilemma, and the mediated value of privacy.Science, Technology, & Human Values, p.0162243918793711. Mattox Jr, G.T., and et.al., 2017.Personal site privacy policy. U.S. Patent 9,542,564. Patterson, P., Wilkins, L. and Painter, C., 2018.Media ethics: Issues and cases. Rowman & Littlefield. Shvartzshnaider, Y., Apthorpe, N., Feamster, N. and Nissenbaum, H., 2018. Analyzing Privacy Policies Using Contextual Integrity Annotations.arXiv preprint arXiv:1809.02236. Winkler, S. and Zeadally, S., 2016. Privacy policy analysis of popular web platforms.IEEE Technology and Society Magazine.35(2). pp.75-85. Yu, L., and et.al., 2018. Enhancing the description-to-behavior fidelity in android apps with privacy policy.IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering.44(9). pp.834-854. Brunsden J., 2017. âEU efforts to impose heavier taxes on tech giants gather momentumâ, Financial Times, September 16th KolhatarS.,2017.âTheTechIndustryâsGender-DiscriminationProblemâ,NewYorker, 20thNovember Lanchester J., 2017. âYou are the productâ, London Review of Books, August 17th, Vol. 39 No. 16 https://www.lrb.co.uk/v39/n16/john-lanchester/you-are-the-product Taplin J., 2017. Move Fast and Break Things: How Facebook, Google and Amazon have Cornered Culture and What It Means for All of Us, Macmillan: London MartĂnezA., 2017. Chaos Monkeys: Inside the Silicon Valley Money Machine,Ebury, London Friend T., 2017. âWhy Ageism Never Gets Oldâ, New Yorker, 20thNovember 7
House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts, 2016. Corporate tax settlements, Twenty- fifthReportofSession2015â16Report,23February https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201516/cmselect/cmpubacc/788/788.pdf 8