Ethics in Information and Communication Technologies

Contemporary issues
in
Information Technology

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Ethics in Information and Communication Technologies
Information and communication technologies have reached into the hands of billions of
people. This is having impact on the lives of the individuals and performance of the business.
More critical role in this is played by the internet as it has made world more inter-connected.
This has made the communication faster and has allowed people exchange information over a
greater distance. It has facilitated businesses to operate from any part of the world and
converted the world into a global village (Valaei, et al. 2016). ICT allows the companies to
manage their large amount of operations very easily and with one flow. This also allows the
firm to manage the skills of the individual. Both positive and negative impacts of information
and communication technologies upon business, society and culture after the invention of
internet will be discussed in this essay.
After the invention of internet, ICT technologies have taken new wings and stared to become
the part of the companies and the lives of the people. The first impact it had were on the way
individual’s communicated. Internet impacted upon the individual’s way of communicating
with each other. For instance in the beginning, internet allowed companies and individuals to
send mails, then after the beginning of the era of mobile technology it allowed them to have
verbal communications and at the same time ICT also allowed businesses and society to
communicate with others about everything quickly (Pookulangara and Koesler, 2011). With
the invention of internet people started searching everything on the internet. This has changed
the behaviour of the society in terms of learning process. This is because internet sources
have huge amount of information and people can gather it with just one click. The positive
impact on the business can be understood by the fact that it helped machines at the global
levels to work with each other simultaneously i.e. a computer in the London can be operated
from New York. It also has positive impact on the culture as the people are able to share their
idea from one part to another part of the world. It is this sharing of ideas at the global levels
that has permitted people to learn the best practices from all across the globe from all the
cultures. This had impact on the overall learning process of the society.
Another positive impact on the businesses and society is that it has allowed the processes to
become more transparent. There are many operations within the organisation that remained
hidden from the masses such as transaction of money. It is due to technology, everything

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happens in front of everyone. This has allowed the governments to control corruption and has
also allowed people to have regular checks on the government processes (Bertot, Jaeger and
Grimes, 2010). Internet has become an important medium for whistle blowing as it is a fast
mode of communication and the information spreads like a wildfire hence any wrong
practices can be raised through internet and the affected institution gets no time to suppress
the voice. Wikileaks was one of institutions that has whistle blown about several things that
had impact on the society.
It also allows companies to involve more and more stakeholders in their processes. In the
decision making process, internet along with ICT can be utilised by the firms so as to take
suggestions from maximum possible stakeholders. Everything happens according to the data
available with the firm and the ones that could be accessed from internet. This allows
companies to make sure that they are making the correct decision and satisfies the need of
different stakeholders (Lee, et al. 2011). The positive impact is also in terms of the fact that it
has made operations easier like Marketing as internet allows companies to market their
products at the global level at just one click with minimum investments. People also use
internet for purchasing items. They do not have to go to brick and mortar units so as to
purchase something rather they can order online and things gets delivered at home.
There is negative side of the internet and the use of ICT. The first negative impact is on the
privacy of the people. This is because internet has not only allowed individuals to get access
to the information but it has also allowed the institutions to peep into the life of the people.
This can be understood in terms of the fact that ICT helps an organisation to gather
information about people. Many of them take personal data of individuals which they utilise
for their own benefits. This has raised the ethical concerns for the society and businesses
(McLean, 2011). Since the competition is getting tougher and tougher everyday hence
companies these days are demanding for knowing what is going on in the minds of the
customers. This will help them in doing more and more personalised marketing which can
lead to higher amount of sales. It is also creating security threats as if the data gets leaked at
wrong platforms or their system gets hacked, then there is higher chances that it can be
utilised for hacker’s or someone else benefits.
Negative impact can also been seen in terms of the fact that it has made people stuck to their
chairs or with the technologies they are using. There are many contents available on the
internet mediums that is waste and people remains indulged in that for hours. It is also seen