Ethical Analysis of Case Study

Running head: ETHICAL ANALYSIS OF CASE STUDY
ETHICAL ANALYSIS OF CASE STUDY
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ETHICAL ANALYSIS OF CASE STUDY
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Assignment 4: analysis of mindmup
Business practices of Facebook is not ethical:
Facebook was charged with violation of users privacy when the data breach incident was
came into public. Cambridge analytica was charged with collecting personal data. Cambridge
analytics was involved in data exploitation. Data of millions of Facebook users were collected
which includes some important details
 Personal data was harvested
 Users were not aware of this
Data of millions of Facebook users were collected and Data collection without permission is
not ethical. Later Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg made apology for this and according to him,
Facebook was not fully aware of this process. The case revealed that Cambridge analytica was not
gathering personal data. The process also involved harvesting of personal data. This data was also
used for political campaign for political advantage in US presidential election. However, this
allegation is denied by Cambridge analytica as they claimed that they were only involved in
collecting those data for research purpose only. However, no proper details was provided in this
regard making the allegations even more significant. If they were any issues it should have been
identified earlier. It shows that Facebook was not determined to make their business practice
ethical. They must have reviewed terms and policy of Cambridge Analytica before allowing them to
collect data through this platform. Facebook is responsible to identify any issues in business
practice as Facebook is in charge of their business. When they are storing data about users, it is their
duty to protect that as well.
This report has analyzed this argument in terms of ethical theories. For ethical theories have
been considered which are utilitarianism ethics, deontological ethics, contract ethics and virtue
ethics. These ethical theories provide different context for analyzing this argument in terms of
ethical standard.

ETHICAL ANALYSIS OF CASE STUDY
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Utilitarianism ethics:
The first ethical theory, utilitarianism ethics considers how people are effected by result of
an act. Therefore, this ethical theory is result oriented. According to this theory, if an act does not
ensure that the result is beneficial for majority, it is not ethical at all. When data collection does not
protect privacy of millions of people, it do not ensure “highest good for highest number of people”
which is the main theme of this ethical theory. It might be beneficial for Cambridge analytica, or for
Facebook as well though denied by CEO Mark Zuckerberg. However, it is surely not beneficial for
most of the people whose data was collected violating their privacy. Facebook is also ignoring
privacy setting, which makes users data even more vulnerable to hack, which hackers might
consider for monetary benefits. Hence, it is clear that even if this process generates benefits for
some section of people, they are not beneficial for everyone, making these activities inconsistent
with the principle of this ethical theory.
Deontological theory of ethics:
The second ethical theory considered in this analysis is deontological theory of ethics is
based on weighting of rightness and wrongness of any decision or activity. If an action is right, it is
ethical, there is no other parameter for analyzing an act in terms of ethics. An action might benefit
other, but if it is not right or if the approach of doing the act is right, it is not right.
The case of data breach is not the only thing that is main concern here, there are some other
activities where Facebook is doing wrong, even if not deliberately. Facebook is involved in
extensive marketing for generating profit for the company but they are doing it in wrong way. They
are even targeting children for their ad campaign, which is not right according to legal advisories.
Hence, business policy of Facebook, especially its ads policy is not ethical with reference to this
ethical theory.