Ethical Implications of ICT: A Literature Review

Running head: ICT RESEARCH ON ETHICS
ICT Research on Ethics
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1ICT RESEARCH ON ETHICS
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Identification of an ICT research topic........................................................................................2
Research methodology.................................................................................................................4
Synthesis and analysis of the research.........................................................................................5
Research questions.......................................................................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................9

2ICT RESEARCH ON ETHICS
Introduction
When it comes to topics related on Information and Communication Technology, every
subject focuses on the technicalities of the topic. This usually focuses around the importance of
the ICT devices or the way Information and Communication Technology is handling the world.
The less discussed topic about this is however, the ethical implications related to the ICT world.
The topic that often goes out of context in this regard is the way by which an ICT professional
would ideally perform their task in order to be morally correct towards their professional as well
as personal life (Whitehouse et al. 2016). Following would be a literature review presented on
this topic which would share lights on the ethical aspect of an ICT professional and how it
affects the approach and propagation of the ICT world. This would be performed by following
few steps that would first include the identification of this topic and the need for researching on
ethics for the ICT world. Then this would be followed by the research methodology that has been
adopted for reviewing the literature on this topic, based on the detailed justification for the
inclusion and exclusion principles taken under consideration for this regard. Then amongst the
10 articles reviewed in this matter, a similarity between the themes of two of them would be
established to ensure that the analysis and synthesis regarding the topic has been justified.
Finally, there would be a research question framed from the analysis that have been derived from
the literature review done so far regarding the topic.
Identification of an ICT research topic
ICT or Information and Communication Technology is a subject that dwells in the
matters of communication between different devices, especially computers and other connecting
devices, and sharing of information. This has seen a considerable change and exponential rise in
the contemporary times that deals with a lot of professional issues while its propagation. It can

3ICT RESEARCH ON ETHICS
be seen that the ethical way to perform any work is neglected in many cases, even disregarding
the matter that this might bring about legal complicacies in the future (Rogerson et al. 2017). In
many cases, it has been found that even littlest of ethically wrong professional acts can cause a
bigger problem in the long run. Even not from the professional aspect, it is also to be taken care
about that if the use of Information and Communication Technology is following the ethical way
of conduct. Many incidences have proven that not just the professionals of ICT are at fault for
not abiding by the ethical laws of Information and Communication Technology but the use of
ICT does not always follow the suit for maintaining ethical implications related to the same.
This is the reason that for this ICT based research the topic of ethical implications in
Information and Communication Technology is being researched about in this particular
literature review. To find out the positive and negative impacts of ICT in both professional and
societal as well as legal aspects, this literature review is being conducted on this topic (Warren
and Lucas 2016). Dwelling about the same topic with different research aspects with the help of
10 different journal articles would help in zeroing out the common themes about the topic and
exactly what implications ethically exists in the Information and Communication Technology
world.
It can be reason that since ethics in ICT is not trained about to every other person, there
can be lack of awareness in people about the legal aspects of their actions when performing an
Information and Communication Technology work (Stahl et al. 2018). Many instances have
proven that there are issues about the ethical thinking of a person before committing to an ICT
based work. A person may find himself or herself performing unethical actions just out of sheer
ignorance. This is why this subject needs to be researched about in details only because this
would creating awareness amongst people, both professionals and unprofessional individuals, to