Ethics and Professional Practices

This study material discusses the ethical issues surrounding the Facebook Cambridge Analytica data scandal and analyzes it from different ethical perspectives. It also compares the ACS Code of Ethics and ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct. Additionally, it explains the concepts of act deontology and rule deontology with examples. Suitable for students studying ethics and professional practices.

Running head: ETHICS AND PROFESSIONAL PRACTICES
Ethics and Professional Practices
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note:

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Table of Contents
Question 1..................................................................................................................................2
Question 2..................................................................................................................................5
Question 3..................................................................................................................................8
References................................................................................................................................11

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Question 1
Ethical Issue surrounding the 2018 Facebook Cambridge Analytica Data Scandal after
Analysis with Philosophical Ethical Perspectives
The Facebook Cambridge Analytica data scandal is considered as one of the most
popular scandal that occurred in 2018 (Zunger, 2018). It was revealed that Cambridge
Analytica, a leading political consulting firm in England had harvested the respective
personal data of the millions of Facebook users without any consent and they were utilized
for political purpose (Common, 2018). This particular scandal was extremely significant to
incit public discussion on the ethical standards for politicians, political consulting companies
and social media organizations.
The entire political scandal of data breaching was extremely unethical and illegal as
Cambridge Analytica in respect to any type of ethical perspective. There are four distinct
ethical perspectives that are required to be considered while analysing the case study of
Facebook Cambridge Analytica scandal and these perspectives are as follows:
i) Utilitarianism Theory: The first and the foremost theory is the utilitarianism theory.
It is a prominent and significant perspective of ethics that is well aligned with free market
outlook, which dominates the current thinking regarding management, business and
economics (Noddings, 2013). Utilitarianism majorly focuses on the results and not on the
rules. A set of actions is majorly deemed as right or good when it eventually maximizes the
pleasure or happiness throughout the society. This specific ethical perspective selects the
action that maximized utility and it defined as the situation that produces the greatest
wellbeing of the maximum number of people involved in the case scenario. It is the basic
form of consequentialism that refers to the major consequences of any particular action are
the only standards of correct and incorrect (Critchley, 2014). For the case study of Facebook

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Cambridge Analytica 2018, it is being analysed that there is no utility present and that the
data of the users were being breached for political motive. Moreover, these users were not
even informed neither consents were taken from them and hence it was completely used for
personal profit of that particular political analytics firm. Since, the case study did not provide
any utility to the situation, thus it is unethical.
ii) Deontology Theory: The second theory is deontology. In contrast to the
utilitarianism perspective, deontological view provides a moral intent after following the
correct rules and is a better path for understanding the ethical conduct and not only for
achieving the correct results (Fromm, 2013). As per this theory, an ethical action arises from
doing the duty of that specific individual and these duties are eventually defined by rational
thought. In this particular case study, Cambridge Analytica did not follow the deontological
duties and thus it is unethical.
iii) Social Justice Theory and Social Contract Theory: The third ethical perspective
is social justice theory and social contract theory. As per this theory, any action should
provide justice and a social contract should be maintained. This social contract ensures that
people are giving up certain rights to the government after exchanging security and common
benefits (Gatens, 2013). However, in this case study, there was a massive fall in the stock
price of Facebook and it called for tighter regulation of organizational data usage. Hence, the
social contract was not maintained and this case study is unethical.
iv) Virtue Theory: The fourth ethical perspective, virtue ethics ensures that perceived
goals are required for bringing success and maintaining ethics in any situation. The virtue or
the moral character of the person is responsible for carrying out any specific action and not
only the ethical duties and rules. For this case study of Facebook data scandal, the consumer
advocate eventually were called for better user security within the online media as well as the

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right to privacy on misinformation (Kagan, 2018). It was analysed that the personal data of
more than 87 million users, majorly from the United States was eventually obtained by an
analytics firm. In response to the revelation, the respective law makers as well as regulators
incremented the scrutiny of social media giant. More than 50 million users eventually
violated the sharing of personal information without their consent. The main business model
of Facebook is responsible for delivering the individualized advertisements to the users and it
could be exploited while raising concerns about data security. Thus virtue ethics was not
followed and this case study was unethical.

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Question 2
Comparison and Contrast of the ACS Code of Ethics and ACM Code of Ethics and
Professional Conduct with Examples
ACS Code of Ethics
The ACS code of ethics stated that being a member of ACS, an individual should
uphold as well as advance the effectiveness, dignity as well as honour for being a
professional (Ross, 2013).
i) The Primacy of the Public Interest: This is the first and the foremost ACS code of
ethics. As per this particular code, one should place the interests of the public should be
considered above those of sectional, business and personal interests. The public interest
undertakes precedence over the several interests and each and every conflict should be
effectively resolved in the favour of public interest. This public interest is undertaken for
inclusion of matters of public health, safety and environment.
The examples of this code include one should identify all of those people, who are
impacted by the work or explicitly considering the interests, advising the stakeholders
regarding any type of conflict of interest and objection, respecting the intellectual property of
others, taking into consideration the fact that the respective profession is traversing several
other professions, endeavouring to preserve the utility, continuity, security and integrity of
ICT and endeavouring to preserve the privacy and confidentiality of the confidential
information.
ii) The Enhancement of Quality of Life: As per this code of ethics, the ICT
development has a significant effect on the society and way of life and this impact is
extremely beneficial to a high extent and similar to other technologies, this ICT even has few

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negative effects. An ethical approach to the work would be helpful for recognizing and
minimization of the adverse effects (Keown, 2016). The examples of this code include, one
would eventually recognize the role that information and communications technology plays
for enhancing the life quality for people majorly the underprivileged individuals and
attempting to increment the feelings like competence and personal satisfaction.
iii) Honesty: As per honesty code of ethics, one should not breach public trust within
the profession and trust of stakeholders. The examples of this code include, one would reject
and would not make or offer inducement and bribery, unknowingly mislead a client for the
suitability of product and services, distinguish within personal and professional opinions and
not attempting to enhance the personal reputation.
iv) Competence: According to competence, one should be competent to accomplish
and should not hesitate in obtaining extra expertise from the qualified individual (Ciulla,
2014). The examples of this code include, one would not misrepresent the skills and
knowledge, accept major responsibility of work, respecting and seeking the colleague
expertise within the areas of competence and making one aware of the legislation and
standards.
v) Professional Development: One should keep themselves informed of the new
technologies and standards and hence are relevant to the work (Singer, 2013). Proper actions
should be undertaken and the examples of this code include, one would continue to update
the skills and knowledge, encourage the employees in continuing professional development
and increment the awareness of problems affecting the profession.
vi) Professionalism: As per this code of ethics, one should maintain professionalism
and allow others to maintain professionalism as well for eradication of discrimination,
improving and enhancing the industry’s image. The members would be aware that ACS could

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help them in resolving the ethical dilemmas (Coates, 2016). The examples of this code
include, one would take an informed, objective and knowledgeable stance on the professional
work, would take correct action against the members, who are engaged in behaviours.
ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct
The general principles are as follows:
i) Contributing to Society and to human wellbeing: One should contribute to the
society for bringing wellbeing to human being.
ii) Avoidance of Harm: One should not harm other professional to maintain
professional conduct.
iii) Being Honest and Trustworthy: One should be honest and trustworthy for being
ethical. The observance of the integrity and honesty should underlie each and every
professional action and decision (Harris et al., 2013). The circumstances would undoubtedly
arise in the professional career, in which it would appear to be beneficial for the individual in
an effective manner.
iv) Being Fair and Taking Action for Discriminate: One should be fair enough and
proper actions should be undertaken for discrimination.
v) Respecting work required for producing new ideas: Work should be respected to
produce new ideas and views and hence bringing more efficiency.
vi) Respecting Privacy: One should respect privacy of others and should not public
them under any circumstance (Reamer, 2013).
vii) Honouring Confidentiality: Confidentiality should be respected for all the team
members and employees and confidential data should not be breached eventually.

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The main difference between ACS Code of Ethics and ACM Code of Ethics and
Professional conduct is that the former code focuses on both personal and professional
wellbeing, however the latter focuses only on the professional conduct.

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Question 3
Concepts of Act Deontology and Rule Deontology with Examples
A deontological ethical theory eventually states that it is a central moral concept of
the duty. This particular theory could be easily contrasted with a character based theory for
analysing the correct and incorrect phenomenon (Crane & Matten, 2016). It is even termed as
a normative ethical theory that the decency of any action is on the basis of whether that
specific action is correct or incorrect under the distinctive set of rules and not only on the
consequences of action. On the basis of the deontological ethical system, a proper ethical
obligation may arise from various internal as well as external sources like set of cultural and
personal values, religious laws or a set of rules that is inherent to the universe or ethical
naturalism.
There could be three significant formulations of this deontology theory that
subsequently includes acting only according to the maximum by which one could even desire
for a universal law, acting in such a manner that one would always treat humanity, whether
being personal or being professional and finally acting in such a manner that each rational
should maxim for being a legislating member within the universal kingdom of ends (Biesta,
2015). There are several varieties of deontological ethical theories, which include an Act
Deontological Ethical Theory, a Basic Principle Deontological Ethical and a General
Principle Deontological Ethical Theory and a Rule Deontological Ethical Theory. As per
Immanuel Kant, the theory of ethics is subsequently considered deontological for various
reasons.
Act Deontological Theory
An Act deontological ethical theory is that particular theory, which is responsible for
according the logical priority to very few specific moral judgments and not to the principles

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and rules. These Act deontological theories are eventually termed as Intuitionist theories as
they argue that human beings comprise of a specialized intuition or moral facility by which
the obligations are being perceived (Kagan, 2018). There are two types of ethical theories in
the Act Deontological theories and these are as follows:
i) Situational Ethics: This is the first distinct type of act deontological theory. As per
this particular theory, each and every moral action or activity is absolutely unique and it calls
for the most unique ethical decision. Situational ethics is quite common and can occur in any
situation. Hence this should be effectively maintained under every circumstance by the
respective individual.
ii) Existentialist Ethics: The second distinctive type of the act deontological theory
(Singer, 2013). According to this specific theory, the human beings eventually create the
ethical standards for fitting into the circumstances of their existence.
Rule Deontological Theory
The rule deontological theory is generally known as a Rationalist theory as it is
claimed that it is the capacity of human beings for a certain reason that allows any individual
to know about the obligations towards one another. The two theories are as follows:
i) Kantianism (Categorical Imperatives): Immanuel Kant has argued that for acting
morally as well as in the right way, the individuals should act from duties. Kant even argued
that this was not the significances of actions, which make them correct or incorrect, however
the motives of the person carrying out the action (Coates, 2016). The duty starts with an
argument that the highest good should be both good with or without qualification. Anything
good in itself and anything good without qualification should be maintained under any
circumstance. The things that are thought to be good like pleasure, perseverance and
intelligence fail to be either intrinsically good or better without qualification. Kant even

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argued that only perfectly good thing is the good will and hence the single determining fact of
whether any action is ethically right is the will or motive of that person doing that work.
ii) The Divine Command Theory (Divine Imperatives): This is the second theory
that states that not all deontologists have religious beliefs, few subsequently believe in the
divine command theory that is basically a collection of associated theories that refer to the
fact that any action is correct when God will agree that it is correct (Reamer, 2013). This
particular theory is the type of deontology theory as it states that the rightness of an action is
dependent upon the action that is being performed since it is a duty.

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References
Biesta, G. J. (2015). Good education in an age of measurement: Ethics, politics, democracy.
Routledge.
Ciulla, J. B. (Ed.). (2014). Ethics, the heart of leadership. ABC-CLIO.
Coates, A. J. (2016). The ethics of war.
Common, M. F. (2018). Facebook and Cambridge Analytica: let this be the high-water mark
for impunity. LSE Business Review.
Crane, A., & Matten, D. (2016). Business ethics: Managing corporate citizenship and
sustainability in the age of globalization. Oxford University Press.
Critchley, S. (2014). Ethics of deconstruction. Edinburgh University Press.
Fromm, E. (2013). Man for himself: An inquiry into the psychology of ethics. Routledge.
Gatens, M. (2013). Imaginary bodies: Ethics, power and corporeality. Routledge.
Harris Jr, C. E., Pritchard, M. S., Rabins, M. J., James, R., & Englehardt, E.
(2013). Engineering ethics: Concepts and cases. Cengage Learning.
Kagan, S. (2018). Normative ethics. Routledge.
Keown, D. (2016). The nature of Buddhist ethics. Springer.
Noddings, N. (2013). Caring: A relational approach to ethics and moral education. Univ of
California Press.
Reamer, F. G. (2013). Social work values and ethics. Columbia University Press.
Ross, D. (2013). Foundations of ethics. Read Books Ltd.
Singer, P. (Ed.). (2013). A companion to ethics. John Wiley & Sons.

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Zunger, J. (2018). Computer science faces an ethics crisis. The Cambridge Analytica scandal
proves it. Boston Globe, 22.