Facebook Data Breach: Three Distinct Perspectives of Applied Ethics

This paper discusses the ethical dilemma of Facebook data breach in 2018 from professional, philosophical, and sociological ethics perspectives. It analyses the consequences of the data breach on the users of this social media platform.

SCHOOL OF COMPUTING AND MATHS, Charles Sturt University
Facebook Data Breach
Assignment 1: Three Distinct Perspectives of Applied Ethics
Your Name
Student Number
Word Count: 1530

Facebook Data Breach
1. Introduction
This document aims at discussing a recent ethical dilemma or a situation associated to
Information and Communication Technology (ICT). It would consider one such situation
of data breaching to examine ethical issue involved. Facebook is the most widely used
social media platform both for personal and business purpose due to its features like
share, discover, advertisement, remarks, post and communication to a large extent
(Bakshy, Messing & Adamic, 2015). The chosen situation of ethical dilemma is data
breaching by Facebook in the year 2018 in order to affect the opinion of voters on behalf
of politicians and representatives. It is reported that the collection of data for this
purpose started in 2014 and Facebook took the help of Cambridge Analytica in this
process (McNamee & Parakilas, 2018). The ethical question that is raised by this
situation is how a company like Facebook can allow any third party to acquire the data
of its users. A significant number of people throughout the world got affected due to this
incident. This critical analysis of this issue would be approached by analysing the three
different perspectives of applied ethics which are professional, sociological and
philosophical ethics.
2. Professional Ethics Perspectives
Professional ethics perspective is often referred to as deontological perspective. Tavani
(2011) states that the type of perspective which determines the standards of business
and personal behavior, guidelines and principles is called professional ethics perspective.
Integrity, accountability and transparency are some of the specific components of
professional ethics perspective (Durkheim, 2013). The ICT organization seek help from
the professional ethics perspective in their work function and execution. The function of
this ethics is not limited to only providing the guideline but also ensure continuous
awareness of the situation and need for organization.
The most recent and well-known situation of ethical dilemma is from the most
renowned company Facebook. In March 2018, the news of data breach of Facebook
broke out as a scandal and emerged as one of the biggest ethical issues. The reports
reveal that about 250,000 used their Facebook credentials to log in with an application.
The claim is that the application provided the data acquired from the users to the
Cambridge Analytica. This situation violates the code of professional ethics followed by
Your Name

Facebook Data Breach
the Facebook and also raises questions on the reputation of this company. After the
news of data breach Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook assured the users of proper
investigation of this situation. The professional components of Facebook such as
reliability, honesty, loyalty and integrity got affected to a great extent due to data
breach incident.
This was not the first time that Facebook was in controversy, but this time the concern
of data security made the issue intense. The officials at Facebook are to implement
appropriate ethical guidelines for better understanding of their behavioral and
professional perspectives after the incident of the data breach. The consideration of the
ethical and behavioral issue is important for this company to retain users, client and the
employees (Williams & Gulati, 2013). The ethical question that is raised by this situation
is how a company like Facebook can allow any third party to acquire the data of its
users. This incident emerged as a threat to the trust of users acquired by Facebook for a
long period of time.
The controversy suggests that the code of professional ethics would have been
protected if Facebook could have considered the transparency with the users within the
context of Cambridge Analytica. Morality is also considered as an important attribute of
professional ethics. It is expected from a company like Facebook to choose a morally
appropriate process of dealing with their business partner that does not harm the
confidentiality and privacy of users and their clients. The company should have
approached their employees and users before getting involved in any such situation. The
CEO of Facebook addressed the users after this incident to regret about the situation
and ensured them that the incident of the data breach would not be repeated again
(Badshah, 2018).
3. Philosophical Ethics Perspectives
This section of paper intends to discuss and analyze the philosophical ethics perspective
of the incident of the Facebook data breach. According to Tavani (2011), the
philosophical ethics aims at analyzing the right and wrong behavior of an organization by
defending, systemizing and recommending. Every corporate organization is required to
abide by specific laws and rules both external and internal to sustain in the world of
business. The demographics of business changes every day and thus it is essential for the
Your Name

Facebook Data Breach
company to secure trust and priority from the user end. The renowned companies are
spending a huge amount of revenue in the data management process as the managing
data over the internet is a critical method for the teams of ICT management (Gasper,
2016). Philosophical, ethical perspective provides a set of code of ethics for proper
management of ICT companies. With the development of technology, challenges to data
security are increasing (Christians et al., 2015). The companies like Facebook and
WikiLeaks have faced incidents which raises the question to the data security and force
the users and officials to think about data security. The self-regulating guidelines are
important for Facebook after this incident of the data breach in order to protect the
ethical values of the company. The users share their personal life and personal and
professional data on Facebook thus their concern is genuine, and they are likely to avoid
using this platform to some extent (Gardelli, Alerby & Persson, 2014). The use of distinct
platforms or mediums like Facebook for various purposes give rise to the requirement of
data privacy as the use of technology is common these days. The importance of various
technologies and social media platforms is that it does not depend on any geographical
locations or time zones, it has made business more transparent and customers more
knowledgeable. This type of technologies has made employment practices better than
primitive times.
After the incident of the data breach, Facebook adopted specific preventive measures
such as a new option in settings that can administer the users who can see the posts of
an individual to provide a sense of assurance to the users. A new module was featured
in the newsfeed section of the application to check on the application having permission
to function for an individual. The company like Facebook needs a team of expertise to
handle such situations of ethical dilemma in the near future. Therefore, there is need of
amendment in the ICT policies of the company with the increase in the situation of
ethical dilemma in trusted social media application like Facebook.
4. Sociological/Descriptive Ethics Perspectives
Tavani(2011) states that sociological or descriptive ethics deals with an attitude of an
individual or group of people on a particular ethical dilemma. It involves investigation
Your Name

Facebook Data Breach
based on observation and theories of the applied ethics. The aim of descriptive ethics is
to describe the phenomenon of ethical dilemma in contrast with the moral decision
making process. The descriptive ethics investigates the ethical idea of society and
individual, actions of law and politics in context to the situation. This section of paper is
concerned about describing the situation of the Facebook data breach in contrast to the
attitude of individuals towards this situation. Considering the ethical dilemma of the
Facebook data breach, descriptive ethics would aim to know the concern of individuals
and understand whether the situation is ethical or not. It would try to explain the moral
reasoning of an individual while providing their views on the data breach.
The users of Facebook and people throughout the world consider this issue to be
unethical and a major issue in cyber ethics. Cyberethics is the type of ethics that
encompasses the behavior of user and employees and its effects on individual and
society. There are various government regulations and acts related to cyber ethics, and
Facebook also adopts specific cyber ethics policies. The Facebook has failed to safeguard
the privacy of its customer's information and failed to provide transparency. As a result
of this situation, the government of the UK have imposed a penalty for violating the UK
Data Protection Act of 1998 (Curtis & Curtis, 2018). The people have raised the question
that it is not an ethical aspect to influence the political views of an individual or the
corresponding society. The issue of data breach raged a topic of debate among the
media and social media throughout the world. It turned out to be an area of concern for
political and government organizations. The moral reasoning of people behind their
judgment was based on how Facebook can share personal data of individuals with
Cambridge Analytica without any prior acknowledgement or consent (Confessore, 2018).
It is required for an organisation like Facebook to consider several ethical issues that are
related to ICT such as maintaining equilibrium between technological and ethical
problem, property issues, privacy security and rights within the organisation. The
Facebook should provide guidelines in order to secure this platform for the user of
Facebook throughout the world. Facebook is one of the trusted social media platforms
thus the professional, social and ethical responsibilities of Facebook increases to a large
extent whenever the company faces controversies.
Your Name

Facebook Data Breach
5. Conclusion
It can be concluded from this paper of ethical dilemma that data breach incident of
Facebook was the most important issue of ethical concern of this year. The paper is
efficient in explaining the professional, philosophical and sociological perspective of
ethics in the light of an ethical incident of data breach and provides its consequences on
the users of this social media platform.
6. References
Badshah, N. (2018). Facebook to contact 87 million users affected by data breach.
Retrieved from
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/apr/08/facebook-to-contact-
the-87-million-users-affected-by-data-breach
Bakshy, E., Messing, S., & Adamic, L. A. (2015). Exposure to ideologically diverse news
and opinion on Facebook. Science, 348(6239), 1130-1132.
Christians, C. G., Richardson, K. B., Fackler, M., Kreshel, P., & Woods, R. H. (2015). Media
Ethics: Cases and Moral Reasoning, CourseSmart eTextbook. Routledge.
compliance. Information Systems Journal, 24(6), 479-502.
Confessore, N. (2018). Cambridge Analytica and Facebook: The Scandal and the Fallout
So Far. Retrieved from
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/04/us/politics/cambridge-analytica-scandal-
fallout.html
Curtis, S., & Curtis, S. (2018). Facebook facing fine in UK over infamous data breach.
Retrieved from https://www.welivesecurity.com/2018/07/12/facebook-fined-
data-privacy-scandal/
Durkheim, E. (2013). Professional ethics and civic morals. Routledge.
Gardelli, V., Alerby, E., & Persson, A. (2014). Why philosophical ethics in school:
implications for education in technology and in general. Ethics and
Education, 9(1), 16-28.
Your Name

Facebook Data Breach
Gasper, D. (2016). Ethics of development.
McNamee, R., & Parakilas, S. (2018). The Facebook breach makes it clear: data must be
regulated. Retrieved from
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/19/facebook-data-
cambridge-analytica-privacy-breach
Tavani, H. T. (2011). Ethics and technology: Controversies, questions, and strategies for
ethical computing. John Wiley & Sons.
Williams, C. B., & Gulati, G. J. J. (2013). Social networks in political campaigns: Facebook
and the congressional elections of 2006 and 2008. New Media & Society, 15(1),
52-71.
Do not remove the following marking sheet.
Marking Sheet
Criteria Standards
Marks
awarde
d
Use professional,
philosophical, and
sociological/descripti
ve ethics
perspectives to
analyse the ethical
issues involved in
the case.
(Value 70%)
HD: Comprehensive understanding of the professional, philosophical, and
sociological/descriptive ethics perspectives through in-depth discussion
and analysis of three most relevant ethical issues involved in your chosen
case. (59.5-70)
DI: Mostly comprehensive understanding of the professional,
philosophical, and sociological/descriptive ethics perspectives through in-
depth discussion and analysis of three most relevant ethical issues
involved in your chosen case. (52.5-58.8)
CR: Some understanding of the professional, philosophical, and
sociological/descriptive ethics perspectives through some discussion and
analysis of two relevant ethical issues involved in your chosen case.
(45.5-51.8)
PS: Basic understanding of the professional, philosophical, and
sociological/descriptive ethics perspectives through some discussion and
analysis of two relevant ethical issues involved in your chosen case. (35-
44.8)
FL: Major omissions in understanding of the professional, philosophical,
and sociological/descriptive ethics perspectives and irrelevant ethical
issues are identified and analysed. (0-34.3)
Writing & structure
(Value 20%)
HD: Language features and structures are used to convey meaning
effectively, concisely, unambiguously, and in a tone appropriate to the
audience and purpose with no spelling, grammatical, or punctuation
errors. (17-20)
DI: Well developed skills in expression & presentation of ideas. Fluent
writing style appropriate to assessment task/document type. Grammar &
spelling accurate. (15-16.8)
CR: Good skills in expression & clear presentation of ideas. Mostly fluent
writing style appropriate to assessment task/document type. Grammar &
spelling contains a few minor errors. (13-14.8)
Your Name

Facebook Data Breach
PS: The text contains frequent errors in spelling, grammar, word choice,
and structure, lacks clarity, and is not concise, but the meaning is
apparent to the reader with some effort. (10-12.8)
FL: Rudimentary skills in expression & presentation of ideas. Not all
material is relevant &/or is presented in a disorganised manner. Meaning
apparent, but writing style not fluent or well organised. Grammar &
spelling contains many errors. (0-9.8)
Referencing
(Value 10%)
HD: Referencing is comprehensive, demonstrates academic integrity, and
conforms exactly to APA style conventions. (8.5-10)
DI: Very good referencing, including reference list and citations. High
quality references. (7.5-8.4)
CR: Good referencing, including reference list and citations. Good quality
references. (6.5-7.4)
PS: Referencing is comprehensive, mostly accurate according to APA
style conventions, and demonstrates academic integrity. Some minor
errors or omissions in style and formatting choices (e.g. italics,
punctuation, etc) don’t impact on the transparency and traceability of the
source, or demonstration of academic integrity. (5-6.4)
FL: Sub-standard (or no) referencing. Poor quality (or no) references. (0-
4.9)
Total Marks
Your Name