Facebook Data Breach: Three Distinct Perspectives of Applied Ethics

SCHOOL OF COMPUTING AND MATHS, Charles Sturt University
Facebook Data Breach
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Word Count: 1500

1. Introduction
Ethics is defined as the most important and vital division of philosophy that significantly involves
systematization, defending and then subsequently recommending the several important concepts of
right as well as wrong conducts (Durkheim, 2013). Three most fundamental areas of ethics are the
applied ethics, normative ethics and Meta ethics. The Meta ethics mainly concerns with the
references as well as theoretical meanings of moral propositions and how all of these truth values
can be easily and promptly determined. The next area is the normative ethics, which significantly
concerns with the practical or non theoretical means for the purpose of determining the several
moralised courses of action. The final area is the applied ethics, which mainly concerns about what a
specific person is permitted or obligated to do within any significant domain of situation or action.
Three most important theories are being followed in the applied ethics (Niebuhr, 2013). These are
the utilitarianism theory, virtue ethics and the deontology theory. These three distinct theories are
collectively known as the specific modern approach within applied ethics. This ethics is solely
defined as the dealing matter for value, consisting of the significant philosophy branch of axiology.
The three perspectives of applied ethics are professional ethics perspective; philosophical ethics
perspective and sociological or descriptive ethics perspective. The following report will be outlining a
detailed discussion on the latest information and communication technology case study of data
breaching in Facebook, in terms of the three distinct perspectives of the applied ethics. During April
2018, it came into notice that the vital data of about 87 millions of users of the social networking
site, Facebook were under threat (Badshah, 2018). The entire scandal of data of the social
networking site of Facebook solely included the complete collection of all the personal identifiable
information of the affected users. Relevant as well as important details will be given in the report.
2. Professional Ethics Perspectives
A popular and significant firm of data mining called Cambridge Analytica was eventually responsible
for the improper access of the data of several users of the most famous social networking site of
Facebook through the third party quiz application and hence has used all these data to build several
important psychological profiles for the purpose of targeting the voters with their political
advertisements (Badshah, 2018). This was done for their own benefit within business. A whistle
blower however leaked the news in public and thus the scandal came into vision for Facebook and
other respective users. The first and the most important perspective of the applied ethics is the
professional ethics perspective. The professional ethics mainly encompasses the typical personal as
well as corporate standard of behaviour, which is subsequently expected by several professionals.
These professionals as well as those people, who are allegedly working within the recognized
professions significantly, exercise the specialized skills and knowledge. This proper and perfect use
of the knowledge is then governed if any of the specific service will be given to the respective public
for the sole purpose to consider a respective moral issue and therefore is termed as the perspective
of professional ethics (Lacan, 2013). This important type of applied ethics perspective consists of all
the capabilities to take the various decisions, to make judgments, to reach to the significant
decisions within several situations and finally to apply the several skills.
The significant and important elements of the perspective of professional ethics are confidentiality,
honesty, integrity, accountability, loyalty, transparency, respect, objectivity and obedience to law.
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All of these typical elements help all the specific individuals for the identification of the few ethical
approaches. The specific implementation of this perspective of professional ethics is thus highly
needed for all the typical case studies. All of these kinds of ethical elements are solely responsible to
prevent each and every kind of exploitation for the respective client and even in the preservation of
the professional integrity (Crane & Matten, 2016). This particular perspective not only is responsible
for checking the advantages of their client, but even is responsible for helping for the advantages of
all those, who are solely attached to that specific profession.
This particular case study of data breaching in Facebook solely states that the personal data of about
87 millions of users were being hacked by a typical firm of data mining, known as Cambridge
Analytica for the core reason of their own few political advertisements. The social networking site of
Facebook was majorly responsible to save all the data or information of their users, as this is the
most utilized and famous social networking site within the world (Fromm, 2013). But, this particular
phenomenon did not take place and hence Facebook was not successful to save their data of the
users. Hence, according to the perspective of professional ethics of the applied ethics, this specific
case study related to ICT is completely unprofessional as well as unethical.
3. Philosophical Ethics Perspectives
The next important perspective of the applied ethics is called the philosophical ethics. This
particular perspective of philosophical ethics mainly concerns with the right or wrong, good
or evil for the conduct of the human beings (Frank, 2013). This type of philosophical ethics is
known as those projects, which attempt in utilizing the perfect reasoning to answer all the typical
types of ethical questions. These moral principles and ethics of all the typical groups, individuals as
well as traditions are being checked by the help of the perspective of philosophical ethics. This kind
of ethics subsequently is different from the personal, legal, religious and cultural approaches to the
ethics through easily seeking in conducting the complete study of ethics as well as morality through
the rational and secular outlooks. The main advantage of this philosophical approach to ethics can
be defined as that this particular approach subsequently avoids the perfect authoritarian basis of law
and religion and also the arbitrariness, subjectivity and irrationality to characterize the personal as
well as the cultural moral views. There are two specific traditions within the modern approach of
philosophical ethics about how the ethical character of action can be easily determined (Noddings,
2013). When any one is arguing that the actions comprises of no intrinsic ethical characters but also
acquires the respective moral status from each and every consequence, which flow from these. The
next respective tradition solely claims that the actions are intrinsically correct or incorrect, such as
stealing, lying, cheating and many others.
The entire case study of data breaching in Facebook subsequently talks regarding the
breaching of data of all the 87 millions of users in the entire world. The respective moral
virtues as well as the human activities in this case study were being completely shaken, when the
data mining firm of Cambridge Analytica accessed the information or data of the users of Facebook
(Nussbaum, 2013). Therefore, according to the philosophical ethics, the complete case study of the
data breaching of Facebook is completely unethical and absolutely non philosophical in nature.
4. Sociological/Descriptive Ethics Perspectives
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