Impacts of ICT and Internet and Ethical Issues

This article discusses the positive and negative impacts of ICT and the internet on society, business, and culture. It also highlights the ethical issues surrounding the use of ICT and the role of computer professionals in ensuring ethical use of ICT in the future.

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IMPACTS OF ICT AND INTERNET AND ETHICAL ISSUES
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Information technology (IT) referrers to the development, maintenance, and the use of
computer systems, networks and software to store, manipulate, and retrieve data or information
(Eason 2014). Information commutation technology may be used synonymously with IT but it
encompasses a broader perspective of all communication devices (McLoughlin 2011), therefore,
IT can be viewed as a subset of ICT. Internet refers to the global interconnection of computer
networks through transmission control protocols and internet protocols (Newton 2011). It
enables decentralized users to communicate and share data/information.
POSITIVE IMPACTS OF ICT
Ease of communication: through the use of ICT and the internet, people can now easily
and conveniently communicate all over the world through the use of mediums such as messaging
applications, video calling applications, and online teleconferencing technologies (Yus 2011).
This has highly promoted the rate at which information and ideas are shared since the internet
provides speed convenience (Wang et al. 2014). Businesses have used this opportunity to
harmonize the operations of their branches (Gernsbacher 2014), while the society has used this to
turn the world into a global village. Ease of communication has led to the integration of different
cultures and has highly promoted social cohesion.
Improved access to education: adoption of ICT and the internet in the education sector,
has made it easy for the larger part of the society to gain access to education. This is made
possible through technologies such as; electronic learning (e-learning) which facilitates learning
to students who cannot access institutions of learning on a daily basis (Moore, Dickson-Deane,
and Galyen 2011), education databases which store scholarly articles, and electronic books and
journals that guide students in research and learning (Picciano 2012). This has highly promoted
the literacy levels in the society, thus resulting in a stronger workforce for the businesses
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(Livingstone 2012). It has also reduced the cost of education since some education databases
provides free educational materials.
Improved finance management and banking experience: the banking sector has been
revolutionized by the use of ICT and the internet by adopting convenient and easy ways of
banking (Sarma, Subramanyam, and Pramod 2013). These include: use of distributed
information systems to replicate customer’s data in all the branches thus making it easy for a
customer to withdraw or deposit money at any branch, use of mobile banking which facilitates
remote banking (Lin 2011), use of online banking applications which make it easy for business
and the society in general to monitor their banking transactions, electronic fund transfer and
online payment systems which make it easy for people and businesses to transact globally
(Fleishman and Fuerstenberg 2010). The above technologies have promoted the saving and
investing culture.
Increased data security: data is considered to be a strategic resource to any business
organization since good quality data can give the business a competitive advantage. The
Introduction of ICT and the internet has provided a secure way of storing data in databases which
require high-level security measures such as biometrics to retrieve the data (Li, Lou, and Ren
2010). Also, data transmission has been secured through encryption thus preventing data from
unauthorized access (Hayden 2010). Technologies such as blockchain have also made it possible
for people to have full control over their information and data. Cloud computing has also
provided an easy way to store data and to access the same data even from a remote location
(Chen and Zhao 2012).
Convenient shopping methods: ICT and the internet have changed the business model
from the traditional shop stores to the current electronic commerce model. This has made it
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possible for the society to easily buy the goods that they need at the comfort of their homes
(Laudon Traver 2013and), thus reducing on traveling cost and time. It has provided the
businesses with an opportunity to sell their products to a larger global market without any
geographical restrictions (Huang and Benyoucef 2013). E-commerce has enabled small business
to compete in the same market with big business thus providing an opportunity for business
growth (Kassim and Asiah Abdullah 2010). It has also lead to the establishment of logistic
companies that deliver products to customers, thus creating employment opportunities.
NEGATIVE IMPACTS OF ICT ON THE SOCIETY, BUSINESS, AND CULTURE
Digital divide: it refers to a gap that exists between people who have good access to
modern information technologies and those who have no or limited access to the same
technologies (Shirazi, Ngwenyama, and Morawczynski 2010). As ICT keeps on evolving the
digital divide keeps on increasing thus leaving some members of the society behind. The major
victims of the digital divide are the less developed countries. The leaders in technological
innovation may use the digital divide to discriminate against people who have less access to
technology (Doong and Ho 2012). It also prevents global businesses which use technology to run
their operations from investing in the countries with less technology penetration (Kassim and
Asiah Abdullah 2010).
Reduced personal interactions: The use of ICT platforms such as social media has created
virtual societies (Yu, Duan, and Cao 2013). This makes people lose physical interactions with
the physical and real society since they are so much addicted to social media. Lack of physical
interactions has resulted in less collaboration and teamwork even in the workplace, thus reducing
the productivity of a business (Cardona, Kretschmer, and Strobel 2013). Online buying has also
limited the buyer versus seller relationship since they do not physically meet. This reduces
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customer retention capacities of a business because there is no room for solving problems related
to the products delivered to the customers (Laudon Traver 2013and).
Increased misinformation and deception: the internet provides the fastest means of
transmitting information all over the world within a short period of time (Wang et al. 2014).
However, this capability has been misused by people to transmit deceiving information with an
aim of creating a rivalry, or defamation (McLoughlin 2011). Such information can injure the
image of a business and highly affect its market share, thus reducing profitability and future
investments. At the society level, deceiving information can result in territorial wars, political
violence, and religious conflicts among others, since the society has no way of differentiating
between real and deceptive information (Newton 2011).
Loss of jobs: the adoption of ICT in business operations has resulted to job loss due to;
automation of major business process thus reducing the need for human capital (Cardona,
Kretschmer, and Strobel 2013), use of robots to perform tasks which were previously being done
by human beings, use of artificial intelligence technology and internet of things (Lee and Lee
2015). This has both economic and social consequence since it affects the financial status and
social status of the people who lose their jobs. For example since the adoption of mobile
banking, many financial institutions have laid-off almost half of their staff (Lin 2011). Loss of
jobs increases the unemployment rate of any country, thus reducing the buying ability of the
citizens, consequently reducing the business sales.
Unethical use of technology: this involves cybercrimes such as masquerading,
cyberbullying, data alteration, and penetration into unauthorized systems (Kim, Kim, and Lee
2014). Such crimes may affect a business through loss of critical information such as transaction
details. The main targets for such kind of crimes are financial institutions (Rogerson 2011). The
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other unethical issue is workplace monitoring which infringes on the personal privacy of the
concerned employees (Markus and Mentzer, 2014). This violates the rights of the employees and
it may demoralize them from working efficiently, thus resulting in reduced productivity. The
unethical use of ICT can be viewed as the major negative impact of ICT and the internet to the
society.
ROLE OF COMPUTER PROFESSIONALS IN ENSURING THE ETHICAL USE OF ICT IN
THE FUTURE
Preventing unauthorized access to data: computer professionals have to come up with
reliable security measures that will protect data from eavesdropping, alteration and unauthorized
use. This may involve improving the encryption methods to incorporate both private and public
keys in order to protect data which is being transmitted in a channel (Hayden 2010), securing
databases with advanced security systems (Eason 2014), replication or backing-up of data into a
remote server, adopting advanced internet protocol addressing to protect both wide area
networks and local area networks (Chen and Zhao 2012). If both the channel and the data stores
are protected, then hackers will not be in a position to gain access to the organization's data.
Promoting privacy and rights: the use of ICT and the internet has highly promoted the
infringing of personal privacy especially at the workplace. Computer professionals will have to
review the monitoring techniques being used in their respective organizations in order to ensure
that they uphold personal privacy (McLoughlin 2011), and they conform to the set standards
(Markus and Mentzer, 2014). Also, the computer professionals have to protect the personal
information of other workers from being exposed to the outside world without their consent
through access rights (Li, Lou, and Ren 2010).
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Upholding copyright and patent protection laws: computer professionals have to keep
themselves up-to-date with the copyright and patent protection laws so that they can be in the
frontline of following them in their organizations and the society in general (Kim, Kim, and Lee
2014). They have to train the society about the copyright laws in order to minimize piracy and
promote innovation and talent in the society (Walter and von Lewinski 2010). This may involve
assisting the members of the society and the organizations they work in, to acquiring intellectual
property rights (Cardona, Kretschmer, and Strobel 2013).
Continues innovation: some unethical issues in ICT and the internet can only be solved
through continues innovation in order to minimize such loopholes (Yus 2011). Through
innovation, the computer professionals will be able to develop technologies which will require
all the users to comply with the ethical standards in order to effectively use the technology
(Rogerson 2011). For example, the adoption of blockchain technology has highly reduced data
corruption since data is not located at a central point (Pilkington 2016).
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