Ethical Analysis of Data Collection: Harvesting Personalities Online

Running head: IT ETHICS
IT Ethics
Name of Student
Name of University
Author Note

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IT ETHICS
Topic: Data Collection: “Harvesting” Personalities Online
Introduction
Ethical analysis of a situation can be described as a systematic approach of figuring out
the morality of a particular situation (Lyons, 2015). The principal of ethical analysis certainly
encourages to form an accurate picture of a particular situation affecting the decisions. This
particular essay discusses the ethical issues associated with a particular case (Barrow, 2015). The
case study will be analyzed on the perspective of different ethical theories, which are
utilitarianism theory, deontology theory, the contract theory and ethical theory of virtue.
The chosen case argues about an ethical issue that is linked with collection of data about
the personalities of different individuals. As per the case, behavioral science insights are
considered for collection of the data related to the personality of an individual which in turn can
be used for tailoring the campaigns messages as per the personality of the recipients (University,
2019). The entire process of tailoring the campaign messages, is based on the principle of
making use of big data and data mining (University, 2019). Now, the question arises about the
assessment process of the personalities that are harvested. First of all, the harvesting of the data
without the knowledge of the users itself is unethical. In the following paragraphs, insight of the
chosen case is provided by analyzing the case on basis of the different theories of ethics.
1. Analysis of the case on basis of Utilitarianism
Prior to the analysis of the case on basis of the Utilitarianism theory, the key
characteristics of this ethical theory is needed to be identified. This theory is mainly described as
a normative ethical theory that analyses the ethical issue on basis of the outcome or consequence
of the actions (Mulgan, 2014). The outcome of a particular actions needs to be right to argue

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IT ETHICS
about the morality of a situation (Mill, 2016). The main principle of utilitarianism is that the
actions are right if the outcome of the same action promote happiness while the actions may not
be right if its outcome fails to promote happiness.
On judging the chosen case on basis of the theory, the outcomes of the case is identified
to be unethical (Woozley, 2016). This is because although the action of harvesting the data of the
people online provides an effective means of knowing an individual’s interest in an effective
manner, it is used for tailoring the campaigning messages, that too without the knowledge of the
individual and therefore, it cannot be expected that the action will promote happiness (Paquette,
Sommerfeldt & Kent, 2015). Utilitarianism is considered to be a form of consequentialism that
indicates that action’s morality is decided by the consequences of the action and therefore, this
particular ethical theory is considered to be a form of consequentialism (University, 2019).
The situation is unethical mainly because the process of personality harvesting that is
followed in a company is completely unethical. While collection of the data, the individuals are
not informed about the main motive behind collection of data that is targeting of the political
messages (University, 2019). This makes the entire situation unethical on basis of the theory of
Utilitarianism.
The chosen case is further analyzed on basis of deontological theory of ethics.
2. Analysis of the case on basis of Deontology
The deontological theory of ethics analyses a particular ethical behavior on basis of a
certain set of principles regardless of the outcome and thus, it can be said that this theory of
ethics is completely dependent on the actions and is not based on outcome of the action like that
of the utilitarianism theory (Herschel & Miori, 2017). It is being formulated that the theory of