Ethical Issues in the IT Industry: A Case Study

Running head: SOCIAL AND PROFESSIONAL ISSUES
Social and Professional Issues
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1SOCIAL AND PROFESSIONAL ISSUES
Introduction
The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the ethical issues within the IT industry. The
concern that surrounds this scenario regarding the case study is centered with Sophie Ryder. The
person that will be talked of in this paper is a self-developed IT consultant. Sophie has been hired
by Firestone Associates because of her expertise in her skills in the IT industry. The
complications regarding the use of normative ethical theories into this scenario will be discussed
here. The new marketing database Reaper is the main talking point for this issue. The use of
ethical decision model and other factors will be discussed in the light of the situations that have
arisen in this concern (Mitonga-Monga, Flotman & Cilliers, 2016). Some of the central
characters of this case study are Sophie, Richard, Alex and others. The issues will be discussed
and the steps taken by characters to mitigate the issues will also be highlighted as well.
Ethical issues
The part 1 of the case study illustrated the scenario of Sophie who has been employed as
the development consultant in the Firestone + Associates for the aim of the provision of the
technical consultancy regarding the development of the new database of the marketing namely,
the reaper.
Analysis of the situation
In the above stated business environment, the challenges and the issues including the justice,
fairness and the honesty re some of the man factors contributing to the complex dilemma to the
business. The case study deals revolves around the new and the innovative marketing database,
the reaper which is an integrated demographic database with the web front end for the gathering
of the information like age, occupation, hobbies, annual income from the individual who will be

2SOCIAL AND PROFESSIONAL ISSUES
entering the competition for the chance of winning attractive prizes and hampers like holiday
packages and cars.
The issues concerning the informed consent were stated in the meeting by Sophie to the
directors and the manager of Firestone many times. This is because as per the meeting details
and the suggestion by the directors and the mangers , the people will be filling up the data sheet
with all their personal details just for the attraction of the holiday trips and gifts and these data
will be furthermore be used in commercial purposes. Though the mid-sized advertising agency
has been initiating this new and the innovative data base development, it is seemed from the case
that the their initiatives re not following the ethical and the moral principles of the business.
These actions and intentions are not merged with the honesty, protection of the confidential data
and the gathering of the consent from the people foe using their data for further purposes.
View of the main characters
Sophie Ryder is the development consultant who has been hired by the Firestone Company for
the development and the operation of Reaper. This data base is aimed to be the leverage the
technology of the web for adding to the existing data base of the company. 58 year of Richard is
the co-founder and the senior partner of the company who have ambitious plans for the company
to become one of the major list broker that sells the demographic data to the clients who wants to
use in commercial and marketing services. According to Richard, their new and the innovative
invention reaper will be beneficial for those who aims their marketing in a targeted manner.
Alex McLaren is the manager of the project of Reaper. Though he seems to be optimistic and
supportive Richard, his intentions furthermore do not match the ethical and the moral guidelines
of employees of a business organization. This is because, irrespective of the cause of the

3SOCIAL AND PROFESSIONAL ISSUES
confidentiality and the agreement of the non disclosure of the data or the information regarding
the reaper, Alex took the back up of the copy of the reaper in the aim of fulfilling his own interst
of making a change and starting his own agency with the cost of the high intrinsic value of the
Reaper in this competitive market.
Ethical theories
The theoretical explanation that can be illustrated in this context is the normative ethical
theory. The normative ethics is the attempt towards the provision of the general theory that tells
an individual how one ought to live (Yazdani&Murad, 2015). In the context of the gathering of
the demographic data of the people and selling them off, this virtual theory under the normative
ethics will not be merge with the situation due to the lack of honesty and integrity in Richard and
Alex sine they do not prefer to inform the people that their details will be used without their
consent in commercial purposes. The consequentialist theory targets the actions done by all the
members or the individuals who were involved with the development and the implementation of
the reaper in the market. Richard, Alex and Sophie did not do fair and their actions were bad as
per the consequentialist theory under the normative ethics. This is because the disclose of the
data regarding the list of people in greater Brisbane area indicating the lifestyle interest of
LGBTQ by the Reaper to the Moral Guardians of Australia, threatened to series of bashings of
the gay men in greater Brisbane. As per the normative ethical theories and its principles, the
following can be stated.