Just Consequentialism: Integrating Ethics in Cyber Technology

This essay examines James Moor's just-consequentialist theory and its integration of utilitarian and deontological ethics. It begins by defining just consequentialism and explaining how it incorporates aspects of both utilitarianism, which focuses on maximizing overall good, and deontology, which emphasizes moral duties and rules. The essay then applies this theoretical framework to a contemporary moral issue in cyber technology: personal data privacy. It argues that the widespread exchange of data in the digital age poses a significant threat to individual privacy, potentially leading to unauthorized disclosure and misuse of personal information. Using the just-consequentialist lens, the essay emphasizes the importance of establishing ethical policies that balance the benefits of data sharing with the need to protect individual rights and prevent harm. The essay concludes by asserting that individuals also bear responsibility for securing their own data and taking precautions against unauthorized access.

Running head: THEORIES OF ETHICS
THEORIES OF ETHICS
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Author’s Note

1THEORIES OF ETHICS
How does "just-consequentialist" theory incorporate aspects of utilitarian and
deontological theories?
The computer as well as information ethics along with various other fields require
numerous ethical theories that usually unite consequentialism and deontological aspects of the
ethical analysis. James Moor had introduced four theories that fall under classical ethics which
include ends based thinking, the golden rule, Aristotle’s Golden Mean and rule based thinking.
Among these the theory of just consequentialism concentrates on the policies that are present
within the constraints of justice (Moor, 2017). This makes it a theoretical and practical approach
to various ethical problems of information ethics and computer. Utilitarian approach implies that
none of the moral acts or rules is right or wrong. The overall matter of right or wrong is the
matter of nonmoral good that is produced in consequences of doing the act or following the rule.
This matter has been incorporated in the consequentialist theory as well. The Deontological
consists of three features, these include duty must be done for the sake of duty, the right or
wrong of a specific act or rule is a usually a matter of moral features of that rule or act (Iqbal &
Maqbool, 2017). Acts like promise breaking, lying and murdering are wrong and hence should
not be committed. These principles of utilitarian and deontology consists in the theory of just
consequentialism,
A contemporary moral issue affecting cybertechnology
In terms of cyber technology, there are various ethical issues, the chosen aspect is
personal privacy, IT allows the exchange of data on a huge scale from anybody, on various
locations of the world. In this case, there are chances that the data might get disclosed which
might result in violating the violating privacy of a specific group or an individual (Tavani, 2017).

2THEORIES OF ETHICS
This is because of the widespread dissemination worldwide. This involves taking precautions for
protecting them from accidental disclosure and unauthorized access. This threat can prove be a
serious issue for an employee as well as organization as a whole. This issue might result in
hacking of the data by any cyber criminal, the hacking can be a consequence occurred by
external or internal sources. Setting the ethical policies for the purpose of securing data can be
compared to deciding a course at the time of sailing. Setting ethical policies in the field of IT
must be approximately precise. Providing the logical malleability of computing numerous
opportunities as well as expected developments would arise. According to the just-
consequentialist theory the data privacy must be maintained by everyone and no employee of
unauthorized user has the right to steal or get access to someone’s private data without their
permission. This approach combines the core values as well as consenquentialism and
deontological concepts (Al-Saggaf, 2015). This approach helps in developing a specific means to
potential remedy ethical issues which significantly involve computer networks and computer.
This theory also states that an individual himself is responsible for his data security. People must
take proper precautions in order to secure their data from unauthorized users or any other
external or internal sources.

3THEORIES OF ETHICS
References
Al-Saggaf, Y. (2015). The Use of Data Mining by Private Health Insurance Companies and
Customers’ Privacy: An Ethical Analysis. Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare
Ethics, 24(3), 281-292.
Iqbal, J., & Maqbool, B. (2017). Computer Ethics: Job of Computer Scientist. Int. J. Adv. Res.
Comput. Sci. Softw. Eng, 7(6).
Moor, J. H. (2017). What is computer ethics?. In Computer Ethics (pp. 31-40). Routledge.
Tavani, H. T. (2017). Incorporating a Critical Reasoning Component into the ICT–Ethics
Methodological Framework. ORBIT Journal, 1(2).