Privacy and Ethical Theories Essay

This essay examines the ethical implications of privacy in the context of an article predicting a 'tipping point' for privacy concerns in 2016. It analyzes the article's central arguments regarding the increasing concerns about online privacy and the growing demand for stronger data protection. The core of the essay lies in its application of four classical ethical theories – utilitarianism, deontology, virtue ethics, and social contract theory – to the issue of privacy. Each theory is discussed in detail, explaining its principles and how it relates to the ethical challenges posed by data collection, storage, and usage by organizations. The essay also explores the importance of privacy as a fundamental value in a free society, contrasting it with the increasing prevalence of surveillance in both public and private spheres. Finally, it offers recommendations for addressing the ethical dilemmas surrounding privacy in the digital age, suggesting the need for value-sensitive design in IT systems to better account for ethical considerations. The conclusion emphasizes the moral right to privacy and the ongoing need for critical review of ethical challenges in this domain.

RUNNING HEAD: PRIVACY WILL HIT TIPPING POINT IN 2016 1
PRIVACY WILL HIT TIPPING POINT IN 2016
Student Name
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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Analyses of the article.....................................................................................................................3
Four classical ethical theories..........................................................................................................3
Utilitarianism...................................................................................................................................3
Deontology......................................................................................................................................4
Virtue...............................................................................................................................................4
Contract............................................................................................................................................5
Why privacy is important?...............................................................................................................5
Recommendation.............................................................................................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6
Reference.........................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
The report will discuss in detail about the four classical ethical theories in connection with an
article base on privacy which is expected get a major hit in the coming years. It is vital to
understand that business and ethics has been perceived as the belief and it is important to have
perspective for it (Magelssen et al, 2016). Therefore, it is vital to consider an ethical issue from
different perspective as discussed in the report.
Analyses of the article
The article chosen is:
http://www.cnbc.com/2015/11/09/privacy-will-hit-tipping-point-in-2016.html
The privacy on the internet has taken a drastic transformation and there are major concerns about
it with constant regulators that are cracking down the organizations. Customers are well aware of
the situation and further demanding great level of protection for the same. Organizations that
collect, save and utilize data of consumers are at high risk of getting hacked and constant
supervision become mandatory (Jacobs, 2016). It is also important to understand here that
customers take decision on prioritizing the privacy over comfort and it is actually becoming an
attitude.
Four classical ethical theories
Utilitarianism
The concept or the perspective of utilitarianism is based on ethics which are proper aligned with
the economics as well as free market outlook that is constantly dominating the present thought

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process about the management and economics. The concept has aimed on considering the
outcomes and not rules. Any action is considered good or sometime right when it has the
capacity to increase the level of happiness and pleasure in the society (Stanton et al, 2016). The
privacy concerns are becoming a challenge from quite some time now. People and organizations
are suffering because of that and it is has become crucial to practice this perspective on personal
as well as business level.
Deontology
This perspective is a complete opposite of what utilitarian approach. The deontological opinion
is based on the fact that moral intents are crucial and it is important to have the set of right rules
which will pave a desired path in ethics and accomplishing the desired outcome. The approach
also says ethical actions are the result of conducting duty and duties can also be defined by
number of rational level of thought process (Zhang et al, 2016). The common belief is that the
outcome of ethical outcome actually arises from doing the duty mentioned as per the rational
level of thoughts. Right to privacy is a moral right of people and businesses are expected to take
all important actions to save it.
Virtue
Theory of virtue has accomplished increased focus in past two decades, specifically in complete
contrast to utilitarian and deontological approached to ethics. The theory mainly focuses on the
importance of value and set of virtuous qualities instead of formal set of rules and important
outcomes. The theory also says the first thing to promote the concept of ethical values based on
specific qualities or any kind of virtue is primarily related to the character of an individual. The

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main goal of the existence of a human being is very active and as per the rational search for high
level of excellence (Hurst, 2015). The level of excellence needs some kind personal level of
virtues based on the honesty, courage and high level of mindedness. The overall pursuit is based
on knowledge associated with the good.
Contract
There is a school of thought where specific group of people questions the public good and
usually questions on why there is a requirement for any public goods and also questions the
existence of the government. There are arguments like the existence of government will be
related to no corporations. It is also believed that different set of people as a part of state of
nature will choose on rational basis to have some kind of government (West & Bowman, 2016).
This can be termed as social contract since people are willfully giving up certain kind of right to
body of government in complete exchange for common advantages and security. In the lives of
people, it will often be seen as constant struggle to strike a balance that exist between desires of
human for the sake of freedom as well as human needs for orders.
Why privacy is important?
The concept of privacy is actually a value in the modern day that with agree to an ideal of free
thinking people who can act as and when they want and further decide their destiny accordingly.
However, the modern communities and it can be characterized with the help of surveillance and
an act that focus to underestimate the level of privacy. The concept of surveillance is based on
systematic patterns observed of people with particular needs, normally with the goal of pushing
some kind of impact over them (Trevino & Nelson, 2016). It has also been argued that the

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concept of surveillance has been a crucial and vital part of modern day reality. The state is also
based on constant surveillance to save national level security and in order to fight crime and the
modern world companies usually get involved in surveillance in the workplace in order to retain
more and more control on the workforce. The concept of computerization and use of social
media has been intensified from quite some time now and there is increase in the level of scale
with ease as well as speed. The concept of surveillance is specifically delegated to computer that
assists in collection, process as well as exchanges the data. The computers and social networking
site has not only transformed the level of scale as well as speed at which surveillance (Wright et
al, 2014). There are new kinds of possibility for surveillance and data based surveillance that is
large in scale and comes with collection as well as processing of data at personal level to
supervise the action of people.
Recommendation
Ethical level analysis based on security concerns and privacy based challenges in computing can
assist the professional as well as consumers to identify and solve the confusion that can help in
yielding ethical based guidelines for the sake of usage of IT. Moreover, it has been identified that
computer ethics can be used with information system needing some kind of reflection based on
morals. Any system for instance is designed to save the privacy, however it can be further
developed to provide free access to personal data to another parties (Salloch et al, 2015). It is
important here to have a value sensitive model which can be an approach to develop a system in
IT that tries to account for more values in a structured and principled manner.
Conclusion

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The concept of privacy is now moral right of people. Privacy is crucial and discussed widely in
report and the manner in which impacted by IT and social networking sites. There are number of
ethical challenges in privacy and it must be reviewed constantly (Horty, 2014). Security and
privacy in not a based for correlated rights as well as interests so it is therefore important to
maintain security in order to save all associated rights as well as interests.

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Reference
Horty, J. (2014). Deontic Modals: Why Abandon the Classical Semantics?. Pacific Philosophical
Quarterly, 95(4), 424-460.
Hurst, C. E. (2015). Living theory: The application of classical social theory to contemporary
life. Routledge.
Jacobs, B. B. (2016). Respect for human dignity in nursing: Philosophical and practical
perspectives. Canadian Journal of Nursing Research Archive, 32(2).
Magelssen, M., Pedersen, R., & Førde, R. (2016). Four roles of ethical theory in clinical ethics
consultation. The American Journal of Bioethics, 16(9), 26-33.
Salloch, S., Wäscher, S., Vollmann, J., & Schildmann, J. (2015). The normative background of
empirical-ethical research: first steps towards a transparent and reasoned approach in the
selection of an ethical theory. BMC medical ethics, 16(1), 20.
Stanton, S. J., Sinnott-Armstrong, W., & Huettel, S. A. (2016). Neuromarketing: Ethical
implications of its use and potential misuse. Journal of Business Ethics, 1-13.
Trevino, L. K., & Nelson, K. A. (2016). Managing business ethics: Straight talk about how to do
it right. John Wiley & Sons.
West, J. P., & Bowman, J. S. (2016). Electronic surveillance at work: An ethical
analysis. Administration & Society, 48(5), 628-651.

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Wright, D., Finn, R., Gellert, R., Gutwirth, S., Schütz, P., Friedewald, M., ... & Mordini, E.
(2014). Ethical dilemma scenarios and emerging technologies. Technological
Forecasting and Social Change, 87, 325-336.
Zhang, M. W., Harris, K. M., & Ho, R. C. (2016). Is off-label repeat prescription of ketamine as
a rapid antidepressant safe? Controversies, ethical concerns, and legal implications. BMC
medical ethics, 17(1), 4.