SCHOOL OF COMPUTING: Assignment 4 - Ethical Theory of Apps and Privacy

This essay, submitted by a student at Charles Sturt University, analyzes a case study concerning the ethical implications of data privacy within social networking applications, specifically focusing on the Path application's practices. The essay explores the application of four classical ethical theories: utilitarianism, deontology, virtue theory, and contract theory, to evaluate the actions of the application. The analysis examines how each theory, with its unique principles, assesses the ethical nature of Path's data handling, particularly the collection of user contact lists without explicit consent. The essay provides well-reasoned arguments, drawing on existing research and the student's prior argument visualization, to justify the conclusions about the ethical standing of the application's actions, and includes a detailed reference list. The student's work provides a comprehensive overview of the ethical challenges in data privacy and app development.