Ethics of Privacy: American Rights in the Workplace and Government

This essay explores the ethics of privacy, particularly focusing on the erosion of privacy rights in the American workplace and in relation to government oversight. It emphasizes the importance of privacy, security, and trust as interrelated concepts. The essay examines the constitutional basis for privacy rights in the United States, drawing from the First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments. It also discusses the severe consequences of identity theft and the increasing challenges of maintaining privacy in the digital age. Furthermore, the essay analyzes the ethical dilemmas surrounding privacy from utilitarian and deontological perspectives, concluding with suggestions for safeguarding privacy through education, legislation, and informed consumer choices. Desklib offers numerous resources for students including similar essays and study tools.

Running head: ETHICS OF PRIVACY
ETHICS OF PRIVACY
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1ETHICS OF PRIVACY
People are always considerate about privacy and when there is an option between privacy
and accountability. People always demand and need privacy for themselves (Benn, 2017). The
principle of balance needs to be abided by the societal values in order to maintain harmony and
stability of function. Protecting the privacy of personal information is a serious matter of concern
for various organisations. Inability to control such actions will lead to unavoidable and unwanted
consequences. Therefore, it comes under one of the basic ethics to prioritise confidentiality and
privacy regarding personal information. The paper aims to discuss the ethics of privacy
considering the example of American losing the right to privacy in the workplace or to the
government. The paper will aim to understand the ethics of privacy and explain the ways its
importance in the contemporary era in ensuring people their right to privacy.
Privacy, security and trust are intersecting and inter-related concepts as laws and ethics.
The reliance on privacy protection and security provisions are on trust and belief. According to
researches, more than 70 per cent of consumers are concerned regarding their personal
information disclosure (Klitou, 2014). There is always information that is provided by people to
different organisations for various purpose. However, this information is provided willingly
while there is information that specific organisations possess that are not shared willingly. Here
is the question about the right to privacy. Due to identity theft, people are constantly feeling an
insecure and at risk of losing their identity.
Rights to privacy is a concept in United States constitutional law and the law of torts. The
constitution of the United States does not protect privacy explicitly however the right is regarded
to be created during the First, Fourth and fifth amendments by certain provisions (Freund, 2017).
According to the Fourth amendments, any unreasonable searches are not allowed to be
performed. According to the First and Fifth include privacy protection that involves prioritizing

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individual’s freedom to be autonomous and not what government may do (Marks et al. 2015). It
was only the protection against tangible intrusions that may result from measurable injury
initially the aim of the right to protection. However, after the publication of an influential article
during 1890 the federal courts began to explore various constitutional principles. Today, it is
regarded the principles are regarded as constituents elements of a constitutional right to privacy.
It is one of the rights that comes into existence after several arguments and discussion. It is
important to understand that the term privacy is used to mean ‘right to be left alone’. It is the
right of a person to be free from any kind of unwarranted or unwanted publicity. This a right that
let people live without any unwarranted interference by the public in matters that are of no
concern to the public.
The specific issues that interests
With the above discussion, it can be perceived the concept of the right to privacy.
However, the importance of the right to privacy is still a question of concern in several nations.
The significance of privacy is not realised until it is faced with critical situations. Any person
who has been a victim of identity theft will certainly know the value of privacy. Lost or theft of
identity may cost years or months of dealing with harassment leading to various consequences.
Police, debt collectors, credit bureaus and government agencies. The sever situation of lost
identity may become a victim of stalking and harassment, and there may not be any place that
can be considered safe for them. This is a common and unavoidable situation, where it has
become hard not to leave electronic footprints. Any web-savvy has the possibility of finding the
source and use it in own personal way.
Often lost privacy also means that personal information is being used by marketers. The
personal information is collected, analysed and shared by the employers, marketers, insurance

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companies and government without the person’s consent or knowledge. Learning the fact that
privacy has been compromised is often understood when a person is rejected on the basis of
online information that was not shared with the company or when a person is sought for certain
criteria which was not disclosed by him beforehand.
Apart from the common causes, the bigger consequences may lead to terrorism or
performance of illegal work with the name of someone innocent. The risk of losing personal
information are mainly through donating to charity, visiting the doctor’s office, joining a gym,
surfing the internet, paying montage, shop pining online, visiting a restaurant and many more.
Positions taken on the ethical issues
Although it is one of the most cherished rights in any civilised society, there is certainly
concern regarding the absolute right to privacy. With the technological revolution, the concern
for privacy has only become more significant than any time in the past. Information today are
produced at an extreme pace and utilised in various ways by various organisations. Therefore,
there is a certain risk associated with not knowing an individual’s personal data. It is severely
hard to recognise the intention of people across the globe. The government needs to be
concerned regarding the consequences and the results (Tate, Johnstone & Fielt, 2017). The
attempt to invade privacy is a process of supporting the bigger picture involving the safety of the
nation as well as society. The definition of ‘personal data’ has been redefined in the era of
technology. Social media, online transactions and browsing data provide several information that
can be misused for criminal purposes and to monitor the acts there is a need for invading
personal data of every computer across the globe. The current laws on privacy are not at par with
the growing development in technology.

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Ethics of privacy:
Invasion of privacy is often discussed, and it is discussed with every other related aspect.
One of the elements that are widely connected to the topic of Rights to a discussion is ethics.
When considered with ethical theories, it is certainly wrong to invade people’s information
(Harriss & Atkinson, 2015). However, it is important to analyse the entire situation from the
perspective of theories that are based on ethics.
Utilitarian ethics can be defined as the greatest good for the greatest number of people.
The theory of utilitarian ethics can be applied while making decisions (Al-Aidaros et al., 2013).
Applying utilitarian theory while making a decision is to consider choosing to benefit the
majority. Therefore, following the theory of utilitarian, it can be stated that there is a need for
monitoring personal data in order to ensure safety. In this process, however, it should have
several limitations and benefits. The right to invade privacy should only be given to the
authorized people.
According to deontological ethics, every person deserves to be treated with dignity and
respect. People need to identify an individual’s duty and act accordingly (Bowen, 2013).
Considering the fact of the right to privacy from the perspective of deontological ethics, the
decision is non-ethical as people are not treated with dignity. There is a question that rises on
personal space and privacy through the concept of deontological ethics.
The violation of a right is an issue that is wide and vast needing acute analysis. The
situation is versatile in a different situation. As mentioned above, the definition of privacy has
been redefined. Therefore, it is difficult to categorise privacy in order to provide dignity as well
as safety. However, there can be some helpful suggestions that would make defending rights to

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privacy. Firstly, education should be the priority. The most important thing people can do in
order to protect privacy is to educate self. Supporting legislation that would defend privacy is
one of the legal ways of making a change. Ensuring votes to the legislation that defend privacy
would help in the protection of privacy. Avoiding companies that have poor practices is
important to avoid the unnecessary spread of information. Therefore, vital work is to understand
the places where information is disclosed or shared.
Conclusion:
Privacy is an internationally recognised human right present and protected by law in
almost all the countries that possess democracy. Personal information is much more than a name,
address and phone number. The personal information involves habits such as shopping habits,
driving record, medical diagnoses, credit score, work history and many more. The right to
privacy is to have control over the personal information. When access to personal information is
limited, it is called information is kept. Ethics play an important role while making decisions
about human rights. With different theories, several perspectives are achieved. Due to a change
in the definition of privacy, the rights need to be analysed appropriately. It is important to
segregate different privacy aspects in order to understand the information that is ethical to access
and information that is unethical to access.

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References:
Al-Aidaros, A. H., Shamsudin, F. M., & Idris, K. M. (2013). Ethics and ethical theories from an
Islamic perspective. International Journal of Islamic Thought, 4, 1.
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Bowen, S. A. (2013). Using classic social media cases to distill ethical guidelines for digital
engagement. Journal of Mass Media Ethics, 28(2), 119-133.
Freund, P. A. (2017). Privacy: one concept or many. In Privacy and Personality (pp. 182-198).
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Harriss, D. J., & Atkinson, G. (2015). Ethical standards in sport and exercise science research:
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