Information Ethics and Management: Privacy in the Digital Age Essay

This essay delves into the assertion that privacy is virtually non-existent in contemporary society, examining the multifaceted dimensions of social privacy in the digital age. It begins by defining privacy and then explores the impact of technology, particularly the internet and social media, on personal information. The essay discusses the social value of privacy, referencing various authors' perspectives, and analyzes how IT systems, including cloud computing, pose challenges to data security and individual autonomy. It highlights the implications of data breaches and government surveillance, emphasizing the trade-offs between convenience and privacy. The essay concludes by predicting a future where privacy is further diminished, driven by the collection and utilization of personal data by large corporations and the government, underscoring the need for proactive measures to safeguard individual privacy in the digital realm. The essay highlights the importance of information ethics and management in this context.

Running Head: Information Ethics and Management
Information Ethics and Management
Privacy does not really exist in today’s society

Information Ethics and Management 1
Abstract
This essay argues in favor of the statement “Privacy does not really exist in today’s society “. In
the following essay, a short overview of the various ways has been conceptualized about the
dimensions of social privacy in today’s world.

Information Ethics and Management 2
Privacy can be defined as the skill of the person or a group for stopping then information about
oneself that can become known to people than those whom they given information to.
Technology is such a modern thing in today’s world such a internet and social media (Tan et al.,
2012). Internet has a huge range of the applications which keep on taking a person through one
or the other. It consists of the blogs, video sites like You Tube etc. Since internet is such a huge
thing, privacy becomes almost impossible to get. Internet has become the part of everyone’s life
these days. Many people have used it replace things like the journals have become blogs these
days etc.
Information security and privacy of the data is an issue these days. This is given so much
importance within organizations which work globally and precisely in the environment which is
marked by the computer virus and terrorist attacks, hacks and vital data destruction which owes
to the natural disaster. This trend is developing across the whole world of the outsourcing of the
processes and the IT services to remote locations, leading to placing of the valuable data and
information infrastructure for service providers (Timm & Duven, 2008).
Social Value of Privacy
There are many authors who have conceptualized social value of privacy. Out of those authors,
one author named Priscilla Regan argued that privacy should be valued by and for the individual
and also by the society in general. Privacy is the value which is common for all the individuals
and they also value a little degree of privacy always. In the similar way, privacy also is a value of
public in which the value not just for any person or public on the whole but to political system on
the whole. This is speedily becoming a joint value in technology of the market are creating it
even harder for all individuals without people having similar minimum level of privacy
(Papacharissi & Fernback, 2005).
There are many such arguments done by the authors in which they focus on the social value of
the privacy. Daniel Solove said that with the understanding of the privacy that is being shaped by
the norms of the society, people can see better as to why privacy must not be taken solely as the
individual right rather than it should protect the person because of the benefits it gives to the
society (Roessler & Mokrosinska, 2013) .
Impact of IT on Privacy

Information Ethics and Management 3
IT is the automated system which stored processes and distributes the information. Generally, it
consists of the usage of the computers and networks of communication. The data which is stored
in the system always depends on the technology which is used in doing that. Storage of the data
is evolving with the space that is created and the internet which is everywhere today. Such rapid
changes are increasing the desire for consideration of the efforts. The focus is now developing on
the connectivity and interaction. As physical space is going less and becoming less significant,
data is omnipresent and the relations in the society are adopted as well (Almeida, 2012).
As privacy is defined with respect to the ethical reasons for striking constraints on right to use or
use of personal information, the increased creativity imposed by IT poses many questions. If
taken in the descriptive way, the access is increased which normatively needs the considerations
of the desire of this type of the development and monitoring of the potential for regulation by the
institutions of the technology and law (Matutina, 2014).
As the communication between people due to connectivity, the access of the information also
increases which then increase the new sources of the information. When these resources involve
the private data the risk of damage increases. There can be inequality, discrimination and loss of
autonomy. The clear example of this can be the enemies of certain people or individual have less
problem in finding out who the person is etc. However, technology operates on the device level,
IT involves a complicated system of socio technological practices and the framework of usage of
the makes the base for the discussion of its role in the altering possibilities for the access of the
information and hence, impacting privacy (Aïmeur et al., 2013).
Since technology increases day after day, there has been a recent development in the technology
again in terms of keeping the data on the cloud. This technology is known as cloud computing.
As cloud computing increases, the threat to private data also increases. Earlier when the
information would be on web, the data and programs would be saved locally which prevents the
program vendors from having access to data and usage (Thierer, 2013). In this technology, both
the programs and the data is online i.e. on cloud and it is unclear as to what user created and
system generated information are used and for what. In addition to this, as data is placed
somewhere else across the world, it is not clear which law is apt and applicable and as to which
authorities demands access to the data. The big concern is for the data which is gathered online

Information Ethics and Management 4
from the search engines and games etc. In general words, IT services have various privacy
obstacles that any of the IT product (Platostanford, 2014).
In September 2017, there were 145 million US citizens who found out that they become the
victims of the data breaches which are considered to be the biggest in the history when the credit
rating Equifax was hacked. The birth dates, phone numbers etc are easily hacked these days
(BBC, 2017).
Though, technology has created a lot of conveniences for the people, but it is unclear as to why
these conveniences should come at the cost of the privacy that a person has. There should always
be control in the information that people are giving outside. It is technically and financially easy
for organizations and governments to have the collection of the stored records of all the
activities, records that never would have existed in the Past. This data comes in the gathered
information of the mobile phone numbers, social media etc. And as the technology keeps on
growing day after day, it will only increase (Rubinstein, 2013).
Naked on the net
Svea Eckert, an investigator reporter for Germany broadcaster decided to make a fake name of
the company and set it and create its website. Her goal was to gather the data of the detailed
information which shows the web pages visits done by the individual, offers for sale by the
companies which gather data about people’s usage of the internet (Romansky, 2014). At the end
of the month of work she did, she was able to gather the data of 20 people who were all on high
profiles working for elite organization. The other types of data were investigated about those 20
people who had visited that fake company site. The URL’s pointed to the investigation in which
there were senior executive’s all sorts of financial record involved, daily websites which were
viewed by a judge was there and the history of browsing which were viewed by the politicians
also existed. The people whose data was taken out were shocked when they were shown this
data. This data was made available as the people used browser plug in their laptops or other
systems (Ohm, 2012).
The investigator said that it was not legal to sell the data but there was no action taken against
the company selling it. She was also concerned with the fact that the small marketing companies

Information Ethics and Management 5
sell this type of data which is sensitive but might not have had the money to save it from the
wealthy organizations for the protection of the hackers (Moore, 2008).
Future with Less data
The head of Privacy International, Gus Hosein says that the process which is occurring from the
past one or two years is been that some of the organizations now have taken privacy seriously
these days. The below waterline is disappointing though, as what own can see, a few
corporations have doubles down or tripled down the extent to which they grab data and do things
with that particular data without ever being able to observe. There is a limit to the behavior of the
individual when it comes to achieving the privacy online. Every move on Facebook and Google
or any other huge companies have been taking, is a result of the regulatory pressure. Most of the
companies which work in technologies in United States have prevented regulations from
becoming compulsory. This is done by the lobbyists.
People who carry off the campaigns for privacy worry that people will become desensitized and
will become fairly resigned with the truth that yes, the data is gathered and yes, it is not safe and
also agree to the fact that any criminal can access any type of data he wants.
Prediction of the future
Facebook and Google like companies are always supported with the large amount of the data
online as they are one of huge companies with millions and millions of users. Many are the
companies which uses the personal information of the users as well. This means that the users
have very little privacy today. Information is considered to be the currency of the digital age. It is
going to get worse only. The fact is confusing that people go away with the personal information
voluntarily on most of the occasions (Nissenbaum, 2011).
Social networking sites are being used frequently. This is one of the major factors when it comes
to the privacy of the data. People spend time from few minutes to hours on the internet everyday
such as Facebook or Google. When it comes to the world which is more connected, data quite
easily is available. The number of users will increase and so will the social networking sites will
be bound to increase in cycles.

Information Ethics and Management 6
In the government surveillance by Edward Snowden, it was said that many people speculated
that the government all over the world keeps a keen eye on t heir citizens. This eye is kept on the
reason of security but it becomes tough to draw a line as to how much should it be monitored.
Although it is said that it is national security but there is not any secret that it always takes away
any hint of privacy for the users.
Privacy is being violated when it comes to the big firms and all the individuals who are linked
with such firms are also facing the similar issue. Still the usage of the internet is the same.
Example: Everyone knows that Google keeps the detailed profiles for each one which is based
on the search history. This takes away the privacy of the people but also gives out the results
which are personalized. In spite the presence of the privacy, supporting search engines like Duck
Duck Go, people yet use Google widely as they get better search results. People let go of the
privacy easily if the little bit of the convenience is provided to them (Wildemuth, 2006).
This is hardly a difficult thing to predict. Even today, it’s almost impossible to use the internet
and be completely anonymous. Some sort of digital footprint is left on the internet which can be
traced back to you. The only way that one can have privacy is to refrain from using the internet
at all and stay off the grid. The defense of privacy will be the savior of the future, essentially.

Information Ethics and Management 7
References
Aïmeur, E., Brassard, G. & Rioux, J., 2013. Data Privacy: An End-User Perspective.
International Journal of Computer Networks and Communications Security, 1(6), pp.237-50.
Almeida, F., 2012. Web 2.0 Technologies and Social Networking Security Fears in Enterprises.
International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications, 3(2).
BBC, 2017. Is privacy dead in an online world? [Online] Available at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-41483723 [Accessed 21 May1 2018].
Matutina, D., 2014. The death of privacy. [Online] Available at:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/03/internet-death-privacy-google-facebook-alex-
preston [Accessed 21 May 2018].
Moore, A., 2008. Defining Privacy. JOURNAL of SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY, 39(3), pp.411-28.
Nissenbaum, H., 2011. A Contextual Approach to Privacy Online. [Online] Available at:
https://www.amacad.org/publications/daedalus/11_fall_nissenbaum.pdf [Accessed 21 May
2018].
Ohm, P., 2012. THE FOURTH AMENDMENT IN A WORLD WITHOUT PRIVACY.
MISSISSIPPI LAW JOURNAL, 81(5).
Papacharissi, Z. & Fernback, J., 2005. Online Privacy and ConsumerProtection: An Analysis of
Portal Privacy Statements. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Medi, 49(3), pp.259-81.
Platostanford, 2014. Privacy and Information Technology. [Online] Available at:
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/it-privacy/ [Accessed 21 May 2018].
Roessler, B. & Mokrosinska, D., 2013. Privacy and social interaction. Philosophy and Social
Criticism, 1(21).
Romansky, R.P., 2014. SOCIAL MEDIA AND PERSONAL DATA PROTECTION.
International Journal on Information Technologies & Security, 4.

Information Ethics and Management 8
Rubinstein, I.S., 2013. Big Data: The End of Privacy or a New Beginning? International Data
Privacy Law, 3(2).
Tan, X., Qin, L., Kim, Y. & Hsu, J., 2012. Impact of privacy concern in social networking web
sites. Emrald Internet Research, 22(2), pp.211-33.
Thierer, A., 2013. THE PURSUIT OF PRIVACY IN A WORLD WHERE INFORMATION
CONTROL IS FAILING. [Online]
(https://techliberation.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/36_2_409_Thierer.pdf) [Accessed 21
May 2018].
Timm, D.M. & Duven, C.J., 2008. Privacy and Social Networking Sites. [Online] Available at:
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.707.2103&rep=rep1&type=pdf
[Accessed 21 May 2018].
Wildemuth, B.M., 2006. The Illusion of Online Privacy. [Online] Available at:
https://ils.unc.edu/~wildem/Publications/CHI2006-Privacy.pdf [Accessed 21 May 2018].