IT Ethics: Analysis of iPhone Tracking through Ethical Theories

This essay analyzes the ethical implications of iPhone tracking technology, focusing on the inherent privacy concerns and the balance between security and individual rights. The essay examines the technology's ability to retain user data even after deletion, and its use by law enforcement to detect criminal activities. The author employs four classical ethical theories – Utilitarianism, Deontology, Virtue Ethics, and Contract Theory – to evaluate the ethical permissibility of such surveillance. The Utilitarian perspective supports the technology for its potential to reduce crime and promote societal happiness, while Deontology focuses on the justice of monitoring criminals. Virtue Ethics and Contract Theory suggest that the technology encourages ethical behavior and a sense of obligation among users. The essay concludes that, while the technology raises privacy concerns, it promotes ethical activities by deterring criminal behavior and aiding law enforcement. It also includes an ethics technique section for further analysis.

Running head: IT ETHICS
Every Click you take, they’ll be watching you
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s note

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“Every click you take, they'll be watching you”
This article talks about an advanced technological tool that is inbuilt in iPhones so that it
can help out the law to find out any type of criminal activities (The Sydney Morning Herald,
2017). The inbuilt technology of iPhones has the ability to retain the information even after it has
been removed by the user. According to the forensic research team, most of the iPhone users
have no idea about completely removing all the information. Jonathan Zdziarski is a well known
former hacker. He had written a book named “iPhone Forensics”. The law agencies had asked
him to train and teach them about the information storage as well as the retrieval of information
from iPhone. This phone has an automatic capability of capturing images when the user switches
from one application to another. The Urbanspoon application helps to find out restaurants in the
city.
The iPhone has the ability to store everything that is typed and stored for autocorrect
purpose. A person with great expertise knowledge will be able to find out what the user has
messaged to several months ago even if the original message and email has been deleted. The in-
built mapping or tracking application will keep track of every move of the iPhone users by taking
screenshots of the activity and storing in the device (The Sydney Morning Herald, 2017). The
photos that are present in the phone are tagged that identify specific information regarding the
place and time. Other information stored in the system is the browser history and the other
details. This essay analyses the article in terms of the four main classical theories of ethics. The
theories that are used in this essay in order to find out whether this act is ethical or not are the
Utilitarianism theory, Virtue Ethics, Deontology theory as well as the Contract theory.

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The Utilitarianism theory focuses on the utility of huge number of people. Utility here
refers to the pleasure of the people is not related to the usage (Arntzenius, 2014). This theory is
based on consequences of an act or policy. If any act or policy produces happiness among
maximum number of people then it is said that the act that is performed or the policy that is
implemented is ethical in nature (Broad, 2014). In this article it is seen that iPhone has the ability
to store data even after the users delete it. It is used for detecting any crime and identifying
criminal activities. The users who are not involved in any criminal activities can feel that they do
not have enough privacy. Privacy is a human right. A hacker can track any targeted user at any
time. From the perspective of the users this act does not spread happiness and therefore it cannot
be considered to be ethical. From the perspective of the police this act is ethical because it helps
to keep the society happy by identifying criminals and reducing the rate of criminal activities.
Utilitarianism theory will support the tracking ability of iPhone as it will reduce crime and keep
the society happy. Deontological ethics is based on obeying rules and carrying out duties in an
ethical manner (Lazar, 2017). It focuses on justice. This justification will pay attention to the
entity that is being surveyed. The inbuilt technology of the iPhone is said to store details of the
activities of the users. In the given article it is said that the police can use this technology to
arrest criminals ((Ross, 2013). Here the entity is the criminal and he or she deserves to be
monitored. Therefore this activity will protect the society and will punish the criminals.
Deontological theory will accept the concept of tracking individual record for the purpose of
identifying criminals and arresting them for the welfare of the society. Virtue ethics focuses on
the character and the moral values of an individual person (Athanassoulis, 2013). Every person
has a certain character based on development and training that has been provided to them in their
entire life. This inbuilt technology in iPhone will make the users conscious before committing

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any kind of criminal activity (Van Hooft, 2014). If a person is being constantly monitored then
he or she tends to behave in a proper and ethical way. This will develop the ethical sense and the
moral values of a person. Therefore from the perspective of Virtue Ethics, this act is ethically
correct. Contract theory states that the presence of a contract will promote ethical acts. The
contract acts as a promise (Fried, 2015). The person will feel obligated to perform activities in an
ethical manner. In this case if an iPhone user wants to commit a crime then he or she will hesitate
(Kőszegi, 2014). The users will feel obligated to perform morally correct activities. Therefore,
the contract theory suggests that this technology of tracking the records act as a contract and it is
ethically permissible.
This essay concludes that the inbuilt technology of iPhone will promote ethical activities
because the criminals will become aware of the technology and hesitate to commit any crime.
This essay has taken four theories of ethics into account and judges the article. The Utilitarianism
theory supported this technology because it promotes the happiness of the society by
indentifying the criminals and punishing them. The Virtue Ethics and Social Contract theory also
said that it is an ethical act because it promotes ethical behavior among the users. The
Deontology theory said that the inbuilt application that records the data of the users helps to
monitor the criminal activities and therefore it is ethical. The inbuilt application that records the
data can be only retrieved by the forensic department and police in order to find out whether the
user has committed any crime or not. Therefore, it is ethically permissible.

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References
Arntzenius, F. (2014). Utilitarianism, decision theory and eternity. Philosophical
Perspectives, 28(1), 31-58.
Athanassoulis, N. (2013). Virtue ethics. A&C Black.
Broad, C. D. (2014). Five types of ethical theory (Vol. 2). Routledge.
Fried, C. (2015). Contract as promise: A theory of contractual obligation. Oxford University
Press, USA.
Kőszegi, B. (2014). Behavioral contract theory. Journal of Economic Literature, 52(4), 1075-
1118.
Lazar, S. (2017). Deontological Decision Theory and Agent-Centered Options. Ethics, 127(3),
579-609.
Ross, D. (2013). Foundations of ethics. Read Books Ltd.
The Sydney Morning Herald. (2017). Every click you take, they'll be watching you. Retrieved
19 September 2017, from http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/iphone/every-click-you-
take-theyll-be-watching-you-20100917-15gbx.html
Van Hooft, S. (2014). Understanding virtue ethics. Routledge.
Vaughn, L. (2015). Doing ethics: Moral reasoning and contemporary issues. WW Norton &
Company.

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Ethics Technique
1. What is going on?
The given article discusses about the advanced technology and inbuilt application of
iPhone that stores the information and activities of the users even after they remove or
delete the information from the phone.
2. What are the facts?
 The iPhone has an inbuilt advanced technology that helps the police to identify
any criminal activities and punish the criminal.
 1.7 million people have purchased the latest version of iPhone that released in the
month of June.
 The location of the users can be tracked. Web history of the user is also saved.
 The photographs captured in the phone have tags attached with them that display
the date, time as well as the place.
3. What are the issues?
Privacy is the main issue that has been identified. Millions of people that are using
iPhones are under surveillance. They are unable to completely remove any data from
their phones (Vaughn, 2015). All the data can be retrieved by the police if they have
committed a crime. This is helpful in identifying and punishing the criminals.
4. Who is affected?

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All the people who are using iPhones are affected.
5. What are the ethical issues and implications?
 The Deontology theory stated that if the person who is being monitored has
committed any crime then the act is ethical. Here the police will use the
technology to retrieve data in order to get hold of the criminals.
 The Utilitarianism theory stated that identifying and punishing the criminals will
make the society happy and hence it is ethically correct.
 The Social Contract and Virtue Ethics theory has also supported the concept of
the inbuilt application because it will make the users feel obligated to act ethically
and this will promote ethical values in the society.
6. What can be done about it?
The use of this advanced inbuilt technology must be promoted in order to help the police
to detect criminal activities.
7. What options are there?
 Make the users aware of the inbuilt application so that they do not commit any
wrong or unethical activity.
 Ban the application because it hinders the privacy of the users.
8. What is the best option and why?
The best option is to promote the use of the inbuilt application of iPhone and making the
users aware. This will help the community to become a safer and better place because the

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users will know that if they are suspected of any crime then the police along with the
Apple Inc will be able to retrieve the data.