Ethical Implications of Social Media Apps: A Case Study of Path

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ASSESSMENT 4

Introduction
The assessment is a report which is developed on the visual argument presented in the previous
assessment on the selected article for efficiently describing the components represented in the
visual argument. This assessment includes a brief description of the selected ethic case study
through explaining the concept included in the case study and description of the ethical issues
and situations stated in the case study related with a particular topic of ethics. This assessment
mainly aims to provide a brief explanation of the ethical theories in reference with the selected
ethics case study and ethical issues for stating relevant solution for the issues. In the assessment
effective solution are developed for effectively dealing the ethical issues through critical
techniques of thinking.

Apps and Privacy: An Ethics Case Study
In this case study, the ethical issue is mainly related to public privacy and security which are
described in the context of social networking sites, apps and links. In this, it can be analyzed that
social networking app, Path is faced some issue which is related to ethical considerations. It is
the social networking app which helps in sharing private images and photos and deliver message
services to one person to another. This facility will allow for the user to share up around 50
contacts with their close friends and family (Sadeghi, Wachsmann and Waidner, 2015). The path
was to make their connection with Facebook which is a social networking site and it is built from
its inception for mobile phones and this is mainly concentrated on smaller groups. The app Path
recognizes its major ethical issues where they are seen that all their personal detail and
information share transmitted to another server without any knowledge of users. Such an ethical
issue is associated with ICT as the communication user who is using both technology and other
social networking sites directly impact on ethical issues by use security and privacy. ICT is a
major issue which is associated with communication and interaction of one person to another so
the company tries to eliminate such issue which creates an impact on their business growth and
development (Lin, 2017). Along with this, ICT is used for managing and maintaining privacy
and security concerns which are related to saving a contact, personal information, and details of
user which are post by them.
According to the view of Stuart Dredge (2015) social psychographic start up the Path which has
apologized to their users for uploading and saving the phone contacts on their servers. For this
issue, the major controversy arises then an individual who is against the Path application they are
starting to write the blog post by the owners. In the past days, they are mainly focused on
eliminating such issues and mange such ethical issue by protecting personal information on Path
especially store and transmission of the phone contacts. The upload of users personal data and
information is the major ethical issue which is an impact on company functions. For this, no one
trusts the company app and they refuse to install such app which is not secure and private in any
manner. To overcome with this ethical problem, they are trying to convince their users to make
trust in them and after that provide extra services which satisfy them (Yi, Qin and Li, 2015).
They are work on reducing such type of activities which create a major issue while dealing with
people all over the world. Path app is used by a large number of people who always active on

social media so they spend some time on swiping the app and make a new connection with the
other people. In addition to this, Path has been using data which help them in improving the
quality of friend suggestions but they company delete its whole stash which is uploaded by the
user and provide them the good facility to share their contact and personal data with family or
close friends (Hunter, et. al., 2018).
The ethical issues stated in the ethics case study could also be efficiently analyzed through
ethical theories relevant with the ethical issues of privacy and security of an individual’s personal
data and details such as contact details. The ethical theories that plays an important role in
developing effective solutions for the ethical issues are stated below:
Deontology Ethical Theory: This theory is generally discovered by Immanuel Kant and in the
theory, he described that the main objective of this theory is to analyze and determine one’s duty
and obligation in the society as this theory is basically related with duty of an individual in the
society. This theory is suitable for developing effective solution for the ethical issues of privacy
and security of the users of the app through identifying one’s duty in the company, Path related
with the users safety while using the app and through bidding effective rules over the transition
of personal information of the users through the app and over social media networking sites
(Adams, et. al., 2015).
Utilitarian Ethical Theory: This theory is basically developed by Jeremy Bentham who stated
that the main aim of this theory is to maximize public happiness and benefit and reduce public
suffering. Moreover this theory is generally dependent on the consequences and actions that
emerge from the ethical issues of people’s privacy and security regarding the transmit of
unencrypted information of users over social media networking sites as through analyzing the
consequences of the ethical issues, the company facing the ethical situation could develop
efficient solutions with central goal of securing the privacy and security of the users privacy and
security (Helm, 2013).
Virtue Ethical Theory: This theory is usually dependent on the character of individual in order
to determine their ethical values. This theory is basically known to be founded by Aristotle who
defined that the character of an individual usually includes virtues, values, inclinations and
intentions of a person along with the analysis of an individual ethical act in the society. This

ethical theory is appropriate for solving the ethical issues stated in the ethics case study as
through implementing this theory, the company Path would be able to analyze the controversy
situation with philosophical reasoning the ethical issue of privacy and security of users and
through determining work and professional ethics of Path for efficiently managing and
maintaining the security of their users personal information (Nakaya, 2015).
Contract Ethical Theory: This theory consist its main focus on rights available for the
individual in the society in order to develop effective solutions on the basis of an individual
rights. This theory is only related rights of the individual without concerning other factors such
as actions, character and consequences related with the ethical situation. The ethical issues
present in the ethics case study could seek solution from this theory through analyzing the rights
of the company, users and social media networking sites by Path for improving their technology
and efficiently securing the privacy and security of their users.
However, the most suitable and appropriate theory for developing an effective and efficient
solution for the ethical issues stated in the ethics case study is utilitarian ethical theory as this
theory consider the consequences that emerge from the lack of advanced technology of Path for
efficiently managing and maintaining the security of their users along unencrypted transition of
personal information of the users. Thus this theory leads to an outcome of such solution that
improves the technology of Path for managing the security and privacy of their users (Bedi, et.
al., 2016).

Conclusion
This assessment is generally a report which briefly describes the factors that where represent in
the visual argument developed in the previous assessment on the selected ethics case study. This
assessment explains the ethics case study in reference with the ethical situations and issues that
emerge in the case study related with the ICT and social media networking sites. The description
of the causes of ethical issues and situations that the company faces along with methods that the
company adopts to overcome the ethical issues of privacy and security of users is also included
in the assessment. Moreover, this assessment further includes the description of the ethical
theories relevant with the ethical issues for seeking appropriate solutions for the issues. In this
assessment the most appropriate ethical theory for the ethical issue stated in the ethics case study
is also stated. The main aim of this assessment is to describe the impact of ethical issues on ICT
and development of technology’s company.

References:
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Ethical Issues Related to Using Social Media in Healthcare. Cambridge Quarterly of
Healthcare Ethics, 24(3), 293-302.
 Bedi, A., Alpaslan, C., & Green, M. (2016). A Meta-analytic Review of Ethical
Leadership Outcomes and Moderators. Journal of Business Ethics, 139(3), 517-536.
 Helm, Janet. (2013). Ethical and Legal Issues Related to Blogging and Social Media.
Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 113(5), 688-690.
 Hunter, R., Gough, A., O'Kane, N., McKeown, G., Fitzpatrick, A., Walker, T., . . . Kee,
F. (2018). Ethical Issues in Social Media Research for Public Health. American Journal
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