Ethical Issues for Ownership and Confidentiality- myassignmenthelp

Question: Write about theEthical Issues for Ownership and Confidentiality. Answer: Introduction Ethics can be defined as those things or characters that can be termed to be morally right (Patrignani, 2009). This can be viewed in various perspectives under different situations or environment in determining if the actions performed are ethical or not. These behaviors that are examined in order to find out if an action was wrong or right are what are referred to ethical issues. Ethical issues are defined by different environment in which an action is performed (Blacks, 2011). In IT and security consultancy environment there are various ethical characters or habits that are considered in order to ensure that actions or functions are performed well within the defined code of ethics as expected (Syracuse, 2017). Identification of Ethical Issues Based on the IT and Security Consultants scenario given, there are various ethical issues that arises. These issues revolve around two competing parties who seek IT and security consultancy services from the same IT and Security consultant. From this the consultant is able to know information about these two companies. These therefore, brings about information ownership, privacy and confidentiality as some of the ethical issues related to this scenario ethical issues Analysis of Ethical Issues Privacy This is the act of preserving other peoples information by not sharing their information with third parties without the owners consent (Cohen, 2008). From the given scenario the consultant is faced with an ethical choice on whether to disclose client A information that could be helpful to client B. If the consultant chooses to share this information with client B, it will compromise the privacy of Client A information and this will raise ethical issues since the consultant is supposed to protect his clients information with a higher degree of privacy (Relkin, 2008). Ownership and Confidentiality Both client A and client B have right to their own information and they are the only people who can choose what to do with their information. Therefore the information they provide to the IT and security consultant still remains their property and therefore the consultant should treat their information with high level of confidentiality (Ramey, 2012). The consultant should therefore not share client A information to client B without seeking permission from client B. This is because client A is the sole owner of the information and possesses all the right pertaining to it. An act of sharing clients A information with client B by the consultant will therefore be unethical (Berzai, 2017). Evaluation and Justification Privacy According to deontology ethical theories the consultant should adhere to his/her obligations of providing services to his clients without having to disclose their information to their competitors (Chonko, 2012). Therefore it will be ethically right for the consultant to treat his/her clients information as private property in which only the owner has the right to share to whoever he/she wishes. Also the consultant should consider the consequences of sharing clients A information to Client B as explained by Chonko on the utilitarian theory. Despite the information benefiting Client B, this action will badly hurt client A and the whole process will be unethical since one should not use other peoples information to harm them (Chonko, 2012) as it goes against ethical principle that state that if an action is not right for everyone to take then it should not be taken for anyone at all (Mary, 2008). Ownership and Confidentiality In accordance to the ethical right theory, IT and security consultant should never disclose his/her own clients business details as it is only the clients who control over their information (Bossmann, 2016). Therefore, if the consultant chooses to disclose clients information this will amount to unethical action and this will compromise the consultant trust and virtue in providing services to his/her clients as per the virtue theory. This theory states that a person is judged by his/her character which is determined by the actions a person takes (Fieser, 2012). For instance, if the consultant chooses to share client A information with client B and then client B finds out about the action, client B will no longer trust the IT and security consultant (Mason, 2007) . This will affect the consultant virtue largely and his level of trust from his clients will reduce due to failure to keep clients information confidential and respect information ownership of his clients (Bu/lough, 2010). Conclusion From the above explanations, the consultant loyalty should be on both his/her clients by ensuring that he adhere to ethical actions explained in utilitarian, rights, virtue and deontology ethical theories (usask, 2009). Therefore, the client should not interfere with his clients information. He should ensure that the clients information remains to be private property and observe the confidentiality of each clients information (Sandler, 2011). This will improve his clients trust on him and his functions as a consultant will be ethically right. Reference Berzai, L. (2017, July). Ethical Problems in Computing. How Ethical Theories Apply to IT Professionals., pp. 5-9. Blacks. (2011). What is ETHICAL ISSUE? Ethical Issues, 1-3. Bossmann, J. (2016). Top 9 ethical issues in artificial intelligence. Research, Foresight Institute. Bu/lough, V. (2010, March). ETHICAL ISSUES IN TECHNOLOGY. Retrieved from Humanism Today: https://www.humanismtoday.org/site/vol4/bullough.pdf Chonko, L. (2012). Ethical Theories. The University of Texas. Arlington: DSOF. Cohen, J. (2008). Privacy and Confidentiality. New York: CIRE. Fieser, J. (2012). Ethics. Research, University of Tennessee at Martin, USA. Mary. (2008). Ethical Decision Making in Everyday Work Situations. New York: Wuorum books. Mason, R. O. (2007). Four Ethical Issues of the Information Age. Research, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX. Patrignani, N. (2009). Teaching Computer Ethics Challenges and Methodologies. Uppsala: cpsr. Ramey, K. (2012). 5 Ethical Challenges of Information Technology. use of technology. Relkin, J. (2008, August). 10 ethical issues confronting IT managers. 1-6. Sandler, G. (2011). "Five Ethical Theories: Bare Bones for Business Educators". Research. Syracuse. (2017, May 24). Academic. Retrieved August 29, 2017, from Syracuse University: https://soe.syr.edu/academic/counseling_and_human_services/modules/Common_Ethical_Issues/theories_of_ethics.aspx usask. (2009, March 14). Retrieved August 29, 2017, from usask: https://homepage.usask.ca/~wiebeb/Etheory.html