Chapter 6 – Ethics and Privacy

There are a few types of things to look at. We have the Utilitarian approach, which chooses an outcome with the reasoning that it provides the maximum amount of good to as many people as possible. Next up is the Rights Approach, which is considered to choose the path that best preserves and adheres to the moral rights of everyone involved. Following this is the Fairness Approach, which seeks to treat everyone equally or, if that isn't appropriate, fairly. And the last approach is the Common Good Approach, best described to serve the community and the welfare of everyone therein in the most proficient way.
A code of ethics is a collection of standards that guides a business' decisions and is meant to complement the approach that a business chooses.

We can also recognise a ladder of steps that best frames how to deal with an ethical dilemma:
- Recognise the ethical issue at hand
- Get all the relevant facts
- Evaluate all alternative routes and options that could be taken
- Decide which route will be taken
- Reflect on the decision

A sizable ethical dilemma in the last decade especially has been companies collecting customer data for marketing use and advertising purposes. There are two ways that a company can legally collect customer data. There is the opt-out model, which means a company can help themselves to their customers' data until the customer wants it to discontinue. Then there's the opt-in model, considered the better of the two, which only allows a company to gather a customer's information if the customer explicitly allows them to.

 

 

 

Reference from:

Management Information Systems 1st Edition

Gray, H., Issa, T., Pye, G., Troshani, I., Rainer, R. K., Prince, B., & Hugh J. W. (2015). Management information systems. John Wiley.