Describe four ethical issues that arise when storing electronic information about individuals

One of the main ethical issues that arise when storing data about an individual is protecting the data. As technology continues to progress this becomes an even larger issue. According to Statista, in 2010 there were 662 data breaches and in 2021 there were more than 1,000. This number is probably even larger as most companies on average do not know they have been breached for 287 days.

This also goes along with protecting user’s privacy and confidentiality. There is a big issue as to who can has access a user’s data. One example of a failure of protecting user privacy and confidentiality would be Uber. They implemented a “God View” tool which allowed employees to track user’s location and movements without the user’s permission.

Another issue that arises when storing user data is the ethical use of that data. One of the biggest examples of this today is some of the top tech companies like Facebook, Google, and Paypal. These companies sell user data to ad companies who form predictive analysis to help find trends or what the user may be interested in buying.

If you are collecting someone’s information you will need users to knowingly agree to the data collection. This may seem like a non-issue due to the privacy policy that everyone agrees to, but many users do not actually read the document so they are not knowingly giving their consent. Companies also change their policies often and do not give users adequate notice which leaves users in the blue. This issue came into the spotlight when Facebook was stilling allowing third parties to access user data even after acknowledging they have stopped sharing personal data for security reasons. Who can you trust in the digital age?