Throughout this course I was challenged to think critically about a multitude of different topics in the cyber realm. All of these topics play a major part in how our digital future will look and how society will interact within the cyber world. The three topics that stood out to me the most were: privacy, corporate social responsibility, and whistleblowing.
The first topic of privacy is a major issue in our world today. Organizations getting their data bases breached, users’ data being unethically sold and traded, and much more. In this class we looked at an interesting case where citizens expressed their qualms with the Google Street view service. In this case analysis I decided the best course of action would be to restrict Google’s access to residential roads. With this people could still take advantage of what Google Street view had to offer while also protecting their own personal privacy. I argued this from a utilitarian perspective, but I feel my opinion has changed. With a utilitarian perspective everyone’s feelings are on the same level. With my argument I felt that I was downplaying the feelings of people living in those downtown areas. I feel that Google Street view is just something we have to live with, but Google should be providing some kind of warning to people in the area before they start recording.
The second topic of corporate social responsibility is going to be a major one as the digitalization of our lives continues. In this case we covered the Equifax data breach and covered how sensitive our social contract with corporations and our society is. I came to the conclusion that Equifax chose what was right for them and their pockets instead of what was right for society, so they broke our social contract. I argued this from a utilitarian perspective because Equifax favored themselves over their massive consumer base. My opinions on this have not changed and I believe this problem will continue occurring in the future. Businesses, corporations and organizations will continue throwing the consumer under the bus and not provide any substantial remedies following a data breach.
The third topic that stuck out to me in this course was whistleblowing. In this paper I covered a military incident where two Apache helicopters took down 12 civilians in a Baghdad suburb. This case was a brutal one where the WikiLeaks leader and a representative from the U.S. discussed it. I argued in this paper that the individual who leaked it was in the wrong due to her intentions. I argued this from a deontological perspective because she leaked thousands of documents while she could have just released the footage in this case. My feelings on this are still very nuanced as I felt like I was arguing in favor of covering up the military killing civilians. I still think that it is important to keep our countries secrets, but it’s a very thin line where you are harming the country and when you are helping it when whistleblowing.
CSRWhistelblowing
