Michael A Gurule

I think that privacy is still at the forefront of people’s mind while accessing the Internet. This may have changed through the uses of new technology, but it still remains. Through the privacy portion of this course, I was able to better understand the meaning of privacy and the perception that bigger corporations have on it. Every tech giant preaches for privacy but required you to give some of it up to use their products. Products that have come to be a cornerstone of society, such as social media platforms. As someone who was growing up in the weird time between dial-up internet and the connected lives we all live today, I learned to maintain my privacy as the internet was developing. I have been able to slow down and see how other people view privacy and how it could get invaded. I have been further engrained with how important privacy is and that every person still seeks it even though it may not seem that way with everything people post on social media these days. I will take that thought with me as I move into the future and try and protect that privacy from those that wish ill-will on it. I will fight to make my employers and all users able to trust the internet and their security.

I have taken a great liking to the contractarian ideology for moral reasoning. I think that it is a great idea that even if something is or is not necessarily right or wrong, it is morally dependent on how all the members of society feel. I feel like this is a great concept for cyber because of how interconnected it is with all manners of people, and it makes us an interlinked society. When you are stuck in a single place, whether that be your home, town, or even country, you can fail to look past what those around you think and feel. This has made me realize that I was being a little small-minded when I was thinking about what I would do for my employers and with the knowledge that I gained. I was thinking that I would do the right thing no matter what, even if it required the wrong things done to get there. Then I started to think about what the right thing was and if there was a means to the end or if each step was its own end. Contractarianism made me realize that the idea of morality is ever changing because society is ever changing. What we want is always changing depending on many factors and how many of us those factors affect. I may at one point be involved in a cyberwar and I realize that I must ask what is right and not be stuck as one side or the other, but on the side of justice of the people. Just like most things on the internet, there really is no right and wrong by law, but what is right and wrong is up to us and this moral theory helped me to realize that.

                My stance on whistleblowing has deepened by learning more about the past cases and how researchers think it should be engrained in our workplaces. I think posting that there is a policy which allows for whistleblowers to be safe after an incident is good to make people feel secure, but I don’t think it is an option any person should use. If they do use it, they lose the trust of their company and possibly their coworkers. There are ways around most problems that take place within business without making everything a public debate. Not everything should be handled by the court of public opinion, especially things that may have devastating effects on a business or government. Most of the time, as I have learned being in the military, there are ways to deal with something even if no one around you agrees with you or your supervisor won’t listen to your concerns. This can be done without putting them up on a cross in the public square. I do agree that if a person has truly done everything and something that can endanger society is being done, then, by all means, blow the whistle. Do the right thing and fix what you can by taking the appropriate measure and pathways to solve the problem. I will take my view on whistleblowing with me to my future employer and give them the sense of trust in me as long as they maintain my trust. I will fix what I can from within and do my utmost not to take problems into the public domain. This should give them a sense of ease about my employment.