Describe four ethical issues that arise when storing electronic information about individuals.
- Consent: when it comes to gathering data a person needs to agree to the data being collected. Otherwise can’t it be considered spying? Even if it’s not illegal a person wants their privacy even if the data being gathered isn’t significant or endangering to the person. information as small as their dog’s name and how many kids they have can be later used to build a profile on them that gets stolen by hackers and used to break into their accounts or impersonate them.
- safe data handling: Stored electronic information about individuals can be hacked and compromised by malicious individuals and then leaked, compromising privacy and information that a person might not want to be publics knowledge. When they agree to a companies service and storage of their data “Like WhatsApp” the publics thinks their information is being safeguarded by that company.
- knowledge of what is being gathered and stored: A person might agree to cookies or having a face book profile set to public but what exactly does that mean? A person needs to be made aware of what is being harvested and what is being used for. just knowing a company is gathering data doesn’t mean they are selling it, but it probably does.
- How much we store and why: Stored information can be, and often is, sold to marketing companies. A lot of people have issues with others knowing and tracking information about their actions. It can be a violation of privacy and selling this information can build a digital profile on a subject and expose them to more targeting and spam.