In the recent digital public, there is a plethora of issues in storing electronic data or giving up information. Whether it be shopping online or signing in to Facebook, there is always a level of insecurity in entering your personal information. There are four ethical issues I have found and will present them in a series of questions that we ask ourselves when entering our information online.

            One question that we ask ourselves when entering information online is “What else will they do with our information.” For example, if we were to order a shirt or other items off of a personal creation website such as Esty something off of eBay from China, we may question whether our credit card information will be erased after we complete a transaction. Rather than wiping our data after our package has arrived, we can be found scared that the sender may keep our information and purchase items of their own interest.

            Another ethical insecurity we have is “Will they get rid of my information if I ask them?” or “If they have my info saved, will they erase it?” I found that it may be easier to analyze these questions if I imagine that someone has an embarrassing picture of me on their phone. Will they delete it if I ask? Are they telling the truth?

            Similar to the previous question, “who else will they show?” Is my friend going to send this picture to other people or even sell it? Will Zuckerberg sell my Facebook info to other services? Who all has my information at this point that I am unaware of?

            Finally, “How much more information do they have of me?” Are there more pictures of me on your phone? Does Facebook have my credit card number or my phone number saved to sell to other people? Has someone been stealing my information every time I log online?

            These questions allow us to use the internet much more safely, but also present the dangers in giving up your information. It is severely unethical to store others’ information because such an interaction relies solely on trust or deceit. There is no way for someone to determine how much information someone else or even a service has saved, and they will certainly not be able to find out who else purchased or stole the same/new information.