What are four ethical issues that arise when storing electronic information about individuals?

When a company or organization stores critical information about people in their system, it is then absolutely crucial that their system is heavily protected to prevent information from being stolen. Some companies requires full names, birthdays, banking information, and even sometimes social security numbers. If this information about a person were to be stolen, the company or organization could be liable for and damages done to the person, and that individuals life could be majorly affected negatively due to the incompetence of the organization.

The first issue that I believe is one of the most critical issues about storing someone’s private information is how secure is the companies’ network? Being able to tell your customer that their information is secure and will stay private is a very easy thing to do. The issue that some companies face is how well is that promised kept. In 2013, target, a multi billion dollar retailer, had a data leak which caused the banking information of over 40 million customers to be stolen by the thieves who breached their security. This means that if you simply shopped there at any time prior to the attack, your bank account could have been breached. This is the kind of security promise that have no room for failure and must be kept secure.

The second issue is why information is stored. There are a lot of instances where a company such as a bank or credit union need to store information such as name, address, and social security number. However, why does a retailer such as target need to store banking information for a one time purchase? If there was a recurring payment that used a bank account, that would make sense. However, information for a bank account should not need to be collected and stored for a purchase, even if the customer were to return for another purchase. So why is it being stored?

The third issue is where else is my information being used when it is being collected? There has been a lot of talk about companies selling personal information to other associations and sometimes it is overlooked and no one is held accountable. It might be hard to track down who sold your personal information, which makes it harder to believe in companies who say information is kept private with them.

The fourth issue that is a major issue with the storing of information is how much information is collected. When signing up for something or utilizing the service a company provides requires some basic information such as a name or email address, that makes sense. However, I don’t see why some companies such as social medias would need my phone number in order to simply make an account. While phone numbers aren’t a major vulnerability, something like your social security number can be. Whenever something asks for my social security number, I always stop and reevaluate what I am signing up for to make sure that it is both trustworthy and something I absolutely need. A company wanting critical information like that is sometimes not needed, but is required in order to use their service which can be questionable.