Ethical issues that may arise when storing information about individuals digitally include privacy, accessibility, data usage, and integrity. When individuals input their information into a website, they may have the expectation that this data remains private and is not shared with anyone despite not reading the terms and conditions. However, should a person be expected to be willing to share their information just so they can use a service, even if that service is vital to their everyday life such as banking or relevant healthcare information? Another issue which arises is that of accessibility. Which other companies or employees have access to the data and under which contexts are they allowed to access the information? Moreover, the ethical issue of how someone’s information is used also occurs, as the individual may not have a choice to opt in or out. Integrity is the last ethical issue as both parties are responsible for ensuring accurate information is input. However, if the consumer inputs fake information into a website and the company uses the fake data, who is responsible for potentially spewed statistics? These ethical issues are all related to how the data is being stored, who has access to the data, and what they are doing with the data. These issues cannot be overcome unless there are strict data policies in place and each individual’s data is handled differently based on how they like.
Comparing the United States’ cybercrime statistics to the United Kingdom shows shocking results. First, the US was the target of 46% of all cyber attacks in 2020, which is more than double of any other country. The number of reported ransomware attacks in the United Kingdom was 654, whereas in the United States, that number was 3,749. Despite the US being targeted for ransomware more frequently, both countries were targeted by APT31, an advanced persistent threat which is suspected to be related to the Chinese government.
Sources:
https://www.asha.org/practice/ethics/confidentiality/
https://www.gdrc.org/info-design/4-ethics.html
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/seven-hackers-associated-chinese-government-charged-computer-intrusions-targeting-perceived