Portfolio Entry #3

4 major ethical issues with storing electronic data on individuals is privacy and confidentiality, security breaches, system implementation, and data inaccuracies. To begin with, privacy and confidentiality involves the idea of being left alone and keeping information about somebody away from others. Keeping data on people obviously is conflicting towards this idea because the government keeps data stored about all individuals, such as age, health conditions, and records. Another ethical issue on keeping electronic data stored on people are security breaches. Security breaches are a threat to anybody with personal data stored. An example of a security breach in action is an incident in 2013 where a medical technician used her position in the hospital they were working at to gain access to the names, addresses, and Medicare numbers of patients in order to sell their information. Security breaches pose a threat to anyone, and people of authority need to respect the privacy of individuals or use the information only for work. Another ethical issue is system implementation. System implementation can result in wasted time, resources, energy, and can cause people to lose confidence. System implementation, by definition, is the process of defining how the information system should be built. Unfortunately, system implementations can contain poor project management, planning, and can result in data management issues. Finally, the last ethical issue in keeping electronically stored data on people is inaccurate data. This can cause harm to people and their families. For instance, one applying to college may not be granted because of incorrect test scores being displayed on their application, or even somebody may not be able to acquire financial aid or support. These pieces of information are crucial in our society today because so many digital portfolios and applications are being distributed. The click of a wrong button or something like that can result in failure, which is why it is important we be extremely careful.

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