Ethical Dilemmas: The Federal Bureau Of Investigation

The Federal Bureau of Investigation faces ethical dilemmas on a regular basis while trying to balance protecting the country from terrorists, an individual’s right to privacy and over-stepping government intrusiveness. These ethical challenges have come to the forefront as the war on terror has been waged. First and foremost, the agency must work within Constitutional guidelines, federal law, and various state and local laws. By using a combination of guidelines to resolve ethical dilemmas proposed by the framework of Evans and MacMillan and those proposed by the National Association of Social Workers, the agency can examine these dilemmas and hopefully find the most ethical solutions.
Obviously, the first steps are to define the dilemma and establish the values and principles involved. In this case, where do citizens’ rights to privacy and control over their thoughts end, and the governments need for information to thwart terrorism begin? Can the government force a private company such as Apple to weaken the security of their products to make government access to customer’s information and communications easier (Orts,2016)? According to House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes, the FBI has
One controversial action implemented was the Patriot Act, which allows the FBI access to every phone call made by Americans. This led to unintended consequences as the overload of material actually kept the agency from being able to conduct an effective analysis of the information received, and it does not appear to have stopped any major terrorist attacks (Potter, 2013; MacLaughlin, 2015). On the other hand, Apple has refused to unlock the phone of a deceased terrorist due to potential security concerns for other users (Apple-FBI, 2016). The government tried to compel Apple to take action, and the court case has implications for the privacy versus safety dilemmas in the