Explain The Legal And Ethical Issues In Relation To The Use Of Business Information

Explain The Legal And Ethical Issues In Relation To The Use Of Business Information

Unit 4 p2

12 b 1

Introduction
There are many issues which relate to the use of information which affect an organisation, there are three main headings which are legal issues, ethical issues These main headings cover all the key information and how it may affect an organisation which may be crucial to the way they deal with information and how it may need to adjust its way of operating for legal issues, ethical issues and operational issues.

Legal issues
For many organisations legal issues are very important protect them and their clients, when it comes down to their personal information and client information may be shared between the company and its users. There are two relevant data protection Legislation which are Data protection act of 1998 and the Freedom of information act 2000. These two acts are both design in the form of purpose to help protect individuals and organisations by giving them guidelines in which they must abide and if there were to fail to do so prosecution may be taken as it can be a criminal offence to breach these acts.

Data protection act of 1998
For online companies such as Amazon to work and operate by abiding to data protection Act of 1998 it must be mindful of individuals information and data. Its important for a companies like amazon to reported to the office of the information Commissioner that they are in possession of such data which will also require them to pay a small annual fee to be allowed to keep this data about individuals. For companies its also important to consider these key points when it comes to personal information as it is required by the British computer Society.

all information must be fairly and lawfully obtained. information must be held for a specific and lawful purposes and not processed in any manner incompatible with those purposes. adequate, relevant and not excessive for those purposes. all information must be kept up to date and accurate which must not be kept longer then necessary.
Information must be processed in accordance with the rights of their person to whom the data refers to.
Data must be kept securely to ensure the data is not lost or dispose of or misused.
Data must not be transferred from the European economic call area unless the destination has an accurate level of data protection.

Freedom of information act 2000
For organisations such as Amazon on freedom of information act of 2000 does not really apply to them directly however they do contain information about individuals and will have to follow guidelines when information is requested. For public request they must be written and will be processed within 20 days of receipt this is a very formal letter in which information will be requested. As long as an individuals comply with requesting guidelines the organisation is obliged to provide evidence. This will apply to online companies such as Amazon if an individual would like to request any previous information about themselves that they may not be directly have full knowledge what is kept, with this will contend a lot of legal side to get control of their information form the British computer Society. Data is regulated by the data protection act of 1998 which will restrict certain information being released about an individuals personal data.

Other legislation computer misuse act 1990: is applicable to companies such as Amazon which have many different people using the Internet at their offices which may be prone to computer hacking. Hacking can take place in different ways in which somebody could illegal gain access to the system and change people's information or corrupt data or steel information sold to other companies that might find it useful. Another way of hacking would be for someone inside the company and gain access which will not be allowed to view such as credit card numbers or simply attempted cause damages. It is illegal to gain information for purposes of theft or malicious intentions. It is a criminal offences and can lead to prosecution in a court of law.
Primary electronic communication regulations 2003: As a company which sells products online it sometimes is very tempting to spam people with deals over the Internet such as just pop-up adverts or emails. Privacy electronic Communications regulations of 2003 apply directly EU members states to introduce new laws to regulate the use of the following.
Unconsolidated commercial communications e.g. spam
Cookies
Location and traffic data
Publicly available directories.
This is to limit anybody using information for other purposes than me not be looked upon kindly by the government and other federal organisation within the EU, which could lead to sanctions.
Ethical issues
When running a company such as Amazon are a lot of ethical issues and not only for an individual inside the company but for a company as a whole. Organisations and institutes can help develop their own policies with their employees for users which they must comply by and in some circumstances if they fail to comply with the policies they may be fired or in some cases criminal prosecution which may be one of the outcomes of an bad ethical behavior. Ethical behavior requires a code of practice ororganisation policies these policies are frequently used in side companies to protect itself and its interests. Organisation policies tend to be set by the organisation itself and that code of practice will be usually set by external bodies outside the organisation for example, British computer Society. All these policies are served to protect the company organisations own interests as if somebody was to breach their policies and do damage to their users and others they will not personally be prosecuted as a whole organisation but the individual who was responsible will be prosecuted on their own and not be related to the organisation in a court of law.

Use of email and the internet
In today's world of technology the most abused things on Earth is the Internet and emails, most people did in their own personal time. Most likely they will distributed data which may be of adult content being over social media or via emails and some people will think it is and appropriate use of these services so it would not be surprising they would also inappropriate images, videos and data as a whole at work using the company's computers and internet. T will be what a company can not have as it is a liability which could course a company's reputation to be damage and weaken when it comes to client and investors trust whit there money and business. For a company like amazon this will not be a risk that they would want to take as it may bring them int a legal battle if information was of a extreme content such as pornographic images of children which are distributed in side the company's emails and internet, which will weaken their image as a good business to work with. Policies are put in place to protect companies such as Amazon from material in emails and the Internet. these policies will be put in place protect the company as a whole and even if people would surf the Internet and email inappropriate things the company will not be held responsible and in some certain cases the employee who was distributing the information will be fired or in some extreme cases prosecuted for criminal acts such as distributing inappropriate content.

Whistle blowing
In ICT is very important for complete freedom of speech and to report anything that may be inappropriate or legal that is happening at a workplace for examples employees have the responsibility to report colleagues for doing any inappropriate behavior that they have witnessed in relation to the organisation system. For companies like Amazon it will be very destructive if an employee to be sealing information such as credit card numbers, addresses or simple details that they can sell on to companies or individuals that might be using that information for illegal purposes such detail that might allow fraudulent documents such as credit card or fake IDs. Companies must work with employees to know that they will act on full discretion if someone was reports colleagues for malpractice or misuse such as hacking or purposely destroying data or distributing inappropriate images or information over the company Internet or emailing system. Ethnically it is important for somebody to do this as personally it will not be right for somebody to distribute inappropriate information over the company's computers and Internet. The company must also make sure that if a employee does not approach a higher chain of command to report these offences or others they will be accounted for these crimes too and will face being prosecuted as a accomplice to the crime.

Information ownership
Information ownership is very important as a company or organisation as when information can often be copied so it is there it is your moral duty to take all the responsibilities that come for looking after it. This means they should trade mark or patent work which could be copied even if it is the online website code as all of it may be miss used or copied with out their permission. As a company such as Amazon is very important to remember that they tell their user or their potential client about the product and all that information must be solely there's or from the product owner which gives the product owner total ownership however it is up to them to make sure that the data is accurate and current information that is available about. They must also ensure that all the information has come from a reliable resource and is clearly layout laid out. Ownership of information stored about individuals and many organisations which will require employees to sign a nondisclosure agreement which means that they are not allowed to talk about information that is not theirs or about their client, such as personal flares about clients for the information such as credit card details and address. This might lead to criminal prosecution if it the information is wrong we mentioned or sold.