Normative Ethics and the Right to Privacy
TUI UNIVERSITY
Donald L. Kinder
Normative Ethics and the Right to Privacy
Course Number: Business Ethics 301
Professor: Dr. Corey Mathis
Date: 27 Aug 12
Normative Ethics and the Right to Privacy
The cyber communication and email has a pivotal role in the lives of Americans. It has been found that 87% of the youth of today go online (Weiss, 2005), representing 21 million youth. Emails increase the speed of multiple, simultaneous interaction. The advances in technology that provide opportunities to reach out to new sources of knowledge and cultural experiences are not without challenge. Should Justin Ellsworth’s parents been allowed to access to his email? Many people feel emails systems should be treated to the same privacy and security requirements as the postal letters. Email is typically secured by a password system to the email provider and potentially one to the computer system used to connect to the internet source. Postal letters are delivered to a mailbox and are protected by the metal container and the federal law protecting mail. Emails are electronic and are not physically delivered and stored by physical storage devices.
Whose property does the emails belong to? These questions make us revisit examples of how businesses handle email. In her book, Who Owns Information, Anne Wells Branscomb devotes an entire chapter to Who Owns Email. Branscomb begins with the story of a female administrator who was horrified to find her boss reading printouts of employee email. She lost her job for her protest. She tried to sue her employer, but there were no laws guaranteeing the confidentiality of email at the workplace, and she lost her case. The question of ethics is different from looking at laws and their enforcement, for even though something is legal it can be unethical, and if something is illegal it can be ethical. Our current laws do not conform to the definition of ethics.
Email privacy is derived from the Fourth Amendment to the U.S.
Donald L. Kinder
Normative Ethics and the Right to Privacy
Course Number: Business Ethics 301
Professor: Dr. Corey Mathis
Date: 27 Aug 12
Normative Ethics and the Right to Privacy
The cyber communication and email has a pivotal role in the lives of Americans. It has been found that 87% of the youth of today go online (Weiss, 2005), representing 21 million youth. Emails increase the speed of multiple, simultaneous interaction. The advances in technology that provide opportunities to reach out to new sources of knowledge and cultural experiences are not without challenge. Should Justin Ellsworth’s parents been allowed to access to his email? Many people feel emails systems should be treated to the same privacy and security requirements as the postal letters. Email is typically secured by a password system to the email provider and potentially one to the computer system used to connect to the internet source. Postal letters are delivered to a mailbox and are protected by the metal container and the federal law protecting mail. Emails are electronic and are not physically delivered and stored by physical storage devices.
Whose property does the emails belong to? These questions make us revisit examples of how businesses handle email. In her book, Who Owns Information, Anne Wells Branscomb devotes an entire chapter to Who Owns Email. Branscomb begins with the story of a female administrator who was horrified to find her boss reading printouts of employee email. She lost her job for her protest. She tried to sue her employer, but there were no laws guaranteeing the confidentiality of email at the workplace, and she lost her case. The question of ethics is different from looking at laws and their enforcement, for even though something is legal it can be unethical, and if something is illegal it can be ethical. Our current laws do not conform to the definition of ethics.
Email privacy is derived from the Fourth Amendment to the U.S.
Cited: Weiss, D. L. (2005, August 11). Youth & the Internet. Focus on the Family. Branscomb, A.W. (1994) Who Owns Information? New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. Website: Email Privacy Concerns, 2012 FindLaw, Thomson Reuters