In a short essay, list and discuss any three of the five issues that managers have to consider when deriving an ethical policy for information technology.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Managers are able to have unlimited access to information that could be considered private and personal. The ability to capture information at great speeds and permanently store it allows managers permanent access to private information pertaining to various stakeholders including employees, customers, suppliers, and even special interest groups. Therefore, managers can have access to the information history of any person for which data have been collected by the firm.
To protect the privacy of the individuals for which information has been collected, managers need to ask certain questions of themselves before they collect, store, and release potentially private information: What is the nature of the data? If the information were known to the public, what would be the net effect on the individual? Who should have access to this information?
Who is responsible for screening potential users to ensure they have a valid reason to request access to the information?
Ownership
The collection of information raises the question of property rights. Ownership is based on the answer to the question, “Who has the legal ownership of the information?” As a result, identifying the legitimate owner resolves the ambiguity of who is the ultimate decision maker pertaining to the information. From a privacy perspective, the individual has ownership of his or her own personal information. From a property rights perspective, a firm has to verify whether the owner or some other party is the legal owner of information that has been created and captured during the operations of the firm.
Control
Information technology has allowed managers to implement many different types of control mechanisms through capturing, tracking, and monitoring information flows inside and outside the firm. Information control has moved beyond simple inventory and asset tracking to include the ability to track the movements, actions, and communications of each employee within the firm.
Accuracy
As access and accumulation of information become easier within a firm, so does the probability that some of the information may be inaccurate. As a result, managers must be sure that the source of the information has generated accurate data as well as interpreted the data in an accurate manner.
Security
As availability and the dissemination of information become easier, so do the security issues that are related to data become more challenging. The manager must ensure that comprehensive steps have been implemented to guarantee that data collected by the firm are protected diligently so there are no negative impacts on stakeholders based on the content of the information.