Carney & Deb, Accountants, perform a variety of tasks for their clients—financial statements and tax returns, for example. To accomplish these tasks, Carney & Deb collects their clients' personal and financial information. Carney & Deb can store the
personal and financial information of its clients on any electronic device, including a smartphone, a tablet, a flash drive, a laptop, and a copier. When Carney & Deb upgrades its storage media, the information is transferred between devices. Does Carney & Deb have an ethical obligation to its clients with respect to this information? If so, what are the ethics in the situation?
Yes, Carney & Deb, the accounting firm in this question, have an ethical obligation to its clients with respect to their personal and financial information.
Ethics is the study of what constitutes right and wrong behavior, focusing on morality and the way in which ethical principles are derived or the way in which such principles apply to conduct in daily life. Sometimes the issues that arise concern fairness, justice, and "the right thing to do.".
To answer the question of the accountants' ethical obligation, it should be noted that the confidentiality of their clients' sensitive personal and business information is at stake. The accountants have an ethical duty to ensure that reasonable security precautions are taken to preserve this confidentiality and protect this information. In the first instance, the accountants need to understand where they are putting the information, assess what the risks are of that location, and consider whether or not it is appropriate to put the data there. For example, putting sensitive information on an unencrypted flash drive would be a bad idea. In the second instance, client confidentiality needs to be maintained when a storage device is disposed of. The device should be sanitized, or wiped clean of sensitive data, before the device is discarded.
You might also like to view...
In the numerator of the debt service coverage ratio, ________________ is a good substitute for cash flow from operations before interest and tax payments, especially where changes in these accounts are insignificant
Fill in the blank(s) with correct word
Total manufacturing costs and the change in Finished Goods Inventory are used to compute cost of goods sold
Indicate whether the statement is true or false
On January 2, Froxel Company purchased 10,000 shares of Sandia Corp. common stock at $19 per share plus a $3,000 commission. This represents 30% of Sandia Corp.'s outstanding stock. On August 6, Sandia Corp. declared and paid cash dividends of $1.75 per share, and on December 31 it reported net income of $150,000. Prepare the necessary entries for Froxel to account for these transactions and events.
What will be an ideal response?
Exception handling is the process of identifying and removing errors from within program code.
Answer the following statement true (T) or false (F)