Computer Ethics - Privacy

PRIVACY

Aside from obvious criminal activities, subtler forms of computer activity can pose ethical problems. For instance, the use of company computer equipment by employees for personal activities has been vigorously debated, but no clear answers have been formulated that can apply in all organizations. Most employees that use computers maintain an e-mail account and regularly check their mail at work. Generally, this is essential since internal company communications often are transmitted via e-mail. However, employees also may receive personal e-mail at the same account and spend their time at work using the company computer to send and receive personal messages.

New technologies not only allowed for the monitoring of e-mail communications, but other Internet activity such as listservs, chat rooms, and even Web browsing. While companies may well wish to make sure their employees are using their time for company purposes, the monitoring of Web traffic strikes many as an ethical lapse, particularly since the reasoning behind visiting a Web site cannot be determined simply by knowing that an individual went there. This problem extended far beyond the company setting. Fears over governmental or private monitoring of individuals' activities on the Internet opens up an entire range of serious ethical concerns. Because the context of a certain kind of communication or site visitation may be unknown to outside monitors, there is a significant possibility of misunderstanding, misinterpretation, and misuse of such acquired data.

The conflict between personal privacy and company surveillance of e-mail communications and other computer activity was one of the most widely publicized computer-ethical controversies in the late 1990s and early 2000s. While companies argue that the monitoring of their own systems to ensure their appropriate use and the beneficial use of company time is necessary to maintain competitiveness, the moral right to personal privacy was continually asserted.