Code of Ethics
Question:
How Australian Government Kept On Spying Over Their Users And Blocked All Torrent Sites And How UK Government Adopted It?
There is certain code of ethics that everyone need to follow including the government. Everyone is bind with this code and these are meant for every citizen. Without these codes of ethics, there will be no equality and foul play will happen. Code of Ethics helps in binding all of the people together and the ones in an organization take a vow to never break these codes.
The following essay is about how Australian Government kept on spying over their users and blocked all torrent sites and how UK government adopted it.
The persons who are involved in ICT Professionalism should possess absolute and also should have an up-to-date understanding for the main body of knowledge (Turner, 2016). They should also be able to demonstrate all the ongoing works in the professional development with the help of an appropriate and a good combination of qualifications as well as certifications and also should include work experience and should contain non-formal and formal education. They should also strongly be firm to all the code of ethics and should try to apply them in real life (Bannister & Connolly, 2014). They should also be able to communicate with others in a professional way and should try to maintain the code of ethics.
Privacy
For the following case study, it has been seen that Australia is spying around the users and collecting data on what they are accessing. From the side of ICT Professionalism, this is very wrong as users got the freedom of whatever sites they wish to access (Brady, 2014). It their right to access any website and Government cannot simply put an end to this. The Australian Government is putting a ban over torrent sites as well as torrent search engines such as Bit Torrent and sites like Pirates Bay and Kickass Torrents. This proves that the government is continuously spying on their users activities that they are making over the internet which is bad thing (Leicester, 2016). By doing so, they are not even safe over the internet knowing that government can track their each movement over the internet.
Security
In terms of security basis, spying can increase the rate of security much higher as while the government is spying over their citizens, some hacker can inject a virus over a terminal which can spread over all other networking systems when they are spying. By doing so, they are also infiltrating the firewall of the users and leaving it exposed and by doing so; any other hacker can also get into their systems and may inject any malware. By doing this, the government is exposing the systems of users to others. Another issue that might happen is that when they are spying on the users through network, if any hacker sniffs in between them then the hacker can get full access to the user’s computer (Warren et al., 2016).
Privacy
There are various cyber-crimes activities that can happen if the firewall is kept exposed for others like a hacker can inject any form of virus or worms or Trojan and by back tracing the network path, they can go to the main source of the network and can also perform DDoS attack on the server and by this they can cripple the server. By injecting worms or viruses, attackers can steal any form of confidential data or can seriously damage the system also (Yanagihara & Koga, 2016). But there are eminent dangers are also present while downloading from torrent sites or torrent search engines that torrent sites often redirects it to another page where viruses can be present and can harm the system.
Intellectual Property
From the following case study, it can be drawn that the intellectual property of the user’s were violated as they do not have the freedom to surf the internet also as government is blocking all torrent sites. It is also a direct violation to the ones who created those pages and handling them as they have the right to create the page as internet is for all and nobody can control that. Also, the users have the right to privacy that is no one can spy on them or their activities over the internet (Yanagihara & Koga, 2016). Also, the people who are behind making the websites, are not harming anyone so it is their right to remain over the internet and government cannot block their sites.
Regulation on the internet
The main purpose of putting an end to these torrent sites is to stop piracy of films and other forms of media or even the application. By these torrent sites, main organizations are facing huge loss as many users are uploading the pirated software and films over the internet and many end users are also downloading them (Burmeister et al., 2014). To stop this, government is applying some rule and regulations that the ISPs need to edit their list of all the websites and block all the torrent websites and torrent search engines so that no piracy of films or application can occur any more. Certain rules are required while accessing the internet as without these rules, there will be a huge chaos.
Social inclusion
When the government of Australia started to spy on the user’s activities and started blocking all the torrent sites, they saw it as a direct threat to their right to privacy and formed social groups over the social media and even locally and criticized the actions that the government has taken. By forming all these social groups, they protested against the government’s act and asked for full privacy when they are over the internet (Yanagihara & Koga, 2016). The main reason behind creating these social groups was to show the government that the user’s were not happy with their activities of spying over them.
Community and identity
After the users were aware of being spied by their own Government, all the people formed group and community to show their dislikes about this activity. This is a direct violation to the right to privacy of the users and everyone was unhappy due to this act (Turner, 2016).
Security
Pervasive and convergent computing
In this type of computing, government is tracking the everyday tasks of the users to see what they are doing and what not. It a form of embedded computational capability that is present in everyday objects only to make communication perform much better but the Government of Australia is using to spy on the internet users. Pervasive computing devices are network connected and is available at all time (Warren et al., 2016). The problem with pervasive computing is that it can occur anytime with any device and at any place. These are all included in the laptops, notebooks and smartphones which makes the job of Government much easier to track.
Utilitarian Ethical Theory
In accordance with Utilitarian ethical theory it is stated that any ethical concern must be based on the utility of the fact among the users or involved heads within any specific case scenario (Bannister & Connolly, 2014). In accordance with the case study selected in this assignment, Australia has decided to protect the websites from piracy and hacking issues. Therefore, the decision of Australian government is right from the point of view of utility and utilization of different facts within any case scenario.
Deontology Ethical Theory
According to the ethical theory of deontology, it is stated that duty towards human beings are the most important fact that needs to be managed with respect different ethical considerations within different places. In addition to this, in case of the considered case study about blocking websites for piracy events are one correct decision taken by Australian government as this decision reflects the ethical consideration of the government for protecting the privacy of the websites (Brady, 2014). Therefore, in accordance with the facts related to ethical concern this scenario has appropriately implemented deontological aspects within it.
Virtue Ethical Theory
In accordance with the ethical theory of virtue ethics, this is found the moral values are mainly prioritized for evaluating the ethical aspects involved within any case scenario. In contrast with these facts, this is identified that Australian government has decided to block some websites due to solving piracy issues involved within those websites. The government has considered here the moral values of the users of those websites for managing ethical considerations within the scenario of piracy within websites (Burmeister et al., 2014). The concept of virtue ethical theory, the Australian government has taken an ethically correct decision in case of their judgment.
Contract Ethical Theory
According to the contract ethical theory, justification is prioritized within in case of ethically correct situations. This theory states that the considered decisions should be justified with respect to significant ethical theories (Leicester, 2016). Australian government has taken decision for blocking all the websites that are used for piracy of services and conduct. Therefore, this decision is justified enough for restricting the piracy measures involved within the case scenarios.
Aware behavior of users: Aware behavior can restrict the potential threats coming from piracy. Therefore, the users can easily manage and protect their services.
Blocking of unnecessary websites: Blocking of unnecessary websites will prevent the piracy of services within web.
Conclusion
From the following essay it can be concluded that every person has their right to privacy and one should not interfere with that. It is the very basic integral part of anyone’s life. No matter what that organization is, everyone should try to respect the privacy of others. From the film industry’s point of view, it is also correct but there are other ways also by which it can be sorted out.
References
Bannister, F., & Connolly, R. (2014). ICT, public values and transformative government: A framework and programme for research. Government Information Quarterly, 31(1), 119-128.
Brady, D. (2014). Ethics: IT Professional Pillar or Pillory!. Mondo Digitale, 2.
Burmeister, O., Al-Saggaf, Y., Schwartz, M., & Johnson, L. (2014). Internet resources to help Australian ICT professionals identify and solve ethical challenges. ACIS.
Leicester, N. (2016). Ethics in the IT Profession: Does a Code of Ethics have an Effect on Professional Behaviour?.
Turner, A. (2016). Britain’s The Grand Tour piracy spree highlights the futility of blocking The Pirate Bay. The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 10 May 2017, from https://www.smh.com.au/technology/gadgets-on-the-go/britains-the-grand-tour-piracy-spree-highlights-the-futility-of-blocking-the-pirate-bay-20161215-gtcfay.html
Warren, M., Warren, M., Lucas, R., & Lucas, R. (2016). Ethics and ICT: Why all the fuss?. Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society, 14(2), 167-169.
Yanagihara, S., & Koga, H. (2016). The significance of ICT in the generation of code of conduct.
Yanagihara, S., & Koga, H. (2016). The significance of ICT in the generation of code of conduct: from the perspective of polarization of ICT and organizational citizenship behavior. ACM SIGCAS Computers and Society, 45(3), 33-37.