Ethics and Legal Issues in Computing

Ethics and Legal Issues in Computing

Over the past three decades, the proliferation of technology has had immense impact in whole world with the different practices such as the social norms being transformed to accommodate the changing interaction and communication needs. These changing needs towards an interaction of the society have contributed towards immensely towards the current understanding of the ethical practices and the norms that focus on what is right and wrong. According to Luppicini (2012), such changes have occurred due to the high level of interaction between the different individuals in the world allowing for the sharing of views and adoption of new ones just with the rise of technology.

Prior to the adoption of mobile phones and technologies, individuals would have discussions and probably make point on notebooks, which would reaffirm what they having in the discussion. Rarely would a person engage in the discussion and at same time be doing other things. Today, in a restaurant, one is bound to see people engaging in a conversation while their friends are handling a phone or interacting with it. This interaction is in most cases not always in line with the discussion that these individuals may be having where they may be making notes on their devices and this begs the question on whether the morals of having a conversation are well known to people. Scientifically, as Crenshaw (2008) comments, even if individuals were to multitask, at some point in time they will be tempted to be making preferences to other issues which their brain would categorize as more important.

Adoption of technology has also had immense impact on erosion of privacy laws. Today, monitoring other people within their domains has become easier especially with the age of the internet and the interaction with the respective devices. Rarely are people considering the privacy laws of other people and in the case of employers just as Akrivopoulou & Garipidis (2013), noted monitoring employee has always raised dilemma on what is right or wrong. Should employers have the right of way to monitor the employees? Some of the cases that have been documented have shown monitoring even in sensitive places such as the bathrooms in the workplaces. Twenty years ago, such practices would have been considered to contravene ones privacy thus unethical and illegal but the existence of the technological aids such practices to be viewed in a different light.