Cyberethic

Cyberethics

With the explosion of the technology age, information management is at a crucial state. Technology's rapid advances have given us the tools to employ new forms of information collection and distribution. However, one vital detail has been left by the wayside--ethics. More importantly, it is Cyberethics that individuals in the IS and IT professions should give more attention to. Cyberethics is the guidelines by which information and information systems should be managed. Accuracy, accountability, accessibility, and privacy are the cornerstones by which cyberethics was created. And it is not for lack of trying that these issues have become an afterthought. The main culprit is technology itself. Industries and businesses alike have spent more time and resources implementing methods to store and manipulate information that they've neglected to examine what the information truly is. An established code of ethics increases the chances that data management is sound.

Because information is such an important asset, it should be imperative that ethics be implemented sooner than later. For instance, the accuracy of data should be a key component of all data management. In the medical field, the health of millions of people relies on accurate data. Doctors make choices based on a person's health or family history. Hospitals can only assume that drugs and labels match. However, suppose that a drug was mislabeled or a patient's diagnosis was misinterpreted. Inaccuracies such as these cost people their lives, and hospitals money. In the end, this financial burden is passed on to all consumers of medical health. Cyberethics will not prevent all mistakes, but may lessen the chances that inaccuracies will occur.

Inaccuracies always lead to accountability. However, in the Information Age, it is the technology that receives the majority of the blame. Systems crashing or slow connections are common occurrences in the workplace. These are also reasons people use to pass blame for lapses or mishaps in data management. Computers are the backbone of information management in this day and age. Yet they have no means of evaluating the data that is fed into them. Accountability is necessary to ensure not only that data is accurate, but that the means of managing and manipulating data is never compromised.

Useful information is power that everyone should have access to in some way, shape, or form. Accessibility deals with the admission to data. In the past, people would obtain information by going to the library. However, society today relies on the internet which has opened up avenues of vast knowledge. The downside is that the entire world does not have access to the internet. Cyberethicists are concerned that information may not be available to those who need it most. There are those that lack the technology, wherewithal, or expertise for access to the "new library." They also fear that those who manage information will use it strictly to garner profits. Employing cyberethics promotes knowledge throughout the world, while also maintaining the confidentiality of "need to know" information.

Privacy is of the utmost importance to consumers. However, those who collect data must be sensitive of what data should and should not be collected. A case in point: Monitors were placed in bathrooms at Tallahassee Community College in order to collect data on usage. Students and faculty saw this as an invasion of privacy and asked the ACLU to intervene. The legislature claimed that this study provided "valuable information on policymaking." It was their belief that this data collection and usage was more important than the insecurities felt by the students and staff. Cases such as these illustrate the importance of implementing cyberethics. A line must be drawn in the sand where the argument of the "greater good" cannot trump all.

Privacy also concerns the handling of data. With this information