Ethical behaviour in Information Privacy
Even though the sharing of personal information to strangers has become a normality due to the age of social media, the internet and general freedom, “Great Privacy Give-Away”, people still have an ethical duty to protect their own information privacy. (read 847) Some people do not even think twice before they post something personal about themselves on social media, including their current location. This just presents that people are becoming less and less aware of the consequences of being too “open”.
Privacy is defined as an individual condition of life characterised by exclusion from publicity. It is basically the right to be left alone (#1). It is greatly important to understand the meaning of what privacy is to protect one’s own information privacy. An understanding of this can be derived from the classifications of privacy rights. The first classification of privacy rights includes anonymity, intimacy and solitude, whilst the second classification relates to “the right to control one’s personal information including methods of dissemination of that information”. (#4 mine). These classifications can be understood by applying utilitarian
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Deontology uses rules to distinguish right from wrong. Philosopher Immanuel Kant believed in universal moral laws to determine ethical decisions and actions (read 853). Since deontological ethics only require people to follow rules, it is then easy to abide to and understand which the main reason is why it is an ideal guide to ethical behaviour. There are also moral duties that need to be applied in correlation with the universal laws and amongst those duties is the duty to protect one’s own information privacy (read 852). Protecting one’s information privacy is essential to maintain dignity, self-respect and freedom. This is important to maintain the first classification of privacy