A technical Essay on ethics in IT

  An Analytical Essay on-Foreign and government Surveillance creates privacy Issue

                       A Coursework of Information Technology Ethics and Principles

 Abstract-:  Ethics and principles are the backbone of any organization, field or any workplace. This is only the ethics which brings the trust and respect. Like any other Industry our Information Technology   Industry is also respected by following the code of ethics. The IT Ethics is an approach   how the professionals should make decisions considering social and professional concern. This approach depends upon three factors, firstly it is the own individual‘s behaviour, secondly it is informal code of conduct at working place and thirdly the exposure to the formal code of conduct. Here in this essay we are going to analyse the Foreign and government Surveillance that create privacy Issue for civilians. Surveillance is very important to ensure the safety of civilians, as we all are experiencing at present the terrorist are more technical these days the we expect, but if the Surveillance is intruding the privacy of an individual then it hurts. Now in this essay we are going to analyse the need of technical Surveillance, the privacy line it should not cross, then we are going to consider the effects of intruding in privacy by Surveillance.

Keywords- Surveillance, Privacy, Code of Ethics, Australian Law of Surveillance, International Impact, Foreign Policy, Right To Privacy, Digital Age

Introduction-:  At present we are living in a Surveillance Society. The Surveillance Society Scholars like Clive Norris, David Lyon and Gary Armstrong are focusing and are working to bring the attention of the masses for the development of a strong Surveillance Society     David Lyon (1994) states-“Michel Foucault’s celebrated, and contentious, historical studies of surveillance and discipline had appeared that mainstream social theorists began to take surveillance seriously in its own right”.  David Murakami Wood (2003, 235) emphasizes that “For Surveillance Studies, Foucault is a foundational thinker and his work on the development of the modern subject, in particular Surveillir ET Punir (translated as Discipline and Punish), remains a touchstone for this nascent trans disciplinary field.”   First we are going to elaborate what is Surveillance, It is the process when our government or foreign agency collect the records of  phone number, E-mails and other information of civilians through Internet  technology and other communication technology to have an eye  or monitoring on citizens to ensure the safety of the country and whole region. National Identity scheme, the website cookies, the royalty program information, total health screening and no fly list are all example of Surveillance. This helps to be better connected and to be ensure to have better facility. Using the GPRS Service to find the location and way are some benefits of this service. Today we are living in a Surveillance society, we can find cameras controlled by computers in public places, and this ensures safety and also helps in investigation and other requirements for further use. Surveillance is conducted now days by every country under the guidelines of their Cyber Laws nationally as well as internationally.                                      Jean Baullidiard states (2007). ““The same goes for Discipline and Punish, with its theory of discipline, of the ‘panoptic’ and of ’transparency’ ”.

 Mass Surveillance is very useful to ensure the safety of peoples, to have security control against terrorism, to have a control on child Pornography and protecting Child rights as well Human Rights too .Australian  Government has also a well-planned program for national Surveillance, the  Australian national Authority collect information from Own Developed Agency ,  Google, Telstra and Optus. According to the report of Google the Data rate for Surveillance by Australian government increases by 20% every year.

         The Surveillance is good practice but there are many drawbacks also, firstly here the information gathered is stored for long duration, here the risk of being stolen away, also it can be misused by various peoples, they can copy the data and can do manipulation in it... This  is completely an intruding in somebody’s life Secondly here the main issue is  that the person of whose information is being gathered is not being aware,  there is no transparency of what information is  been guarded and which information is kept transparent., overall   is also not made clear which information is being tracked and which information is being shared. Now due to globalization the information gathered is also used by foreign government. The same process happens for Australia too, even The Australian government also collects information to transfer it to other countries. At present there is no system which can accurately check the transfer of data to the foreign countries internationally. Somehow there are Cyber Laws but violation of laws is also a big practice. The secret collection of data creates confusion, paranoia and suspicion among peoples. Another question arises of the accountability, to the freedom, to the use of services, the mobility   and social justice. At present people feel due to these highly technical environment that there is a spy over them every moment. Another big argument always coming up is the use of cameras in public places, the issue is what the limit is so that privacy of an individual cannot be hurt. As a consumer our financial statements are viewed by authorities to check the fraud cases, to ensure accountability but other companies who do market survey, promotion use the information . Another big question arises how the Surveillance is conducted and the information collected is grouped and represented by the call centre. Digital images collected in these surveys have also big risk of manipulation.  Due to these problems people has started putting petition against the excessive Surveillance in every section of lives. Another big fact is Surveillance is like two face of a coin, it is useful and another hand threat to privacy both.  

  We all have observed that crime-rate has decreased in those places where CCTV Cameras are installed but similarly our information silently do pass to other International Authorities.               The main purpose of Surveillance is to bring a disciplinary approach in collecting the records. A very interesting Survey worldwide has come out that due to the practicing of the Surveillance through traffic control of the use of internet at working place about one fourth of Employees has to loose there job as they were found guilty of misusing internet, E-Mail services, phones, indulging in non- work related web sites (Pornographic, games, social Websites) at their work place. At present companies use software’s to  track the data content, keyboard stroke , spywares to have an eye on the employee working status, they also continuously also monitor on social websites about their employees what they are writing about their company or they are passing information to the rival companies.  Same observation is done by national as well International   Authorities to monitor views and information against them. Every country spends a big amount of expenditure to perform the Surveillance. So obviously it puts impact on the country’s economy, so it is very essential to practice this ethically. Some form of Surveillance has always been there out. In 2013 about 500 Australian authors including five Nobel Prize winner filed the petition against current cue Surveillance System and demanded Amendment in the current policies. In Australia the privacy law advocates for the systematic storage of data, infect it goes to two years to clear any violation, setting cases in court and many other hassles so Australians definitely want a better perspective than present.

                  

Conclusion-:  The main objective of this essay on Foreign and government Surveillance creates privacy Issue was to analyse the pros and cons of Surveillance at present. It was a theoretical approach with illustrative examples initiated from abstract to the concrete stage. Well Australian government has made cyber laws to protect the privacy of the people, according to the present law any authorized agency without conformation can collect and store any individuals detail, can tap phones, can access Internet information , violating these rights one can go to court for justice.  Well there are laws world- wide but the main concern again is on the own individuals ethics, we as a part of society has a moral duty to work for a better Surveillance Society, by discussing the pros and cons it is clear we are living in a digital age, our life surround these digital resources, it has to be we who have to be honest and most importantly strict about our own privacy rights. Criticising the system has never been a solution, the solution is to find the way, to get united for this cause. Most important requirement at this stage is the need of bringing awareness, learning to be better member of the society. This was a simple approach according to the student perspective, Surveillance is indeed a vast area and can be elaborated in wider approach, many other issues can be analysed.