Theft of Unprotected Data Ethical Issue

Question: Discss about theTheft of Unprotected Data of Ethical Issue. Answer: Introduction This essay focuses on the analysis of the ethical issue of theft of unprotected data. The analysis focuses on the various factors related to such an ethical issue along with the various entities involved in the corresponding ethical situation. It is unethical to steal unprotected data, even if it is the responsibility of the owner to secure it The hypothesis statement mentioned above focuses on the theft of unprotected data along with the responsibilities of the owner of the data. This ethical problem hovers around the fact that some data has been stolen. Now the factor which weighs into the decision making process is the security applied for the data by the owner. One of the argument, which can arise in this situation is, the data was never secured properly by the owner, so its not unethical to take it without the owners consent. Another argument for this situation is that its unethical to take any private data without the owners consent even if its not protected or secured properly (Finn, 2016). Analysis As mentioned before, the ethical dilemma under discussion is the theft of unprotected data and the factors related to the situation. One of the analogy to the situation is an unlocked door in a house. If a house is not protected by a locked door and the owner forgot to lock the door, that doesnt make it ethical for someone to go into the house and take some property. Such as action of an individual can also be considered to be illegal. In the same way, data can be considered to be the intellectual property of an individual irrespective of whether its secured or not. The theft of the intellectual property of any individual should be considered unethical even if the owner didnt keep the property secure (Warren, 2016). Another analogy of the situation is the garbage thrown out to trash in front of a house and whether it is unethical for an individual to go through the dumpster to take some items without the consent of the owner of the house. The action of an individual to go through the dumpster is certainly not illegal, but unethical. In case of a professional environment, the data that isnt useful isnt available ethically for anyone to take it. So even if the data is not useful to the owner, its not ethical for anyone to steal it even when its unsecured or unprotected (Conn, 2013). The code of ethics established by the Australia Computer Society provides a number of guidelines for the decision making process for similar situations. One of the social values focuses in the code of ethics defined by Australian Computer Society is honesty, which in turn can be applied to this situation in order to define the action of stealing unprotected data to be unethical. Professionalism is another social value that the Australian Computer Society focuses on for the code of ethics. As per this social value, its not professional for an individual to steal the unprotected data kept in any condition (Leicester, 2016). If the owner hasnt kept the data secured or protected, professionalism suggests that we should respect the privacy of the owner and leave the data untouched even if its unprotected. The code of ethics from the Australian Computer Society also focuses on the practice of keeping the interest of public in front of personal interests. The application of this social valu e to the situation under analysis, suggests that the interest of the owner of the data should be kept in front of the personal interests. The theft of the unprotected data negatively affects the interest of the owner to keep the data safe, which in turn makes such an action unethical (Casteleyn, 2013). Conclusion It is certainly unethical for an individual to steal unprotected data, even if the owner forgot to keep it safe or the owner didnt want to keep the data safe. The analogies of this situation to the real-world scenarios of a house with its door unlocked and dumpster in front of a house suggested that the action of stealing unprotected data is unethical even if its the responsibilities of the owner to keep it secure. The social values mentioned in the code of ethics established by the Australian Computer Society include professionalism, primacy of the public interest and honesty, all of which suggest that the act of stealing the unprotected information can be considered as unethical. In some situations, such act can also be considered to be illegal. So such factors should be kept in focus in order to avoid from similar actions (Bowern, 2013). References Bowern, M. and Burmeister, O.K., 2013. 14. Business benefits from keeping codes of ethics up to date. 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