Home
Process
Prices
Get a Discount
About Our Service
Guarantees
Free Essays
FAQ
Contact Us
Free Ethical Issues on Information Technology Essay Sample
Information Technology can be applied almost everywhere in our day to day life processes. This subjects it to misuse thus raising a number of ethical issues. An ethical issue is an encounter by a person or a corporation which leads to making a choice between two alternative options; right (ethical) and wrong (unethical). Ethical persons or organizations are able to distinguish between the wrong and the right and choose the right while unethical is the vice versa.
From the case study, there are situations where it requires the city to choose between the upcoming alternatives which it finds to be right or wrong. Firstly, the city is required to choose to retain or abolish the use of red light in their traffic systems. Here the issue of ethics arises as it takes the right measure to do away with non-effective red lights. The second issue is that the city is in a dilemma of managing its revenue and the safety of traffic systems. The technology results in a great reduction in the number of accidents but at the same time contribute to increase in revenue collected from traffic offences. In this situation the city will be taking right or wrong measures if it decides to retain the technology or scrapping it from the traffic systems.
According to Spionza, 2008, ethical issues can also arise along four dimensions commonly known as PAPA. The first "P" stands for privacy; from the case study the issue of the extent to which the camera upholds ones privacy arises. The cameras take periodic videos on the vehicles and this can be a source of interference of privacy in the streets at the same time efficient for evidences that may help in investigating crime related activities. The first "A", stands for accuracy. Here the issue concerns the person who takes the responsibility of the fidelity and accuracy of the cameras. Who in these cities takes the responsibilities when the reported rear-end collisions at the intersections occur? The second "P" stands for property. The questions from the case study arise when the questions are asked; who really owns the information obtained from cameras? How should councils allocate the few cameras? The last "A" stands for accessibility. How literate are city officials in analyzing the information from the cameras? Do city officials have reading skills? Are they competent in analysis?.
The above "PAPA" discussions for the case study qualify to cover ethics issues as the cities need to choose alternatives from each part. The choice will be taken as wrong or right step depending on the perception of different people. The drivers and the owners are the one concerned with the usage of the cameras. Another primary party is the city council itself as it is responsible for making decisions, also because it is affected by the accidents occurring and the level of revenues collected from the fine imposed on the offending road users.
The article shows that Dallas officials shut down the effective cameras. The city took a step that can be taken to be right to increase the revenue but at the same time it is wrong because every technology is meant to be effective. Here the council will benefit from the consequences as drivers will mess therefore being fined making them to be hurt by the step. The city relies on the revenues to maintain its budget and it is very ironical as it compromises with the road safety to maximize it.
The profitability of the cameras according to the city councils also raises a lot of ethical questions. The questions regarding ethics will arise when they are expected to remove the "unprofitable" but effective cameras and replacing them with faulty ones which they may consider economical. There is conflict of ideas in the sense that it would right for them to be economical in their dealings economical cameras, but which may be wrong from drivers' perspective. Lastly the safety at the intersections in relation to cameras stirs the ethicality of installation. This is because someone may assume that the motive behind the installation of the cameras were to bring the havoc met.
