ISSUES OF PRIVACY



The Ethical, Legal and Social Issues

Abstract

This article examines the potentially conflicting expectations of employers and employees regarding the ethical and legal aspects of privacy invasions in electronic mail communications. The controversial nature of these areas demands that employers and employees, as well as those with whom they interact--consultants, information service support personnel, suppliers, and customers--be aware of, and responsive to, expectations of and concerns about privacy. Users and organizations naive about ethical conduct and the legal parameters concerning email privacy are vulnerable to harm caused by intrusions. Organizations have an obligation to their employees, business partners, customers, and society, as well as to themselves, to act ethically. However, ethical behavior is often difficult to achieve. Email monitoring in organizations may be viewed by employers as a necessity, as well as, as a right. As owners of the resources, employers may assume the right to monitor email. Such monitoring may or may not be ethically acceptable or legally permissible.(Brail,1996)

Introduction

The Internet has become an important form of communication in modern society, with a forecast of 500 million online globally by the year 2003. 1 Its increased use and accessibility have led to a burgeoning of cyber communities, where people of like minds and common interests transcend geographical barriers and communicate with one another on a range of subjects, some trivial, some controversial, and some intensely private.

The vast amount of social and behavioral information potentially available on the Internet has made it a prime target for researchers wishing to study the dynamics of human interactions and their consequences in this virtual medium. Researchers can potentially collect data from widely dispersed populations at relatively low cost and in less time than similar efforts in the physical world. As a result, there has been an increase in the number of Internet studies, ranging from surveys to naturalistic observation. Examples of recent research include the Carnegie Mellon Human- Computer Interaction Institute's investigation of the social and psychological effects of Internet use at home3and a University of Pittsburgh researcher's study on Internet addiction.(Bott,1991)

Discussion

New Internet research offers great potential for improving scholarship in a wide variety of fields and for assessing the very practical impacts of an increasingly critical technology. Indeed, this potential was recognized in the August 1998 report of the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee, when it recommended that the federal government expand its research portfolio on the "social and economic impacts of information technology diffusion and adoption." (Brail,1996) The ease with which the cyberspace medium facilitates these types of studies also raises issues about the ethical and legal dimensions of such research and the norms and policies that have traditionally governed its conduct.

The ability of both researchers and their subjects to assume anonymous or pseudonymous identities online, the complexities of obtaining informed consent, the often exaggerated expectations, if not the illusion, of privacy in cyberspace, and the blurred distinction between public and private domains fuel questions about the interpretation and applicability of current policies governing the conduct of social and behavioral ...