Ethics and Technology

Ethics and Technology

Work environments require careful attention to both many aspects. Two of those aspects are technology and ethics. Although the two topics may not seem related, ethics is directly involved with technology. . In a study conducted by ICR (International Communications Research) on behalf of the American Society of Chartered Life Underwriters and Chartered Financial Consultants and the Ethics Officer Association, it was revealed that nearly half of American workers engaged in an unethical act as a result of technology in the workplace. While most people feel that the use of the latest technology is a great improvement and advances business, some also feel that new technology places added pressure on them from a number of sources. Examples of these factors are increased productivity expectations, the continual need to update technology, less lenience for errors or co-workers who are not as technologically savvy, fear of losing data, and the overload of information. Thus, they are acting less ethically in the workplace. (USA Today, 1999)

In most corporate companies, employees are now required to sign a confidentiality waiver, forbidding them to transmit customer information via email or fax, unless the receiving source has been fully verified. Particularly in customer service settings, it is imperative that representatives fully verify who they are speaking to on the phone. Representatives are requires to ask numerous amounts of questions to verify identities, such as social security numbers, addresses, telephone numbers, mother’s maiden name, passwords, account numbers and other specific account information. Forgetting to verify all pieces of information can result in written or verbal warnings or in some cases, termination. Many companies have reported several instances where security breaches at their corporations and financial institutions have put millions of consumers at risk. In one incident, 40 million credit card numbers were exposed when hackers illegally accessed a company's secure database.(Skidell, M., 2005)

Similarly, documents are not to be transmitted via email or fax unless the source on the other line has fully been verified. This precaution has been put into place due to the overwhelming amount of unethical acts such as listening to private conversations, accessing personal files, sabotaging data, and especially identity theft. With the advancements of technology, hackers are more able to tap phone calls to listen in on private conversations to obtain ones social security numbers, accounts numbers, expiration dates and date of births. With these few pieces of information, thieves can assume any ones identity and proceed to open credit cards, mortgages, buy automobiles and create internet accounts to be charged on. Once this type of damage has been done, it can take a person many years to repair their credit, gain financial accountability, and restore their identity.

The primary concerns are the availability of dangerous and offensive material on the Internet, invasion of privacy by the government or business, and the loss of face-to-face contact. With these growing concerns, businesses have not worked with technology to ensure security for their customers. When individuals use a debit card to complete transactions with a merchant, they are now asked to authenticate their purchase and identity by entering