Ethics on the Internet
In today's society, there are many ethical issues on the Internet. Some of the biggest issues and concerns seem to be hacking and viruses, copyright infringements, spam, privacy, and cyberporn. Internet ethical issues affect a wide variety of individuals and almost all people today are affected in some kind of a way. Until recently, most computer users had not been very concerned with questions of ethics and may not have been aware of something being seen as an ethical issue, but this depends on every individual's position. However, today there are many concerns about these issues and some organizations are trying to get laws approved protecting individuals in today's society.
Copyright infringements
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Many companies gather information and sell if to other companies and sites for their use. This violates an individual's privacy and allows for spam mail. Spam is a very frustrating thing and is a significant problem. Statistics show that an estimated 30 million email messages are sent out each day and about 30% of them are unsolicited commercial emails.
In 1996, the court found that mass mailers don't have a constitutional right to obstruct someone's computer. With costs today, bulk email is extremely cheap for businesses rather than the original way of using postage. With 30 million emails going out every day, this is extremely likely to cause problems with the speed and access to many Internet System Providers (ISPs). Many large ISPs have suffered major system outages as the result of massive junk email mailings. It is believed that almost 95% of recipients don't want to receive these messages, which has caused many junk emailers to use tricks to get you to open their messages by changing the text in the subject line. They may use "the information that you requested" or other descriptions that would probably catch your eye.
Most of the time a hacker will say that they are simply alerting the public to certain
The concern about privacy on the Internet is increasingly becoming an issue of international dispute. ?Citizens are becoming concerned that the most intimate details of their daily lives are being monitored, searched and recorded.? (www.britannica.com) 81% of Net users are concerned about threats to their privacy while online. The greatest threat to privacy comes from the construction of e-commerce alone, and not from state agents. E-commerce is structured on the copy and trade of intimate personal information and therefore, a threat to privacy on the Internet.
Legal and ethical issues in computing are not as straight forward as one expects, these two comprehensive concepts can be divided into many sub-sections such as computer Ethics which is a moral standard used as a guideline for computer users, Code of ethics is a guideline in ICT, intellectual property is the own work that is created by individuals, privacy refers to the rights that individual and companies have and how their data is collected and restricted to outside sources, computer crime is an illegal act that involves computers and finally cyber law which is laws that are related to helping protect the internet and other online communication.
-Canada has been trying to get rid of spam advertising for numerous years now and finally passed an Anti-spam legislation stating that: Your business must have consent to deliver an electronic message to someone, you must clearly identify your business, and must include an unsubscribe feature. This may be to disadvantage, but America has similar anti-spam laws as well.
The sharing of information may well be the most advanced activity of the twenty-first century occurring across ages and backgrounds with relative ease. Nevertheless, the use of information that is aired through the internet raises several genuine concerns regarding nature, intent, source, and destination as well as the consequences of the content. This is particularly true when the information has to do with people 's identities and other activities that may touch on critical aspects of national security and unauthorized business. As such, there is a mix of reactions among individuals regarding the extent of privacy they would like regarding information that they share or retrieve on the internet. While some may have genuine concerns such as protecting their identity, others are on malicious tracks to cover their person and conduct unwarranted business on the web. The mix of concerns led to the rise of the Dark Web on darknets. A darknet is an overlay network that utilizes the public Internet but requires authorization or special software to access mainly to protect the user’s identity and location from network surveillance and traffic analysis (Sui, Caverlee & Rudesill 2003). Such trends on the internet raise the question; is the Dark Web an important and necessary tool to offset pervasive online surveillance in contemporary society or is the moral panic surrounding the Dark Web in global news media justified? The aim of this research is to answer the raised question
Email marketing feels like one of those vestigial parts of the Internet that hasn’t changed much over the years.
bulk email.” Although a National Do Not Email Registry containing domain names would alleviate the security issues inherent in a list of individual email addresses, given the challenge in enforcing any form of a National Do Not Email
The consideration of computer ethics fundamentally emerged with the birth of computers. There was concern right away that computers would be used inappropriately to the detriment of society, or that they would replace humans in many jobs, resulting in widespread job loss. To grasp fully the issues involved with computer ethics, it is important to consider the history. Cyber fraud which I
Spinello, R. A. (2011). Regulating Internet Privacy. Cyber Ethics - Morality and Law in Cyberspace. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Learning.
The Internet is unquestionably having a profound impact on many aspects of social, culture, economic, and legal systems throughout the world, moreover, enabling significant advances in global communication technologies, that make it more possible to contemplate the development of a more complex global information society. Such a global society offers many benefits to humankind, but incorporating regulation to enable and promote these information societies present challenges. However, such challenges create difficult questions for those making legal decisions: Do real world laws apply to virtual world problems? Can the laws adapt to regulate such activities? Are existing laws outdated and inadequate? Will new laws be required to suite Internet activities and other information technology developments?
It is an easier way to market the information than before. There are many new trends that are coming in the near future for additional sponsorship such as Disney has a “Magic Band” that guests wear on their wrist as a “proof” into the park. The magic band tracks where guests are located in the park and that way when they see a huge amount of people gathered at one place, they will send out characters such as Mickey or Minnie Mouse to distract them so there is no traffic. Some rewards card program in casinos allow guest to opt-in their email for the program to receive offers. This is also a good way to market because since technology had grown so much, email is becoming a daily thing for most
The CAN-SPAM Act is a law that sets the rules for commercial email, establishes requirements for commercial messages, gives recipients the right to have entities stop emailing them, and sets forth the penalties for violations. However, the law does not apply just to bulk e-mail. “It covers all commercial messages, which the law defines as ‘any electronic mail message the primary purpose of which is the commercial advertisement or promotion of a commercial product or service” (Federal Trade Commission, 2009).
At my old job, a large concern and complaint was the amount of e-mails that were received each day (exclusive of actual work). There would often be 20-30 bulletin, update, tips and/or partner advertisement emails every morning that would come through before you even started the day. These would then continue throughout the day and due to e-mail quotas, you would have to waste time constantly weeding through and deleting those that were not important. This became a nuisance and a problem rather quickly.
If you ever have communicated your plans to your parents over the phone or submitted an assignment to your teacher through an email you have used the convenience of communications technology. We live worlds away from the time where we could only talk to other people face to face and it has allowed us to achieve many great things. Think of how slow sending mail is and before modern technology sending mail was even slower than it is now. Emails have provided a free way to communicate to anyone who also has an email and doesn’t involve wasted paper.
The concern about privacy on the Internet is increasingly becoming an issue of international dispute. ?Citizens are becoming concerned that the most intimate details of their daily lives are being monitored, searched and recorded.? (www.britannica.com) 81% of Net users are concerned about threats to their privacy while online. The greatest threat to privacy comes from the construction of e-commerce alone, and not from state agents. E-commerce is structured on the copy and trade of intimate personal information and therefore, a threat to privacy on the Internet.
In the early years of computers and computerized technology, computer engineers had to believe that their contribution to the development of computer technology would produce positive impacts on the people that would use it. During the infancy of computer technology, ethical issues concerning computer technology were almost nonexistent because computers back then were not as multifaceted as they are today. However, ethical issues relating to computer technology and cyber technology is undeniable in today’s society. Computer technology plays a crucial role in all aspects of our daily lives. Different forms of computer technology provide unique functionalities that allow people to perform daily activities effectively and efficiently. In