ethical implications in it

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ETHICAL IMPLICATIONS IN IT 1

Ethical and legal implications in cloud computing

Howard Beny

Ethical and Legal Considerations in Information Technology

August 5, 2012

Corinne Dalelio


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ABSTRACT

Cloud computing is the process of moving information to the cloud for either storage or

processing. What is the cloud and cloud computing? Well, there are two distinct types of

clouds, the first is the internet. Companies like Apple, Google, and Amazon have created servers

and storage in data centers that can securely store your information and you could retrieve it

from any computer in the world. There are several advantages to this type of storage and its

popularity has increased considerably over the last five years. The other cloud is the cloud that

resides in companys intranet; this storage is used for internal use only and is very secure and

stable. Products like MS SharePoint are one example of a product that, on the front end supports

the Intranet cloud. I will be focusing on the public Internet, since the private Intranet is a

different animal and the ethics of the Internet clouds will be sufficient for this paper.


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ETHICAL FRAMEWORKS IN IT AND CLOUD COMPUTING

The ethical framework in Information Technology (IT) details the moral values and standard

behaviors that tell us how to act. When it comes to IT and specifically to cloud computing the

ethical behavior of companies is of utmost importance. Imagine that you placed all of you data

with a company that rented cloud storage; sometime later there was a breach and data was stolen,

your data. This data contained sensitive information about you and your family; you would lose

trust and faith in this company. So, what must be done to protect the information that is

entrusted to these companies from an ethical standpoint? It is the decision making that defines

the ethics that the company makes that shows how ethical they can be.

The other side of the coin is the knowledge of the users. There are millions of people that are

using the cloud, but what percentage of them understands the cloud and the probabilities that

something will happen to their information. From a legal and medical point of view there is a

legal duty to protect the information of the clients and patients. In the context of a law firm,

cloud computing raises concerns associated with entrusting a third party with confidential client

data. (Newton, Unknown) It will be a partnership of the companys technology experts that,

with their ethical behavior, make sure that the information is secure and accessible to only those

with the proper access. When you talk about ethics you by default need to talk about the law and

the consequences since the two are very interconnected.

Technology, particularly revolutionary technology, generates many ethical problems.

Sometimes the problems can be treated easily under extant ethical policies. All things being

equal using a new technology to cheat on ones taxes is unethical. The fact that new technology

is involved does not alter that. But, because new technology allows us to perform activities in

new ways, situations may arise in which we do not have adequate policies in place to guide us.


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We are confronted with policy vacuums. (Moor, 2006) Over the last 10-15 years technologies

have arisen to do so many good and bad things, there was a school bus monitor in New York

State that was verbally abused by 4 middle schoolers, the benefit was that a technology

application was used to help her and raise over $600,000 for her. The other side of the coin

contains things that arent ethical like someone creating a virus or hacking into secured servers to

retrieve information. These are some of the ethical problems that the new technology has

created, stealing without leaving your home. When we talk about the cloud technologies we

encounter the very same ethical issues. The companies that host these data centers are aware of

these challenges of keeping the data that is entrusted to them safe, but Im not quite sure they are

upholding the ethical side when it comes to helping their customers. There is a balance between

costs and ensuring the customers store their information securely. If the data is in a secure

physical location, is protected from hackers and the like, but the user is allowed to create a weak

password that is easy to break, whose fault is it, ethically speaking?

In the case of cloud computing the laws has gotten very muddy, because data that is housed in a

U.S. based company on U.S. soil might have different laws than a company and data that is

based in Japan. What jurisdiction would you go to when you have data from all over the world?

In one instance, European concerns about US privacy laws led to creation of the US Safe

Harbor Privacy Principles, which are intended to provide European companies with a degree of

insulation from US laws. (Binning, 2009) There havent been much legislation on cloud

computing and all I can find are hearings on the subject. One of the first hearings was an

exploration on: THE NEXT IT REVOLUTION? CLOUD COMPUTING

OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES This excerpt from the hearing relates to the

possibility for the need of legislation: Lack of certainty associated with the laws and regulations


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governing migration of services to cloud computing has prevented more widespread adoption.

Different industries face different regulatory frameworks which exacerbate problems of

uncertainty. Liability concerns associated with data protection may prevent companies from

migrating data away from their direct control. Finally, because liability and data storage

regulations differ among countries, companies may be hesitant to expose themselves to potential

lawsuits by migrating services to the cloud. (U.S. House Subcommittee on Science, Space, and

Technology, 2011) The lack of legislation and regulation has not caused undue issues or loss of

data, but it is inevitable that some type of legislation is yet to come, right after a significant

breach. There are currently laws to prosecute hackers, writers of viruses and others; these will

have to do for the time being.

The cloud computing environment is the new old west. Evan though cloud computing has

been around for a while, these has been little legislation to protect the data, and there will never

be, simply because of this little question: whose data is it and where does it physically sit? We

rely on the ethical practices of the companies that host the servers and data centers to live by a

code. What we as individuals need to understand is that we need to manage our security, our

passwords and understand where the data is stored. The ethical framework that motivates us and

the companies that service us must always strive for the highest level of protection.


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Body of paper (cont.)

ethical implications in it

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