What is Technology Ethics?
Technology Ethics are some strong moral grounds or principles that tell you the way they should be used. These principles include freedom, privacy, data protection, online behavior, accountability, and digital rights. These ethical problems are highlighted to bring out positive environmental changes and their impacts on humans.
Artificial Intelligence AI has lined up many business leads and therefore, it poses a danger to technology ethics as well. Meanwhile, we may find several unethical misfortunes of this technology.
- Face recognition and misuse of this technology to manipulate people and situations.
- Tracking the health of people and using this information for other purposes without their consent.
Other technologies that come with ethical dilemmas include drones, robots, self-driving cars, etc.
Technology and Modern Day Life
We live in a world where technology comes with some ethical challenges. This threat disturbs and disrupts the smooth running of the business world. When you get into a technology-related organizational encounter, you will face ethical dilemmas.
Technology is growing at a faster pace and it is not sound to neglect its ethical perspective. We know that we are dealing with a tech-driven world, where we have the power and liberty to use it effectively. It insists we make choices in such a manner that they are ethically sound.
Today we see how technology is growing at an unimaginable pace that it is hard for us to catch where it is missing. It misses the deeper understanding and implementation of ethics. We are facing many direct and indirect ethical problems in technology such as privacy violations, illegal data collection, exploitation, and lack of transparency of the tools we use. Lack of incorporation of ethics in technology innovations in medical, communications, and weapons, leads to many problems.
Ethical Issues and their Solutions
Nowadays, businesses are facing ethical challenges, as we are not making technology ethics our priority. Therefore, we need to make critical decisions to make sure that our data and personal freedom have been protected.
You will be facing the following ethical issues:
- Personal Information and Misuses
Today we are handing over our personal information to many business and social sites in the name of technology empowerment. While making online purchases, and accessing several internet sites, we provide them with our personal information. Many businesses and companies use our details for promotions and to advertise their products and services. Our personalized information acts as gold for them and they use it to reach out to the consumer base and make more money out of it.
They do this without our consent and sometimes we agree to the terms and conditions of the site voluntarily. We miss reading the details of privacy and security and fall prey to many scams and frauds.
- Fake News and Misinformation related to person or situation
This is another eye-opening reality that has invaded our lives through technology. Misinformation through social media and news portals breaking false information has taken over our lives. With the bulk of information about celebrities, politics, the economy, and other current affairs, it is hard to distinguish accurate news from inaccurate pieces of information.
The wrong news circulates like a wildfire without checking the facts and digging deeper into fake news. What is more alarming is that you will find them published in authentic newspapers and top-rated books without proper verification.
It was generally believed that the video evidence is enough to disclose the truth. However, with deep fake technologies, we are now facing the manipulation of digital evidence used to exploit the reputation of a person. You will find people doing and saying things that have never happened in the actual. This is seriously an alarming situation and need to dealt it with full responsibility and care.
- Being Responsible for the Data Protection
Companies are obliged to handle big chunks of data, cybersecurity issues, and personally identifiable information. Who will ensure data protection in that case?
If you are involving a third party in processing your business payments like software, your credit card details may get breached. Therefore, businesses must create a flowchart to share collective responsibilities and protect data at all stakes.
Data mismanagement should be avoided while making current policies to improve data security and privacy.
How to use Ethical Practices in Technology?
Technology ethics is a kind of moral relationship between technology and users, where we have the power to act and make choices accordingly. There are certain ethical practices that we can apply while using technological advancements.
- Customers and Employee Relationship
In any business relationship, customers and employees are the centers of attention. It is the moral responsibility of the whole entity to protect customers’ data and employee rights on moral grounds. With huge technology advancements, customer and employee relationships may get affected by the unethical use of valuable data.
- Data and Resources and Moral Responsibility:
Customer data in business dealings is a core value of organizational strength and power. This data can be utilized in a shady or positive manner for marketing of products and services. Companies that take technology ethics into account and ensure that the private data of customers and employees are not at stake while product promotions are more successful.
Therefore, businesses should adopt measures and compliance policies and procedures to avoid data leakage and its unethical usage.
- A Responsible Ethical Culture:
We will see regular innovations in the field of technology and it is necessary to adopt a culture of responsibility. Together, we can ensure that the technology we use for our business dealings must be protected well.
What should be our response to Ethical Dilemmas?
- Ethical dilemmas are treatable if we start blowing the whistle on bullying, sexual harassment, and discrimination at the technology level.
- It is better to repeat and reconfirm what happened at an authoritative level
- Pointing out any unethical behavior while focusing on the manager’s interest and asking ethical questions to reverse the situation.
- If you can suggest any alternate solution to dissolve an unethical situation, then it goes in your interest. Otherwise, it is better to leave an unethical environment and save your reputation.
Conclusion:
You fell in love with technological innovations, but at the same time, you will see many disasters going on in technology. They are holding our life, pretending to be an innovative pillar, but some technology tools are making efforts to design us back. We need to understand what is good and bad they are doing to us and how we can struggle to protect ourselves from this risk of technology destruction.
Digital growth has now become a new normal in the modern-day and it is our responsibility to think through the tech. Nowadays, cyberbullying and the spread of fake information have become a norm and there is a need to emphasize and endorse technology ethics in such situations.