CHAPTER 13
E-Ethics: Making It Up As They Go Along A
SYSTEM OF ETHICS BUILT SOLELY ON THE GOALS OF
COMFORT AND HAPPINESS WOULD BE SUFFICIENT ONLY FOR A HERD OF CATTLE.
– ALBERT EINSTEIN
has created an ethical minefield for individuals and companies. The complete rules of Internet and e-commerce ethics have yet to be written, and those that have aren’t always enforced. The perception that individuals, corporations and governments are making it up as they go along is not far from the truth. With the growth of the Internet and e-commerce, concerns have arisen around online consumer privacy, workplace privacy, ethical marketing and the private use of workplace communications tools by employees. At the same time, many small and large companies operating in the New Economy have grown so fast that they have had little time—and many would say little inclination—to develop ethical processes. Many blame the low (or non-existent) ethical standards of the new breed of Internet entrepreneurs, the so-called dot-comers for much of the problem. It appears that many Internet entrepreneurs were more interested in playing the capital markets for the quick buck than trying to build sustainable companies with long-term economic value. Fortune magazine said the fast-paced dot-com world created the context in which “ethically dubious behavior can seem almost normal”—maybe even requisite.
THE EXPLOSION IN COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGIES
Personal Cyber-Ethics: Invisible On The Web? One perception that makes the use of the Internet and other modern communication tools so tempting for individual ethical lapses is that technology allows an individual to become almost invisible. While in truth people often leave “cyberfootprints” when using the Interet and e-mail, there are other cases when cloaked identity, the establishment of pseudonymous e-mail accounts, the use of the Anonymyzer (an Internet site that disguises your e-mail address and identity) or even the copying of software to your personal computer without the proper license gives individuals the feeling of being invisible. And being invisible often means people can be easily tempted into ethical lapses and even illegal behavior. But this is hardly a recently invented concept. Consider the story of Gyges and The Ring—a parable that Plato often used 2,400 years ago to discuss the human inclination toward unethical behavior when unmonitored. The story goes like this: Gyges was a shepherd who one afternoon came across a corpse laying in a cave wearing nothing but a gold ring. Gyges took the ring and wore it, taking it to the
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