Research Paper on Information Technology

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wubyrzf4

Computer Science

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I am looking for a minimum 10 page research paper on Ethics in Information Technology. The specific area of interest is IT ethics concerning privacy and massive surveillance programs (U.S. and abroad). The research paper should include valid and reputable sources and pertinent to the topic. 50% of the paper should be educated opinion and thinking related to the topic as well as its defense. My topic will be The Ethical Dilemma's / Issues that surround massive government surveillance programs (e.g. NSA Echelon program) and privacy rights. My stance is that the massive surveillance without specific targets is unethical. Targeted surveillance is acceptable as long as there is due cause and a proper warrant signed by a judge. I believe that without just cause and the proper warrant, the overall government surveillance programs in the US and abroad deprive the right to Privacy and the massive programs pose an ethical dilemma.

Here is one source that can be used: https://cs.stanford.edu/people/eroberts/cs201/proj...

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Explanation & Answer

Please find attached, there were terms and quotes that i could not change to avoid loosing the original meaning. Thank you.

Running head: ETHICS IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

The Ethical Dilemma's or Issues that surround massive government surveillance programs and
privacy rights
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The Ethical Dilemma's or Issues that Surround Massive Government Surveillance Programs and
Privacy Rights
Surveillance can broadly be described as the act of paying close and sustained attention to
another individual (Macnish, n.d). It is different from the ordinary people stare like the one
someone does across the street or from a café window and so on. Surveillance involves paying
attention to a person or a group for a specific reason. It may include both visually or just by
listening in which is by telephone conversation when the phone has been bugged and any other
means (Wu et al. n.d). Advances in technology have brought about greater capabilities when it
comes to surveillance (Wu et al. n.d).
The techniques and equipment used in surveillance have increased in sophistication and
states can now monitor individuals with greater efficiency. The government now applies state of
the art technology to observe behavior and actions of people remotely. Such advances have
already had a great effect when it comes to ethical concerns of surveillance in the modern world;
it becomes a much more prominent concern where actions can be recorded, traced, and searched
for in a much more straightforward manner (Wu et al. n.d). Such close surveillance has proven to
be more intrusive when compared to other approaches that were applied in the past.
Surveillance and ethics have been an issue of great debate in recent years. On the one
hand, it is argued by certain stakeholders as a necessary step in security, on the other hand, the
Constitution protects the U.S citizens from unnecessary searches and seizures, or physical
searches without authorization as outlined by the law. Since the enactment of the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), some of that protection that was provided by the Fourth
Amendment has been taken away. Thanks to technology there have been many changes in

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lifestyles and use of electronic surveillance has been applied despite it being considered more
invasive (Wu et al. n.d).
Ethical and privacy concerns in information technology
Some challenges arise with having a powerful surveillance system, and that is that it
eventually gets to be abused. Misuse can be in any of the following five ways. The first is
criminal abuse that can be done by law enforcement. There have been cases in the past of high
ranking police officers using police database to gather information for non-work related issues
(ACLU, 2017). It could take the form of obtaining license plate numbers of vehicle and then
making checks on the owners and using the information for extortions. The second way that can
be done is through an institutional approach abuse (ACLU, 2017). When trying to silence some
sections of the public, states have been known to misuse surveillance capabilities. Such
capabilities can be used to take advantage of periods of uncertainty like in the time of Cold War
when law enforcement applied illegal operations to spy and harass members of the civil rights
movement in the guise of carrying out investigations. The third form is the abuse done for
personal use (ACLU, 2017).
The power and capabilities that come with surveillance could tempt people to abuse them
for their gains such as tracking of estranged spouses, stalking and so many more (ACLU, 2017).
The fourth way of misuse is by targeting individuals in a discriminatory manner. That can be in
the form of racially skewed surveillance where people of a specific race are targeted. In the U.K
for example, the blacks were mostly surveilled to between one and a half to two times more than
the other members of the population. Finally, abuse has been seen to take the form of voyeurism.
Women were mostly the target of voyeuristic spy camera (ACLU, 2017).

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Surveillance programs
The U.S government has targeted the big tech companies in Silicon Valley to find much
easier means of surveillance. Back in 2013, government officials went into Silicon Valley and
requested for information to be turned ov...

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