Information technology (IT) or Information Communications Technology is defined by the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), as being the study, design, development, implementation, support or management of computer-based information systems. These most commonly being software applications and computer hardware that convert, store and protect, transmit and retrieve information.
While most of us are a custom to using such things stated above, some of us aren't and as we come into an age where computers and the like are used more often it is important to familiarise ourselves with the ethical issues that arise.
Privacy is a major one for me. IT is continually growing and enhancing in communication, surveillance, computation, storage and retrieval. The information I share about me and my associations on internet sites such as facebook or bebo can be accessed by thousands of people all over the world if you know where to look. Although I set my profile to private I can google my name and my picture or pictures I have uploaded can appear in google images it even gives my birth date and place of origin. So what safeguard do we have? What can we keep to ourselves and /or close friends and not be forced to reveal to others? For example the phenomenon that came to light not too long ago with a close friend of mine who received an email from an apparent friend, however the email was slightly different and the information it stated seemed odd. It stated that she was in a foreign country and had gotten into some trouble. She needed $10,000 immediately and if my friend could help with this. Luckily we knew better and decided to ignore the email after talking to our friend and hearing about similar identity theft on 20/20.
Secondly we have accuracy. How do we know the information we read over the internet, through emails, websites, on our cell phones etc, is factual? Misinformation has a way of fouling things in peoples’ lives. We can access and produce information about people and their activities so easily making exposure to issues of inaccuracy increasingly common. For example the copious amounts of information shared daily on celebrities, information on such websites as Wikipedia where anyone can write what they think is, on anything they want giving its viewers inaccurate information.
Thirdly is access. Access to information is increasingly being distributed through computers, televisions, phones, radios etc, rather than through paper resources like books. However to access this information you need to have access to information technologies. This can cause issues in social economics as not all people have the money to keep up with the new release of information technologies, so are they missing out on information the higher economic class has access to?
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