Ethical Issues Related to Privacy and Organizational Policy

Ethical Issues to Be Analyzed

The ethical issue in this scenario is a recent case where negligence in the organization led to the leakage of the personal information of many of the organization’s clients. The breach resulted in data compromise of over 100000 of the organization’s customers. The leakage of this information led to the distress of many of the organization’s clients due to concerns about their safety and privacy of information (Wylde et al., 2022). After this incident was discovered, there were massive lawsuits against the organization. It is critical to understand how the data breach affects the organization and the affected stakeholders and what policy can be implemented to ensure that such a situation does not occur again.

Ethical Matrix

Matrix Explanation

The ethical matrix helps explain the ethical issue in this scenario, which is the leakage of personal information of the company clients (Santoro & da Costa, 2021). It also gives an overview of three ethical principles related to the issue: beneficence, confidentiality, and respect for persons. Furthermore, it explains how these stakeholders are connected to the ethical issue.

Organizational Policy to Correct the IT-Related Issue

Overview of the Policy

The policy gives an overview of the collection, usage, and sharing of all personal information by the organization and its affiliates in connection with its activities. Concerning this privacy policy, personal information means information about identified individuals and their information. Such information includes names, email addresses, business contact details, and information gathered through interaction with company websites or at events (Solove & Schwartz, 2020). The privacy policy applies to the processing of personal information by the organization and users of the website, including clients, business partners, and other stakeholders. As the privacy policy describes, the organization and its affiliated entities are responsible for processing personal information. The organization processes both offline and online information that identifies with the organization and its members. The organization obtains information from its online and offline interactions with the customer during events, emails or telephone correspondence, third-party data providers, and interactions with the sites.

Personal information is used to respond to customer requests, enhance site functionality, and administer subscriptions. It is also used to market and tailor products and services to the organization or its interests, engage in transactions, develop and improve the performance of the site, its products, and services, and comply with applicable laws (Solove & Schwartz,2020). Third-party information of the clients is shared through the organization and with third parties such as the distributors or resellers, the service providers, and other legal entities such as the government. The organization also insists that clients have privacy rights regarding the information they process. One can opt out of third-party sharing and object to and restrict the client’s personal information use. The organization and its affiliated entities are responsible for processing personal information. The different types of information that the organization can use include name and physical address, email addresses, and telephone numbers (Hwang et al., 2021). It also includes demographic attributes of the individual, photographs and testimonials, transactional data such as financial details and payment methods, data from surveys, call recording and chat transcripts, IP address, and information, as well as behavioral data.

The personal information of the company’s clients can be used to communicate and respond to requests and inquiries, to deliver functionality on the sites, to engage in transactions with customers, suppliers, and business partners, to analyze and improve the use, function, and performance of the company website and to comply with applicable laws and regulations. The organization maintains that personal information is collected for the duration of the transaction or services period or longer as necessary to record retention and legal compliance purposes (Hwang et al., 2021). Contact information such as the email and phone number of clients can be retained as long as we have an active relationship with the customer. The organization may share personal information with third parties for business purposes, such as credit card processing services, order fulfillment, and customer service teams. It also includes relevant third parties in a merger, joint venture, or assignment. It also shares third-party information as required by law, such as to comply with a subpoena or other legal processes when we believe that disclosure is necessary to protect your safety or that of others. The company complies with the local data privacy framework to ensure adherence to set standards.

The organization has implemented appropriate technical, physical, and organizational measures to protect personal information against accidental destruction or loss, damage, unauthorized disclosure or access, and other forms of unlawful processing. The company has also provided multiple choices regarding the information processed about the client. The client may opt out of using or sharing personal information, and they may withdraw consent that they have previously provided for processing information about themselves. One can also ask the company to erase or delete all or some of the information concerning oneself (Seh et al., 2020). In some instances, one can edit some of the information concerning oneself, such as asking to change or fix information about oneself. The client can also object to, limit, or restrict the use of personal information. The organization has also availed the position of Data Protection Officer, and this individual will answer all queries concerning personal information and any complaints or possible breaches.

Purpose of the Policy

The purpose of this policy is to inform the practical rules of protection of the personal data that is made available to the organization. The organization’s customers expect to be informed about the collection, use, sharing, and protection of their data, which will be done through privacy. The policy also aims to ensure that all relevant regulations are followed, and this is done by addressing all relevant data protection issues. The organization remains compliant (Seh et al., 2020). The policy also promotes transparency by ensuring that all individuals are notified if their personal information is involved in a data breach and how the issue will be resolved before any harm is done. Another critical aspect that the policy addresses is accountability, which will include ensuring that individuals have the right to know why their data is being collected and how the law uses it. It also ensures accountability in processing personal data, following all the given principles for appropriate oversight of the data. The policy will ensure transparency and accountability for privacy practices and breaches. If something goes wrong, all data handlers should be accountable and do their best to rectify the situation. The purpose of this policy is also to protect against data breaches because the data breach could have severe consequences for both individuals and organizations.

Scope (Roles and Responsibilities of Stakeholders)

There are different stakeholders in the data privacy policy and its successful implementation in the organization. The Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) has an important role and is the organization’s data security leader. The individual is responsible for creating policies and strategies to secure data from threats and vulnerabilities and devising a response plan if any breach occurs. The CISO locates all sensitive information that the company possesses and, therefore, will be able to understand the risks involved (Raghuvanshi, 2023). The individual also crafts the policy and implements technology to ensure that data is protected and that the company complies with privacy regulations. The CISO also communicates to the organization’s executives and other stakeholders concerning cybersecurity measures. The IT department also has a critical role to play in data security. The team will enact strategies that the CISO has given and monitor all the activity occurring in the IT structure (Raghuvanshi, 2023). The individual is also responsible for maintaining regulation compliance and defining components of the incidence report plan. The IT department will work with other departments to ensure proper measures are activated in the organization. All the organization’s employees are other critical stakeholders that will participate in implementing this plan. The CISO and IT team are expected to train the employees on adhering to these policies and what steps to take to ensure adequate oversight and use of the company data.

Policy Points to Follow

It will be critical to perform specific actions to ensure data protection is realized in the organization. One of these includes conducting a security audit to identify any vulnerabilities or areas that require improvement. An external audit by a security professional is also recommended since it will provide an unbiased perspective and highlight areas that have been overlooked (Ke & Sudhir,2023). Another aspect includes training employees on security best practices such as creating strong passwords, reporting suspicious activity, and identifying a possible breach in data privacy. The policy also explains how employees should properly monitor network activity, such as identifying potential security threats before they become problematic and monitoring unusual network traffic. It is also critical to have an incident report plan, and this includes all the steps to be taken in case of a security breach or data loss, such as notifying appropriate parties, containing the breach, and implementing remediation measures.

Sanctions/ Enforcement of Policy

Various sanctions will come into play if the policy is not effectively implemented. The organization will set penalties for unauthorized access to data and the use or alteration of data by administrators and third parties. It will include criminalizing unauthorized access to the company systems or stored data (Ke & Sudhir, 2023). The organization also recognizes the awarding of damages to individuals or other organizations in a data breach. If there is a scenario where any data infringement occurs, the suspected participants may receive a warning or a temporary ban. Another step includes ordering the rectification or erasure of the data. If the organization is sued for a data privacy breach, it may be liable to perform the legal requirements, such as paying fines or penalties (Juma’h & Alnsour, 2020). When a complaint has been made against the organization, it may have to follow due process to ensure all steps are taken to remediate the situation. Suppose the organization can recognize or identify the suspected perpetrators, such as employees. In that case, it may be liable to be sued, and legal proceedings may be taken against those who are believed to have participated in the breach.

References

Juma’h, A. H., & Alnsour, Y. (2020). The effect of data breaches on company performance. International Journal of Accounting & Information Management, 28(2), 275-301.https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/IJAIM-01-2019-0006/full/html

Ke, T. T., & Sudhir, K. (2023). Privacy rights and data security: GDPR and personal data markets. Management Science, 69(8), 4389-4412.https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/abs/10.1287/mnsc.2022.4614

Raghuvanshi, T. (2023). Addressing Cybersecurity and Data Breach Regulations: A Global Perspective. Indian Journal of Law, 1(1), 71-79.DOI:

https://doi.org/10.36676/ijl.2023-v1i1-09

Santoro, F. M., & da Costa, R. M. E. M. (2021). Towards ethics in information systems. Journal on Interactive Systems, 12(1), 69-82.DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5753/jis.2021.961

Seh, A. H., Zarour, M., Alenezi, M., Sarkar, A. K., Agrawal, A., Kumar, R., & Ahmad Khan, R. (2020, May). Healthcare data breaches: insights and implications. In Healthcare (Vol. 8, No. 2, p. 133). MDPI.https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare8020133

Hwang, I., Wakefield, R., Kim, S., & Kim, T. (2021). Security awareness: The first step in information security compliance behavior. Journal of Computer Information Systems, 61(4), 345-356.https://doi.org/10.1080/08874417.2019.1650676

Solove, D. J., & Schwartz, P. M. (2020). Information privacy law. Aspen Publishing.

Wylde, V., Rawindaran, N., Lawrence, J., Balasubramanian, R., Prakash, E., Jayal, A., … & Platts, J. (2022). Cybersecurity, data privacy and blockchain: A review. SN computer science, 3(2), 127.https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42979-022-01020-4