A written analysis (3410ICT 2000 words; 7101ICT 2500 words) of complex ethical problems similar to those which you might encounter in the IT industry.

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3410 ICT & 7101ICT

Social & Professional

Issues

Case Study for

2019 Assignments

Parts 1 and 2

Part 1

Sophie Ryder is a self-employed IT

Development Consultant, recently

hired by a mid-sized advertising

agency, Firestone+Associates to

provide technical consultancy on the

development of a new marketing

database, known internally as Reaper.

Reaper is to be an integrated

demographic database with a web

front-end that gathers information

(i.e. name, address, age, occupation,

marital status, hobbies, annual

income etc) from people entering

competitions with the incentive of

winning a holiday for two in Fiji,

for example.

For the past 25 years, Firestone’s

business has been to create

promotional campaigns (win a car, a

boat, a holiday etc.) for clients

using competitions. In addition to

helping clients though, obtaining the

demographic information is a

potential income stream for

Firestone. They get paid by clients

to run the competition, but they also

obtain a valuable database of names

as a by-product. That demographic

information has considerable value.

Reaper is therefore a way to

leverage web technology to add

greatly to their existing database of

nearly 350,000 people.

The initial meeting had gone well.

Sophie had met with 58 year old

Richard Blaine, the senior partner

and co-founder of Firestone, and Alex

McLaren, the 32 year old Firestone

executive in charge of the project.

They discussed the project and it was

agreed that Sophie would perform the

work.

So Sophie (who is also in her early

30’s) is formally hired. In addition

to her contract of engagement in

which her payment terms were agreed,

she also signed a legally-binding

Non-Disclosure Agreement by which she

agrees not to disclose any

information about Reaper or any other

information belonging to Firestone to

a third party without Firestone’s

written permission.

On the 1st of February Sophie,

Richard and Alex had a meeting to get

the project started. The initial

engagement was for three months; with

an option to extend monthly

thereafter as agreed by both parties.

The scope of the project was such

that Sophie estimated that if she

brought in one or two web-

programmers, the job might be

completed in about five months

(around June). Richard wanted the job

finished no later than July.

At this initial planning meeting it

became apparent to Sophie that

Richard had ambitious plans for

Firestone to become a major List

Broker; a company that sells

demographically targeted lists to

clients wanting to market products

and services. Said clients could then

aim their marketing in a much more

targeted way

Richard stated at the meeting that

he was committed to putting Firestone

into the top three such brokers in

the country within five years. This

will be a challenge, as they would

need to accumulate no less than five

million individual records in order

to achieve the goal. This is a major

increase on Firestone’s existing

database of 250,000 names.

In the second week, Sophie began

the process of developing a detailed

list of user requirements for Reaper.

This involved several sessions with

Richard (Firestone, Senior Partner)

and Alex (Firestone Project Manager

for Reaper). Neither Richard nor Alex

were agreeable to having an audio

recording made, so Sophie took on

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hand-written notes.

The issue of Informed Consent came

up several times. Richard and Alex

had both said they wanted to get

people to fill in a web-form that

captured their name, address, age,

occupation, marital status, hobbies,

annual income, interests, hobbies,

places visited on holidays and more.

Sophie asked what provision would

be made to get people’s informed

consent. How would people be informed

about the commercial uses that their

details would be put to? Most would

believe they were simply entering a

contest to win a new iPad or a

weekend for two at a resort hotel.

The Firestone fellows did not seem

too concerned about the matter of

informed consent. Richard commented

‘if we have to have it, we can bury

it in the legal blurb’. Alex said ‘if

we tell them, they may not enter –we

want them to enter!’.

Sophie suggested that it would be

better to state clearly upfront that

by entering the contest, the

information might subsequently be

used to contact people about deals

and offers. She said this was the

standard way of informing people

without putting the practice in too

bad a light. Richard said ‘better? …

better for who?’ Sophie was directed

to put the information deep in the

legal notice.

Two months into the project (in

early April) a working prototype of

Reaper is ready for live testing. It

is decided to use it on a hamburger

promotion campaign they were handling

for a national franchise. After a

month, Reaper had gathered 936,000

names from a promotion that offered a

choice of a BMW sports car or a

$55,000 European holiday as a prize.

A promising result for Reaper.

Firestone was cautiously

optimistic. Richard instructed Sophie

to finalise Reaper with all speed.

This she achieved by early June.

Firestone then embarked on an

ambitious series of promotions which

by the end of October had accumulated

the demographic details of no less

than 4,500,000 people across six ad

campaigns.

With the timing, Firestone was

well-positioned to take advantage of

the big Christmas shopping ‘bump’.

People all around the country were

having unsolicited offers for

lifestyle products they had revealed

an interest in to Reaper some months

earlier. It was not clear to them how

the advertisers got their name and

address.

One morning Richard had a phone

call from a ‘Mr. Rushby’, the

director of an organisation called

Moral Guardians of Australia. Rushby

wanted to know how much it would cost

to buy a list of people in the

greater Brisbane area who had

indicated an interest in LGBQT+

lifestyle. Richard asked what the

list would be used for. Rushby

replied that they simply wanted to

send some mail to the people on the

list. That verbal assurance was

sufficient due diligence for Richard

– he sells them the list.

Early the next year, police

investigating a series of bashings of

gay men in the greater Brisbane area

determined that a group called the

Moral Guardians of Australia were

connected. A raid on their one-room

office above a shop-front in New Farm

turned up the mailing list from

Firestone.

Meanwhile, Erin Lockhart (a young

contractor hired by Sophie) is

building an access control function

for the Reaper. Sophie wants strong

security to prevent hacking, given

the sensitive nature of the database

contents. Sophie instructs Erin to

build this in. Richard doesn’t want

to spend more than he feels he needs

to and instructs Sophie/Erin to

install a relatively weak system that

will still exclude outside access,

but make it relatively easy for

anyone in Firestone to access the

database.

Alex McLaren (the Firestone project

manager) announces that he is

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concerned about data loss. What would

happen if they had a major

malfunction and lost the database?

He gets Sophie to make a backup

copy of the Reaper database and takes

it home for safe-keeping as an off-

site backup. Alex has the database on

a 2 Terabyte external hard disk drive

that he puts into the top drawer of

his desk at home.

What Alex doesn’t realise is that

his cleaner (a friend of a friend) is

a curious person who likes to go

through people’s desk drawers when

no-one is around. The HDD looks

tempting.

Alex has a second reason for taking

home a copy of the Reaper database.

He has been at Firestone for nearly

10 years and he is feeling like it

might be time to make a change.

Reaper has high intrinsic value were

he to start his own agency or seek a

job at a competitor.

Part 2

Reaper is now fully operational and

going strong, a testament to the

expertise of Sophie Ryder and her

team, plus the astute commercial

vision of Richard and Alex.

Richard is strangely unimpressed

with the good results. Despite the

success he seems not to be happy

about the situation. Sophie is

annoyed with him about it. She thinks

he could be more generous with his

praise given the success and profits

Reaper has created, but Alex points

out that Richard is ‘old school’ – he

believes praise gives people an

inflated ego, Richard has a ‘treat

‘em mean and keep ‘em keen’

management style. ‘I must admit, it

annoys the hell out me too’ says

Alex, ‘my father was just the same

and I hated the way he did that’.

Over drinks one Friday evening,

Alex and Sophie are discussing the

situation at Firestone. Both are

angry about Richard’s unappreciative

attitude to the hard work they have

been doing which they consider to be

above and beyond the call of duty.

They have been paid what was agreed,

but there was no ‘pat on the back’

for a job well done.

‘Dammit, let’s start our own

agency’ Alex says. ‘Let’s make

ourselves rich instead of that mean-

spirited old bastard’. Alex is being

shrewdly calculating here. He is

being as persuasive and charming as

he knows how to be. He is also

attracted to Sophie, but he needs her

cooperation to make a rival agency

work.

‘Nah, I’m nearly done with

Firestone. I’ll be moving on soon’

replies Sophie. She’s uncomfortable

with the suggestion, but nonetheless

she finds Alex’s company quite

stimulating and thinks she will hear

him out. Alex senses the attraction

and decides to take the situation to

the next level.

You can imagine what happens next;

Alex and Sophie enter into a romantic

relationship. For Alex it is a

calculated move aimed at securing the

future of his fledgling agency. After

all, he has Reaper, and now he has

the brains behind it. Sophie sees no

harm in a relationship between two

consenting, unattached adults. But

Alex has neglected to mention to

Sophie that he is in fact married but

separated.

So Sophie and Alex decide to set up

their own agency. They will spend the

next few weeks making confidential

plans, and then make the move. Alex

makes copies of everything he can

find on Firestone’s computer system;

this includes the latest, fully

functional version of Reaper, the

database of names, plus a list of

Firestone’s clients, past and

present. He takes copies of all of

the artwork and other materials that

have been done for clients over the

years. Everything needed to get up

and running with a cloned business.

Sophie is thinking they will build

the new agency up from scratch and is

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appalled to realise that Alex has

appropriated all of Firestone’s

intellectual property. She objects

strenuously, and in the ensuing

arguments they realize they have

irreconcilable differences. Sophie

and Alex part ways on acrimonious

terms. Alex is not too bothered, he

has what he needs. Sophie feels used

in more ways than one.

A year later Alex’s new agency is

established. It has acquired a

substantial number of Firestone’s

clientele through under-cutting

Firestone on price. Sophie has moved

to Perth (4,000 klms away) to make a

fresh start. Her reputation in

Brisbane has suffered as a result of

events. Worse still, she was named in

a lawsuit initiated by Richard

alleging breach of contract, but this

was dropped before going to trial due

to lack of hard evidence.

The computer industry grapevine has

spread the word and Sophie is having

difficulty finding work, even far

away in Perth. Just when she is

thinking she might have to move to

Namibia to find work she lands a

junior position well below her former

level simply to pay the bills.

Cash-flow for Alex’ agency is a

problem in these early days, so he

puts the call out for some interns.

He thinks ‘I’ll get some keen interns

in, get them to work for nothing.

When those ones are burned out, I’ll

just get more - there’s plenty out

there’. In time, Alex has no less

than eight unpaid interns – six

recent graduates with a Bachelor of

Business (Advertising) who are doing

the ad work, and two with a Bachelor

of IT who are developing a smarter

version of Reaper. All of these

interns are working for no pay in

order to get started in their

professional life. A year later they

are still working for nothing. Alex

is not responsive to their requests

to be paid. When asked, Alex shrugs

and says ‘You’re getting valuable

experience to put on your CV. If you

don’t like it, go somewhere else!’.

Several years pass and the dust

settles. One day in the Melbourne

Qantas Club Lounge, Alex is waiting

for his flight to Brisbane. He was in

town to present his bid to a

potential client.

He thinks it will go well because

he has adopted the standard ploy in

the IT industry of the developer

knowingly underbidding on the work in

order to secure the contract, then

when the client has made progress

payments, they are told that due to

unforeseen problems, the job will

have to cost the client at least

another 50% on top of the original

price. ‘Works every time’ he gloats.

Alex is passing the time pleasantly

enough with a glass of champagne and

a light meal from the buffet as he

works his way through the day’s

email. The usual stuff; demands for

payment for overdue accounts etc.

So intent on his work is Alex that

he pays no heed to the grey haired

man who has sat down next to him.

Alex looks up, surprised to see

Richard Blaine, his former boss at

Firestone, staring at him. Alex

prides himself on being cool under

pressure, but he is unsettled to see

the malicious glint in Richard’s

eyes. Then Richard gets up and leaves

without saying a word, leaving Alex

to ponder.

Richard was pleased to have had the

chance to eyeball the fellow who had

cost him several million dollars; for

Richard had a little surprise in

store. He had paid a private

investigator to obtain sensitive

information from unhappy interns at

Alex’s agency. This information would

soon find its way anonymously to the

Australian Tax Office. Alex would not

know what hit him, nor who had done

it, or how.

oOo

(see next page)

Content Validation

Social & Professional Issues: Case Study In Confidence: Do Not Distribute

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When completing the assignment

don’t forget the Course Content

Validation section.

This is a 1000 words for 3410ICT

and 1500 words for 7101ICT (included

in total word count).

Here you will demonstrate your

level of understanding of the weekly

course content, not just those

elements needed for the ethical

analysis.

The template has all of the

appropriate headings for you to

follow.

This section contributes 20 marks

to you overall mark in the course.

Marks are given for demonstrating

your understanding of the weekly

content.