Technology and Privacy in the Workplace

( A small paragraph)

Find an article from a trusted media source published within the last six months illustrating an ethical issue regarding privacy in the workplace.  Obviously, technology is a factor affecting privacy, but it is not the only factor.  Identify the ethical issue and include that in the title of your posting.  Make sure to include a link to the article or a PDF version of the article attached to your post.  Then, answer the following questions: 

1.  What are the basic facts of this example?
2.  Who are the stakeholders besides the obvious employee/employer?
3.  Address any alternatives in handling this situation.  Use moral imagination.
4.  How would you handle this situation.  Remember, you are entitled to your own opinion but not your own facts.  Base your decision upon the facts, the stakeholders, and the various theories for evaluating the alternatives.

Your posting should be limited to one thorough yet concise paragraph.  Concise means you use only the necessary space to accomplish your objective.  It does not mean short; you must be thorough/complete AND concise.  Please make sure to proofread for writing errors.  Make sure to pick a story not already summarized by a classmate; you will not receive credit if you are the second student to post on the same ethical issue/story. 

----> Respond to 2 classmates :

-classmate 1: 

Privacy When Ordering Food

https://www.engadget.com/2018/03/16/ritual-privacy-concerns-workplace-data/Links to an external site.

The Food app Ritual can be downloaded and an office of people can add on to a food order and one person will go pick it up.  The privacy issue of this is that anyone who uses the app can see where someone works, what floor, what time they are going to pick up the food as well as the first initial and last name of people on the app.  Everyone that works with the person is at risk but the way to deal with it would be to have one person own a room and be able to invite people to that room so random people can't see what is going on.  Also should have user names instead of their actual name as well as having some privacy settings.

-classmate 2:

https://businesslawtoday.org/2018/02/the-rise-and-danger-of-virtual-assistants-in-the-workplace/Links to an external site.

Are Virtual Personal Assistants A Friend or Foe

     There's no question that Virtual Personal Assistants (VPA's) are becoming more and more prominent in today's society. From Amazon's Alexa to Microsoft's Cortana, the newfound comfort that we have found in instructing these machines has become more prevalent not only in homes, but also in the workplace. The ethical issue that arises from this example of new technology is how private our "behind close doors" discussions truly are. Cloud storage of audio has raised privacy concerns because these VPA's keep a history of voice commands and their owners are able to access these recordings at any time. This unlimited access potentially makes anybody within "ears length" a possible stakeholder. Anything that is said and these machines record can be accessed by the owner themselves or anybody that is capable of hacking into the owner's account and retrieving these recordings. Since there are all types of meetings being held with this technology in the room, suppliers, directors, community workers, and clients are all prospective stakeholders that can be affected. In order to deflect arising ethical and privacy problems, one solution is to use this uprising technology only in the realm its name dictates; personally. It shouldn't be in rooms where important business matters are discussed and if it is it should be turned off so it's capability of recording is no longer an issue.