Analysis of the situation using the Doing Ethics Technique

Discuss about the Analysis and Practice Of NSA.

Edward Snowden was an employee who worked as a defence contractor of Booz Allen Hamilton and works for the National Security Agency. National Security agency is responsible to concerned about the security issues in the United States.2013, June has witnessed the leak of the classified information in the security field (Miller and Walsh 2016). Edward Snowden has admitted to passing the confidential information about the NSA surveillance on the internet traffic and the phone calls of the hundred of the phone calls by the people. Edward Snowden fled the country after the leaking of the document to avoid the federal charges (Wu, Ma  and Chan 2015).  Some of the people have welcomed the doings of the Snowden and referred to him as the “ Whistle Blower”. However, some of the people stated this act as the violation of the security code and considered him as a traitor. This article analyses this incident from the doing of ethics technique to judge the correctness of the act.  The analysis is made on the basis of both doing of ethics technique and the code of ethics for ICT professionals provided by the Australian Computer Society (ACS code of ethics). The main issues of  all ethical problems has been identified t the beginning of the article. It has been seen that the doing of the NSA has not maintained all the ethical attributes in both cases of ACS codes of conduct and the doing of ethics thing. However, the analysis indicate sthe relevance of the action taken by the NSA. Further recommendations has been made on the basis of the finding to dissolve the issues raised in the situation.

Doing Ethics Technique is a way to evaluate the rightness of any action. The report is based on the specific questions based on the situation.

What is going on?

Edward Snowden, a defence contractor, has revealed the  NSA surveillance on the millions of U.S phones and internet traffic. This was done to identify the possible terrorist networks.  The activity of the NSA was unknown to the citizens until Edward Snowden passed this information to the Guardian and the Washington Post.

What are the facts?

The main concerned thing about this case is that the leak of the internal working of the NSA has been leaked to the people.  The observation on the daily conversation of the people and monitoring the internet traffic means to violate the privacy of the people. On the other hand, the monitoring of the activities which will help to detect the NSA to identify the possible terrorist activities. In this case, the prevention of the terrorist activities is the highest priority for the NSA. Depending upon that situation, it the working principle of the NSA is relevant. However, this applicable working principal of the NSA is violating the privacy of the people, which is not desirable.

The issue regarding the disclosure of the workings of NSA:

What are the issues?

There are some ethical issues present in the working of the NSA. The problems are contradictory. First of all, the NSA is monitoring the internet traffic and observing the calls of the hundreds of the U.S phones to detect the possible terrorist activities. This action of the NSA is agreeable from maintaining the security of the country. On the other hand, the continuous monitoring of the internet traffic and the phone calls of the people cause the violation of the privacy which is unethical.

Who is the affected?

The most affected are the people of U.S. The NSA monitors Their activities. Due to this, their privacy is violated. This can lead to the serious ethical issue. The information collected by the NSA can be leaked, and people can feel insecure as their conversations, and the activities will be exposed (Wu, Ma  and Chan 2015). The monitoring of the privacy of the daily life of the people is not desirable in the democracy.

What are the ethical issues and the implications?

The issues regarding this case are the question about the morality of the doings of Edward Snowden. The security of the country is needed to be maintained, and to keep the guard, NSA has taken specific steps. Edward Snowden has disclosed those steps can become a security threat for the country. The three classical ethical theories can discuss this issue.

Another ethical issue regarding this case is the violation of the privacy of the familiar people. The continuous monitoring over the transmitted data does violate the confidentiality of the everyday people in the U.S. The three classical theories of ethics will also analyse this issue.

Utilitarianism :

Utilitarianism denotes the action whose result will become beneficial for the more significant number of people. It permits that act will deliver well in the larger scale. The analysis of the above mentioned issue is ethical by utilitarianism theory. The monitoring of the traffics and the transmission from the millions of the U.S phone calls will help to detect the possible terrorist activities. The early detection of the terrorist activities can help to eliminate the chances of happening of those activities, which will serve more significant benefits to the people of the country.

An act of Deontology:

The law of Deontology denotes the rightness or the wrongness of the action rather than the judging the consequences of the activities. This ethical theory is used to the difference between the right and wrong (Richard 2016). The monitoring of the network traffic along with the internet traffic is not supporting the privacy of the people. The act of surveillance on the phone calls and the network traffics is not an ethical act as it means to hamper the confidentiality of the people.

The issue regarding the privacy of the people in the U.S:

Contractarianism:

Contractarianism denotes the comparison of different moral factors in case of decision making process. In this case, the judging of the morality of the act is not concerned. This theory helps the decision making of the organisation by various moral factors and their consequences (Jones  2017). The act of monitoring on the confidential information of the people and monitoring the traffic of the internet is the decision made by the NSA to prevent the terrorist attack. This decision making has considered various other ethical factors like securing the privacy of the people (Jones 2016). However, the decision may not maintain some of the ethical considerations, but according to the contractarianism, the action is moral and supportable as it serves the other important moral issues like protecting the country from the expected terrorist attack.

Utilitarianism: Utilitarianism referred the act as ethical if its consequences serve the benefits for the higher number of people. The action of the NSA is violating the privacy of the ordinary people of the U.S ( Markham  2015). However, the statute of monitoring is also serving the higher purpose by detecting the possible terrorist attacks in the country.  The maintenance of the privacy has become the second priority in this case.

An act of deontology: The act of deontology denotes the rightness and the wrongness of the action. The act of not securing the privacy of the ordinary people is not the right thing. By the work of deontology, it can be said that this act is not ethical.

Contractarianism: According to this ethical theory the rightness of the decision making depends on the comparison between the various ethical factors. The act of surveillance on the activity of the people over the phone and the internet is not supported as these activities are considered confidential. However,  the intention of the NSA is not to violate the confidentiality of the information instead; the primary objective is to detect the possible terrorist attack (Bosworth and Kellezi  2017). The decision of the surveillance will have been taken on considering the various relevant factors (Hyun  2017). In this case, maintaining the security of the confidential information is the concerned thing for the NSA however, that information is handled by the few officials to do the greater good of the people (Verble  2014). Based on this ethical theory, it can be said that the violation of the privacy rule is not accepted, however, in the above mentioned situation it can be permitted.

The implication of the action:

The surveillance on the activities of the ordinary people over the internet is helping the NSA to detect the possible terrorist activities. The Edward Snowden has disclosed the working of the NSA. This activity of Snowden is regarded as the act of whistleblowing for some people (Fuchs and Trottier  2017). However, many of them considered the traitor for this act. After the disclosure of this fact, the people and the other organisations have become aware of the existence of the monitoring over the internet. Edward Snowden has escaped from the country to avoid the federal charges.

What can be done about it?

The main problem in this situation is the two ethical issues which are contradictory.  In both cases these two issues are unavoidable. Some of the steps can be taken to avoid the problems. The main problem happens as the NSA does not inform the people about the necessity of the surveillance (Nolan 2017). The immediate effect of this news surprises the   people, and this leads to the negative consequences of the matter. The NSA needs to clarify the reason for surveillance over the information of the people (Pohle and Van Audenhove 2017). This awareness will make the people understand the need for the oversight. The NSA assure the people about the assurance of the safety of the confidential data of the people.

What are the options?

There are some of the options to solve these issues regarding the surveillance of the internet traffic. The NSA can be taken the initiative to make people understand the importance of maintaining the security of the country (Scheuerman 2014). The people should also be made aware of the importance of the monitoring the transmission of the data(Bosworth and Kellezi  2017). The NSA needs to make the people understand that control is not done for violating the security and privacy of the people. The primary purpose is to use that information to maintain the protection of the country and eliminate the possible terrorist attacks. 

Another alternative that can be done to dissolve the issues, in this case, is that the NSA can deny the whole fact and carry on the workings. In this case, NSA may have the justification this organisation cannot compromise with anything for the security of the country (Scheuerman 2016). Based on this statement the NSA may not discuss this fact with the citizens and other stakeholders.

Which is the best- and why?

The best solution based on the ethical and moral conduct is to let the citizens know about the observation and monitoring of the phone calls and the internet traffics(Fuchs and Trottier  2017). Apart from that, the NSA needs to tell the citizens about their objective of the control and the make the citizens assured about the safety and the privacy of the collected data regarding their activities (Nielsen  2018). This option will help to bring the transparency in the communication between the citizens and the NSA. The clarity in the objective and the excellent connection between the NSA and the people will help the whole system to work correctly.

The ACS Code of Ethics for ICT professionals has the following factors regarding the excellent practice of ethics in the professional field.

• The priority of the public interest:

The public interest should be kept above of all the concerns during taking action or doing a project (Waymack 2016). In the discussed case, the maintenance of the security of the country has been done in the public interest. The action taken by the NSA, in this case, can be considered as relevant.

• Enhancement of the quality of life:

The practice adopted carried out by the ICT professionals will help to improvise the quality of life of the people (Karthika,  Radhakrishnan  and Kalaichelvi 2016). The NSA is conducting the surveillance to detect the possible terrorist attacks. This initiative will help the people of the country to be safe from the potential terrorist attacks as well as maintaining the sustainable development of the people.

• Honesty:

The practice carried out the professionals will represent the actual knowledge of the skills, and the transparency of the service and the quality should be maintained (Leicester  2016). However, in this case, the working carried out by the  NSA has not been informed to the people of the country. Hence it can be said there was a lack of transparency does not reflect the honesty attribute in the practice of NSA.

• Competence:

The work done by the professionals will be exclusively for the stakeholders associated with the project (Warren and Lucas 2016). Here, the maintenance of the security by the NSA has been done for the citizens only so; the competence has been maintained.

• Professional development:

The practice of the ICT professionals will help to enhance the professional development of the staffs and colleagues (Karthika,  Radhakrishnan  and Kalaichelvi 2016). However, this attribute is not relevant in the above mentioned case.

• Professionalism:

The practice of the ICT  professional will help to maintain the social integrity and will serve benefits to the people of the society (Warren and Burmeister 2017). The initiatives and the workings of the NSA to eliminate the terrorist attacks will ensure the overall safety of the country and the community. This will also help to bring the sustainability of the life and will help to bring the integrity in the city.

Conclusion

The analysis of the situation is done by both Doing of Ethics technique and the ACS Code of Ethics. This article has identified the two possible ethical issues related to the case. The analysis of these two ethical problems has indicated that there are some flaws in the way of working of the NSA. However, the doings of the NSA is relevant as it aims to do the greater good of the country, people and the society. By the analysis from the two ethical techniques and the conduct, it can be said that the doing of Edward Snowden is not ethical, as he helped to publish the confidential information related to the security of the country. There are specific recommendations mad4e for the NSA so that their working can contain the transparency and can be accepted by the people. It can be said that the monitoring of the data by NSA has the objective that supports almost all the attributes of doing of ethics technique and the ACS code of ethics. In case, if the recommendations made in the article is followed in the working process, it can be said the workings of NSA will be regarded as the ethical work and will positively serve the people and the nation.

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