Privacy and Freedom of Expression

                                                                               Chapter 4

4. As the information systems manager for a small manufacturing plant, you are responsible for anything relating to the use of information technology. A new inventory control system is being implemented to track the quantity and movement of all finished products stored in a local warehouse. Each time a forklift operator moves a case of product, he or she must first scan the product identifier code on the case. The product information is captured, as is the day, time, and forklift operator identification number. This data is transmitted over a local area network (LAN) to the inventory control computer, which then displays information about the case and where it should be placed in the warehouse.

The warehouse manager is excited about using case movement data to monitor worker productivity. He will be able to tell how many cases per shift each operator moves and he plans to use this data to provide feedback that could result in pay increases or termination. He has asked you if there are any potential problems with using the data in this manner and, if so, what should be done to avoid them. How would you respond?

Answer: As a systems manager I is responsible for the computer systems within a company. They oversee installation, ensure backup systems operate effectively, and purchase hardware and software and how the system can help you . As a systems manager we are task to develop an inventory control system that could monitor the quantity and movement of all finished product stored in a warehouse .And if the warehouse manager used the system to monitor the worker productivity it could arise some problems. But if he the warehouse manager would really insist, we can put some additional features that would know the worker productivity and those feature could minimize the problems.

5.You have been ask to help develop a company policy on what should be done in the event of a data breach, such as unauthorized access to your firm’s customer database, which contains some 1.5 million records. What sort of process would you use to develop such a policy? What resources would you call on?

Answer:  A data breach is the intentional or unintentional release of secure information to an untrusted environment. Other terms for this phenomenon include unintentional information disclosure, data leak and also data spill. In this event I would follow the correct/proper security procedures in developing the policy because failure to follow this will result to data breaches of large databases.

6. You are a new brand manager for a product line of Coach purses. You are considering purchasing customer data from a company that sells a large variety of women’s products online. In addition to providing a list of names, mailing addresses, and email addresses, the data includes an approximate estimate of customer’s annual income based on the zip code in which they live, census data, and highest level of education achieved. You could use the estimate annual income ?

Answer: The advantage of this it can give them a less time consuming because if they come up a new product because the information of it would automatically be sent to those customers. The disadvantage of this is that if there are only few customer’s data that they’d buy, there are also few people that could know their new product and not all customer that receive the advertisement product will automatically buy those product.

7.Your company is rolling out a training program to ensure that everyone is familiar with the company’s  IT usage policy. As a member of the Human Resources department, you have been asked to develop a key piece of the training relating to why this policy is needed. What kind of concerns can you expect your audience to raise? How can you deal with the anticipated resistance to the policy?

Answer: As a member of the human resources department, I would not expect that all the employees would all accept the said policy, but I would give further explanations that this policy could help them to understand and perform ethically that can make them productive in their work.

                                                                                 Chapter 5

1.A former high school classmate of yours who has returned to China, emails you that he has offered a part-time job monitoring a Chinese Web site and posting comments favorable to the government. How would you respond?

Answer: As a friend I would suggest that she should think his/her decision all over and over again before accepting the job that is being offered to her/him. And if he/she accepts that job and that job required monitoring a web site and he/she keeps posting comments favorable to the government, I would recommend that he’ll post comments that could not offend the other party that can make this government fight with each other. Even though we have the thing we called freedom of expression we should also consider other things before doing something for our job.

2.Your 15-year-old nephew exclaims “Oh wow!” and proceed to tell you about a very revealing photo attachment he just received in a text message from his 14-year-old girlfriend of three months. He can’t wait to forward the message to others in his school. What would you say to your nephew? Are further steps needed beside a discussion on sexting?

Answer: As Aunt, I would tell my nephew that what he planning to do was unethical that it could destroys someone’s life and not only his girlfriend life but also his life. Also I would discuss to him the risk if he do such an act that it may cause his girlfriend to encounter social consequences. Images can easily escape their control through being shared more broadly than they had anticipated. This can have a long-term impact on their digital reputation. That image can also potentially be used for cyber bullying or cyber stalking, or they may attract unwanted attention from others. And I will discuss to him that in all personal matter (like conversation, images, etc.) are not all allowed to share to everyone and he should also ask permission.

3.A college friend of yours approaches you about an idea to start a PR firm that would specialize in monitoring the internet for “Bad PR” about a company and “fixing” it. One tactic the firm would use is to threaten negative posters with a libel lawsuit unless they remove their posting.  Should that fail, the Pr firm will generate dozens of positive postings to outweigh the negative posting.  What would you say to your friend about her idea?

Answer: I am going to tell her that her idea is brilliant for it has a very good effect to the firm and also I’m going to tell her the ethical constrains of her ideas.

4.You are the computer technical resource for country’s public library system. The library is making plans to install internet Filtering Software so that it will conform to the children’s Internet Protection Act and be eligible for federal funding. What sort of objections can you expect regarding implementation of internet filters? How might you deal with such objections?

Answer: Internet filtering refers to blocking undesirable content on the Internet. It helps you filter and deny access to any unwanted material. The person who sets up the filter provides a system to block certain data. It may include advertising, a virus, file transfer, or other offensive material. When a user makes a request for a Web page that has been blocked, the Internet filter keeps the request from being completed. It either blocks it completely or redirects it to another location. But there could some objections to it, like the filter will accidentally block content that shouldn’t be blocked, there’s far too much content to block effectively and a lot more. In this, internet filtering could help secure the children to things that are not suitable for their age, especially to those sites that can give bad influence to them. We already know that our society now is very dependent in internet, so are kids that are addicted on online games and browsing websites.

5. Imagine that you received a hate email at your school or job. What would you do? Does your school or workplace have a policy that covers such issues?

Answer: For the one who send hate emails to me the first thing that I would do is to ask who it is he/she and what I have done wrong to him/her that makes them hates me, secondly I would tell my parents about the emails. And if in school I would tell my teachers or ask help from the school about it, so that the one who’ve been sending the emails could be tracked. Hate email are also some kind of bullying.

6.A worker confides to you that he is going to begin sending emails to your employer’s internal corporate blog site, which serves as a suggestion box. He plans to use an anonymous remailer and sign the message “Anonymous”. Your friend is afraid of retribution from superiors but wishes to call attention to instances of racial and sexual discrimination observed during his five years as an employee with him. What would you say to your friend?

Answer: As a friend and also an employee I would say that what he/she did was right for me because he’s just protecting herself and only herself but also the other employee from the people whom could hurt or do some bad things to him or even to others. Also he did was right that he inform the management about the sexual discrimination happening in their workplace.