Ethic Case study: The Lotus Marketplace scenario
...upon the success of the software. 2) According to the six commandments of Ethical Data Management, data should be valued equally as cash. After all, the company keeps track of where their money is, they should be able to know where their data is. Anther commandment is to control access to and use of data. Lotus and Equifax had generally good sense of why should their data be controlled. The CIO’s only planned to sell the product to ‘legitimate’ businesses. Spammers and other illegitimate or ill-reputed firms were not allowed to buy their products. They did communicate their policy clearly. However, some questions like, how will the company manage monitor illegal resale? were at best unclear. The CIO should also be responsible for bringing in technological knowledge to the development of management policies. Also, it is the CIO of the company which should communicate data management policies with the help of their executive peers. After all, it is the policy must flow from the upper management and must require support from all their employees. What good is a policy if it is forced by the upper management? The employees simply will not adhere to these data management policies or at least will be less motivated to follow them. It is very important for a CIO to get support of the policies from the company as a whole and this can be feasible only if communicated efficiently. 3) Some of the moral issues that may arise out of the Lotus Marketplace scenario are: Are you morally obliged to override any privacy concerns of others and develop applications which exacerbate their privacy? Should the company be allowed to use an individual’s information with his/her consent? Should a customer’s information be used apart from the sole purpose it was derived for? Does the company ‘own’ data of the customers that it has information for? If yes, is the company allowed to resell it for its own profit? These are the questions that may not have a quick and easy answer, but it is definitely a thought process. Companies usually have a choice of enforcing strict policies which protects a customer’s record, however, some may decide not to. Companies should also consider their future goals and investment. Disclosing personal information will eventually anger customers, and that may come in form of lost revenues for the company. 4) The case would have involved me if I was t...