Ethical and Legal Responsibility of an Organization
Chadwick Slaughter
Walden University

The issue of public policy has changed dramatically over the years and the privacy of consumers has received considerable attention. The evolution of the Internet has produced a number of diverse concerns regarding the issue of confronting consumer protection for both international and domestic consumer privacy. High profile organizations are exposed to many breaches of personal information and puts these particular organizations are at risk of reputational damage and understanding the scope of an organization’s responsibilities for information security professionals is an absolutely essential. IT security professionals play an important roles managing liability for privacy and security risks for an organization in today’s world where hefty reparations can be bestowed to plaintiffs who place lawsuits upon organizations. Damages can range from big to small and can sometimes be retaliatory. Minimizing liability and reduce risks for an organization from physical and electronic threats can be a daunting task for information security specialists. This specialist must thoroughly comprehend the current legal environment, regulations, laws, and stay current with emerging issues regarding the responsibility of securing not only the companies’ vital information, but also consumers and users alike. An organizations responsibility to educate all employees all obligations and the proper use of technology and security for which information security professionals can assist an organizations focus on primary security objectives.
Privacy is a prominent public policy issue that affects consumers, marketers, organizations and the emergence of e-commerce brings fresh concerns that require in-depth analysis and review. Simultaneously, industry groups, associations, and organization have put effort toward self-regulation on the issue of public policy exchange between marketers, organizations and consumers. The process of refining consumer exchange relations delivers the ability of more control to consumers to make better informed decisions of their increasingly accessible personal classifiable health and general medical information on online networks and databases. This electronic data presents substantial benefits for patients and medical providers to better improve patient relations, clinical treatment, health exploration advances, and modern techniques. However, ethical and legal responsibilities of an organization rest upon protecting, privacy, reliability, and quality of personal identifiable health information that is publicly accessible on networks which gives individuals permissions over personal data without strictly restricting users reduces instances of invasion and malpractice against organizations is an evolving challenge. These ethical and legal responsibilities help form a trust relationship between organizations and its participants.
A corporation must consider certain social, ethical, and legal responsibility requirements in order to flourish in the eye of the public. Mostly all corporations face legal responsibilities which require compliance with the law which ultimately impacts corporations overall planning process, but also forces corporations to familiarize themselves with outside aspects that effect the industry that the corporation functions in. These measures ultimately result in improved analysis of clinical and research data. These measures comprise of spotting distinguishable health information, providing safeguards, empowering patients, and restraining leaks of health information.
The relationship involving patients and organizations has elevated to new levels and increased risk because of increased utilization of new age communication methods within that relationship such as e-mail. These new communication methods spark new expectations, standards, and potential liabilities, which require new considerations for organizations communication processes include vital information. Organizations must institute codes of conduct that members must respect to positively effect computer usage and those members who attain certifications or accreditations help deter violations of that code due to unethical conduct.
The responsibility of organizations to act ethically and accordingly rest on the policies and procedures instituted and governed the laws of society. It is also the organization’s responsibility to distribute, develop, and impose its policies on its employees and where they fit into the ethical backdrop of that organization. Organizations must produce ethical or unethical corporate principles and implement strategies to improve ethical values, culture, and working environment. Organizations must not only focus on relationships with employees, but also conduct toward customers. Today relationships related to customers are comprised of identity theft, privacy, and disclosure of personal information, and developing appropriate plan that addresses the needs of both the organization and customers must have a foundation of concrete values to address the ever evolving conflicts concerning public policy of an organization.

References
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