Ethics in Information Security

The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 (GLBA)
The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act requires financial institutions that offer consumers financial products or services like loans, financial or investment advice, or insurance to explain their information sharing practices to their customers and to safeguard sensitive data.
Strengths:
* Allow customers to know how confidential information will be treated.
Instead of hoping a financial services company will treat their personal data as confidential, consumers will receive an explicit disclosure of how such information will be used by the firm.
Weakness:
* GLBA notices are confusing and limit the transparency of information practices.
GLBA assumes a company will explain a complex set of legal definitions added to numerous exceptions to the law in a way that will allow for an informed choice and in transparent language. There are reservations about a company's desire to do this.

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 protect the confidentiality and security of health care data by establishing and enforcing standards and by standardizing electronic data exchange.
Strengths:
* Allows patients the legal right to see, copy, and correct their personal medical information. Also it enabled patients with pre-existing conditions to change jobs without worrying that their conditions would not be covered under a new employer's health plan * Prevented employers from accessing and using personal health information to make employment decisions
Weaknesses:
* Now health care providers, insurance providers, and even the consumers are bombarded by overwhelming amounts of paperwork which consume time and money that could be better spent elsewhere.

Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a controversial United States digital rights management law. The intent behind DMCA was to create an updated version of copyright laws to deal with the special challenges of regulating digital material. Broadly, the aim of DMCA is to protect the rights of both copyright owners and consumers. The law complies with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Copyright Treaty and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty, both of which were ratified by over 50 countries around the world in 1996
Strength:
* For consumers, may include a financially sustainable entertainment industry while for producers they can include protection against stolen material.
Weakness:
* For consumers can include the inability to fully utilize modern technologies and as for producers, they are failing to capitalize on the potential of technology to help reach a wider fan base.
The Freedom of information Act
The Freedom of Information Act allows anyone to request access to federal agency records or information not determined to be a matter of national security. Agencies of the federal government are required to disclose any requested information on receipt of a written request. This requirement is enforced by the courts. However, some information is protected from disclosure such as state and local government agencies or private businesses and individuals.
Strength:
* Access to information was increasingly recognized as a prerequisite for transparency and accountability of governments, as a facilitating consumers' ability to make informed choices, and as safeguarding citizens against mismanagement and corruption.
Weakness:
* The FOIA often permits a complete stranger to obtain access to government files that contain personal information about us. Often a requester's purpose is chiefly commercial - credit bureaus, employment agencies, and life insurance companies rank among the most common users of the FOIA for this purpose, but disclosure of personal information about us is an invasion of privacy.

References
Harris, S. (2008). Legal, Regulations, Compliance and Investigations. CISSP all-in-one exam guide (4th ed., pp. 855-859). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Whitman, M. E., & Mattord, H. J. (2012). Legal, Ethic, and Professional Issues in information security. Principles of information security (4th ed., pp. 89-116). Boston, MA: Course Technology.