Ethical Issues Facing IT Professionals
Rudy Tamayo
CIS/207
September 21, 2015
When placed in the situation where I have to look into someone’s background which includes any and all social media. I know that this could be a tricky situation because most of what is posted to social media like facebook or Instagram can or should be considered private and personal information. I understand that the things we say or do in our personal lives should not always reflect who we are as people. The trick is knowing what to look for and what not to stick my nose into. Things like what shows or movies this person may or may not enjoy is not necessarily something that reflects who they are and the potential misdoings they might be involved in. It seems to me that in this situation where I’m asked to survey the internet presence of a particular person I’m looking more for clear and obvious things like posts about doing illegal drugs or photos of this person doing them. The way I would handle this is just that, I would scan over photos for things that look questionable. It can feel like I’m invading the privacy of the person or persons I’m looking into but the image they place on themselves on social media or otherwise does reflect on who they are as an employee or a person. The trick is to only look for red flags. Like I said before the biggest issue in terms of ethics is the feeling of invading someone’s privacy, but at the same time we all have to know that when you post something online it becomes public and free for public consumption. You do enter into an unspoken contract with sites like facebook, Instagram, twitter or even linkedin that your information may or may not become fodder for public viewing. I myself understand that there are just certain things you do not post online and you have to be aware of that. Taking responsibility for what you share with the world can is just as important as anything else you do in life. So I guess at the end of the day I wouldn’t lose a lot of sleep feeling I rummaged through the privacy of others. 