Tyrone Williams
ETH 301, Business Ethics
Module 2
Case study: The rights of parents to their son’s information, as well the privacy of the individual email accounts are brought to the forefront.
Should parents have the right to their deceased son’s information and email account?
I do not think relatives or anyone else for that matter should have access to information of an individual that supposed to be protected by a company’s privacy act policy unless the member stated in a will that these specific documents should be released to the individuals or if a crime was committed. There is a privacy act statement for a reason. The purpose of the act is to protect the privacy and rights of all people in his email. Although the situation was a sad loss for the family being that they lost a son, policy and privacy acts still apply. Now days prior to establishing accounts with email companies, social networks or any other online corporations they have the individuals read and sign a user agreement in which most if not all talk about how they will protect the individual’s privacy. Privacy is the ability of an individual or group to seclude them or information about themselves and thereby reveal themselves selectively. As being a leader / supervisor in the Army, I have had first-hand experience with this situation. My soldier was killed in vehicle accident and during the Line-of-Duty investigation; the soldier stated to others that he was going to commit suicide. During the investigation, the investigating officer wanted to search the soldier’s computer. The family agreed to it but as the Commander of the soldier, I had to disagree with the family and the investigating officer. If it wasn’t outlined in the last will and testament, the Army didn’t grant his parents access or rights to his email. Even if the soldier is deceased we still have to respect the right of the individual.