ethical dilemma facing the Australian IT industry as a result of mass production and dissemination of big data capabilities

 ethical dilemma facing the Australian IT industry as a result of mass production and dissemination of big data capabilities

Information technology (IT) continues to transform various operations throughout the world to heights never seen before. However, this paradigm shift has elicited a host of ethical concerns, not only for employers but also for employees and the general society as a whole. Consequently, recent times have witnessed a proliferation of scandals about ethics and the position of the tech industry. While the industry is attempting to establish tangible practices and institutions around IT ethics, hard lessons are being learned about what people conceive to be ethical (Moss and Metcalf). in effect, this tradeoffs exerts a lot of pressure among tech companies, especially in determining the best ways to undertake their businesses without causing widespread ethical concerns.

Like in many other countries, the IT industry in Australia is faced with serious concerns about data privacy. While this issue has been prevalent for some time, there is a high possibility that its frequency may increase in 2020 going forward because of the new dynamics that come with a new year. As IT companies continue to assist corporations and other agencies with big data capabilities for data collection and decision-making, lack of transparency in these tools raise major ethical concerns among consumers (Sibenco Legal & Advisory). The current paper examines the ethical dilemma facing the Australian IT industry as a result of mass production and dissemination of big data capabilities.

Background Analysis

As many organizations across multiple sectors in Australia continue to use big data in large scale, IT tech stand a better chance of generating colossal amounts of revenue in the form of benefits. The utilization of big data is attributed to numerous advantages. With these capabilities, entities make better decisions, manage risks, evaluate social impact, and improve access to services (Nicholson). When integrated with other technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), big data can have an even greater impact on firms as well as society. Through this combined effort, AI can enable enterprises to analyze large volumes of data to allow them to improve their predictions and consequent business decisions (Nicholson). In spite of these benefits, big data may cause far-reaching ethical concerns if not used appropriately. Some of the issues that may emerge as a result of the rapid utilization of big data include cybersecurity concerns, privacy impacts, and adverse impacts in the labor market (Nicholson). Therefore, while big data can be combined with other technologies to offer organizations with many benefits, it may result in multiple ethical concerns if not properly handled.

As the production of big data capabilities continues to be marred with ethical concerns, it begs the question concerning the most affected stakeholders. The issue directly impacts the IT sector, the Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO), organizations, employees, and the general society. Each of these outlined stakeholders has a significant role to play in identifying the ethical values and social impacts associated with the use of big data capabilities. AGIMO is the country’s official organ responsible for the management of IT processes. Given this supreme responsibility, the body has the legal mandate to establish relevant policies and regulations meant to uphold the appropriate use of big data. In addition to monitoring the use of this technology among organizations, the body has the authority to provide guidelines to the IT industry to develop solutions that do not raise privacy issues during data mining. At the same time, AGIMO can use its state authority to emphasize the adverse social impact of privacy breaches through the aggressive use of big data to collect data.

As the principal manufacturers of big data technology, the Australian IT industry has an equal responsibility to promote ethical values and reduce negative impacts. Given the enormous technical skill that experts in this sector possess, they are better positioned to address the issue of ethical challenges, rather than depending on less technically endowed stakeholders. Therefore, the Australia IT industry has a big platform to advance ethical values in the use of big data technology, consequently minimizing adverse effects on the stakeholders.

Organizations are other major stakeholders that can promote ethical values and prevent negative social impacts in the use of big data technology. As the primary users of these capabilities, entities have a responsibility to determine how to best use them without raising serious ethical issues. Besides, employees can play a role in ensuring that their organizations are committed to the appropriate use of big data technology. Through their unions, workers can stage discuss with their employers to agree with the extent to which big data can be used to collect their information without breaching their privacy. On equal measure, members of the public have a responsibility to contribute to ethical values in the utilization of big data. Through their elected leaders and advocacy groups, members of the public can lobby for the legislation of more stringent laws and regulations concerns privacy breaches.

Technological advancement in the contemporary world has culminated in a situation where sustainability has become the main strategy for survival. In the context of IT, sustainability implies the way the industry can produce solutions that can reduce environmental effects across socio-economic activities outside the producing sector (Cevere and Gailums 5). Therefore, as the IT sector continues to create solutions for various purposes, it faces substantial concerns about the achievement of socio-economic and environmental sustainability.

Legal recourse available in Australia

As technology continues to become the major platform for various activities, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner has the legal mandate to protect individuals from privacy violations. The body is responsible for ensuring compliance with the provisions of the Privacy Act. As noted by Robertson, this office undertakes the following mandate: firstly, to conduct investigations concerning issues or allegations of a breach to the provisions of the act, including forcing individuals to enter premises to inspect documents to ascertain the extent of the violation. Secondly, it permits enforceable undertakings from law enforcement as evidence upon which to imposition of a civil penalty. Thirdly, it makes determinations concerning the validity of breach accusations against entities. Fourthly, it seeks a civil penalty order from the Federal Court for the imposition of an appropriate fine, which may sum to A$2.1 for more serious privacy violations. `

Despite the regulatory role of the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, the usage of big data technology in Australia may present other dilemmas that that may be beyond the scope of the body. The IT industry is considered one of the sectors contributing to climate change due to carbon dioxide emissions. The sector represents about 8% of the global energy consumption, a figure that is projected to grow about 12-13% in the coming ten years (Cevere and Gailums 4). with demand for IT solutions expected to grow in the coming days, it is high time that the sector rethinks its strategy towards promoting environmental sustainability.

Suggested Solutions

As the issue of data privacy continues to be a major ethical concern among IT companies, it is essential to have innovative solutions to combat the associated adverse consequences. One of the solutions that the IT sector can adopt is the implementation of Comprehensive Input Validation and Filtering. The adoption of this approach is critical in scaling up the data needed to validate and filter features of respective big data capabilities (Bhandari, Hans, and Ahuja 97). To achieve this objective, IT companies in Australia should build algorithms that can validate the input for large sets of data.

Privacy concerns can be further addressed through the implementation of Granular Access Control. The most important function of this algorithm is to configure and review the role of and privilege matrix of various users of big data capability, including admin, employees, and end-users (Bhandari et al. 97). In effect, this control can enable organizations to prevent unauthorized entities from accessing sensitive data, which may subsequently raise ethical concerns.

Case study

ASAP Technologies owns and operates a mobile app platform that enables people to link up ASAP drivers in new York using their mobile phones. The company collects some personal information from riders, including name, email address, payment mode, and phone number. At the same time, the company obtains personal information from drivers, including all details concerning their vehicles and driving credentials.

In 2019, ASAP experienced rampant data breach whereby unauthorized third-party agents accessed drivers’ license numbers and names. Though the company discovered this violation in April 2019, it failed to notify the affected drivers or regulators. The incident resulted in multiple investigations by the state general office. In its complaint, the State Office alleged that ASAP failed to comply with its mission statement that it strictly and closely monitors unauthorized access to driver data. Similarly, the State fice argued that the ASAP was unable to adhere to its promise concerning its intent to deploy reasonable measures to secure personal information stored on third-party cloud providers’ servers. In August 2019, the state office fined ASAP $1000 for its failure to protect private data belonging to drivers.

The ASAP case study underlines the importance of deploying effective solutions to avoid potentially harsh penalties for violating data privacy regulations. The two solutions proposed in the present study can enable ASAP to prevent future data breaches. Comprehensive Input Validation and Filtering algorithm can allow the company to scale up its capability to filter data from various servers to detect potential threats to sensitive data. On the other hand, Granular Access Control can enable ASAP to prevent unauthorized parties from accessing sensitive data.

Conclusion

The issue of unauthorized data is one of the potential ethical concerns embroiling the Australian IT sector in 2020. In recent decades, IT, especially big data, has become a critical component in society, influencing almost every aspect of life. While AGIMO ensures compliance with privacy regulations, the rapid use of big data technologies threatens this regulatory as well the continued fight against climate change. Companies can mitigate against data privacy breaches by implementing Comprehensive Input Validation and Filtering and Granular Access Control. Through the two solutions, enterprises can manage to avoid similar experiences as ASAP in the future.