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Moral Issues With Internet Privacy Essay

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It is seldom possible to draw a sharp line of distinction between what's wrong and what's right. Everybody has their own distinctive view with regard to the major moral challenges linked to internet privacy, right from social media privacy to governmental surveillance. However, all stories have two sides, and this necessitates a closer examination of a few existing moral issues associated with internet privacy. Firstly, one needs to examine the chief element of guidance provided by the law on the matter of internet privacy. Possibly the most straightforward moral problem under the 'internet privacy breach' umbrella is malicious software (e.g., spyware) utilization for perpetrating cybercrime and stealing private data. A number of cybercrimes are made illegal by the governments of nations like the United States, European nations, etc., thus echoing unanimity with the fact that it is wrong to steal. In America, in specific, federal governmental regulations against cybercrime encompass: Dishonest practices and acts; Providing fake information and IDs; Credit card frauds; Computer-related frauds; and Frauds linked to access devices. Interestingly, these regulations disallow invasion of others' privacy with the intent of stealing from them as well as non-malicious hacking (What Are the Moral Issues with Internet Privacy?).Subsequently, one needs to address the issue of the ethicality (or lack thereof) of internet hacking. In May of 2014, leading English daily, the Guardian, stated that a few of the top global security researchers were facing indictment on account of their attempts at exposing web infrastructural susceptibilities. The American CFAA (Computer Fraud and Abuse Act) prohibits hacking, or the breaching of private...

Critical.IO exposed a Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) protocol flaw which endangered as many as fifty million PCs, and ended up resolving it by hacking PCs. This drove numerous technology users to suggest that federal rules regulating cybercrime ought to consider hacking intent rather than the act (What Are the Moral Issues with Internet Privacy?).
For example, no less than 2 key federal-level law enforcement organizations have hired Hacking Team: DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) since the year 2012, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation since the year 2011. The latter organization signed an over-seven-hundred-thousand-dollar contract with Hacking Team for its services. Meanwhile, the former apparently employed Hacking Team's software for pursuing Colombian targets (Schwartz).

Internet privacy is also threatened by a 'creep factor' "whereby threats to privacy on the internet do not only come from criminals" (What Are the Moral Issues with Internet Privacy?) Internet users freely share their personal everyday lives on social media websites such as Google+ and Facebook. In such instances, while users' information isn't exactly stolen, numerous individuals raise concerns regarding how this freely available information is utilized by others who have access to it. Facebook's several hundred million users expect it to utilize their personal information fairly and ensure their privacy is protected at all times. Over the last few years, a few user complaints that have cropped up include: sensitive data uploaded on Facebook being shared with a number…

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