Reflection on Topic 4: Ethics Online

Entering into topic four of the course I feel we were perhaps given one of the biggest opportunities to leave our own personal stamp on our blogs. As we were allowed to choose “any” topic pertaining to social media and ethics that we found significant, the issue may have been daunting in its scope, had we not had the experience of the previous weeks to build upon our appreciation of how living and working on the web coincide.

While I personally took pleasure in watching the insightful TED Talk speech by Glenn Greenwald [1], I also felt it opened my eyes to how previous topics highlighting surveillance of users online may have changed the way I and many others use and view the web forever. To myself the huge psychosocial impact of this panopticon-type situation caused me to perhaps view web-users and employees as being exploited, and their privacy too openly dissected.

Bartosz’ post [2] served to only reaffirm these beliefs to some extent, and highlighted the inequality of the situation, both in how companies may sell data to a user’s benefit (if this data reflects favourably on themselves) or detriment (if it acts as a deterrant). This in a way seems to be defeating the very purpose of what universal education stands for, in that it should be, if anything, a great equalizer. However I did conclude that if users were made clearly aware of such practices before signing up to these programs, that at least each user could weigh up the pro’s and con’s of such a system themselves.

Leigh’s post meanwhile made me question the motive’s of tweets made by sponsored figureheads in our society, but her assurance that:

“the UK’s consumer protection and competition authority is looking to deepen its understanding of the way businesses use online reviews and endorsements, after concerns were raised about their ‘trustworthiness’ and ‘impartiality’”

Did give me some hope that situations were evolving with the times, especially as consumers cannot be expected to research all sponsorship deals linked to celebrities and their opinions online.

Finally, however a post by Hayley on my own blog drew my attention more to the fact that businesses may be attempting to protect their employees as much as anything else, which in conjunction with the law giving further protection against employees, and abuse of an employers power to sack them allowed me to see that perhaps, if legal constructs continue to recognise the growing importance of the links between the web and workplace, that there may be light at the end of the tunnel.

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Words: 367

Sources:

1. Glenn Greenwald – Why privacy matters

2. Bartosz blog post:
https://paszcza.wordpress.com/2015/03/21/how-mooc-platforms-use-our-data/

Comments:
1.https://paszcza.wordpress.com/2015/03/21/how-mooc-platforms-use-our-data/
2.https://leighravenhill.wordpress.com/2015/03/22/business-ethics-endorsements-are-a-treacherous-path/