Legal and Ethical Issues

Legal and Ethical Issues Relating to the Use of Business Information.

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Today l will be explaining the legal and ethical issues that relate to the use of business information. l personally think that legal and ethical issues are usually to do with something that involves people having to abide to a law, in most cases there will be a consequence for not abiding with the law.

Most people do not feel safe in putting their personal staff on different social networks like Facebook and Twitter, the reason being of many hackers invading other people's privacy.

Most businesses have different information about people working for them, that's when the Data Protection Act 1998 protects the information held about people being misused. The information usually on the company's database must be: obtained fairly and lawfully, only to be used for the purposes stated during collection, adequate relevant and not excessive in relation to the intended use, accurate and up to date, not kept for longer than necessary, proceed in line with your rights and also protected from transfer to an area outside the European Economic Area unless adequate protection exists for that data in the area.

Facebook tries to follow this Act, However recently a lot of people's personal accounts have been hacked and people have been able to go on other people's accounts and post disturbing information or pictures. This then breaks the Data Protection Act 1998 of obtaining personal information fairly and lawfully. Facebook should have been able to stop those people invading privacy.

There is also Freedom of Information Act 2000 (that came to effect in 2005) this includes
Right of access to information held by public authorities. This is when a person request information to public authority, the authority has to be informed in writing by the public authority whether it holds information of the description specified in the request, and if that is the case, to have that information communicated back to them. Therefore, as there is a lot of post or pictures posted on facebook there is always information that the users need to get on the networking site. This suggesting that people are not being deprived from the information that they need and also shows how Facebook is not breaking this law.

The Computer  Misuse Act 1990 it is a law that does not allow certain activities when using computers, this include: hacking into other people's systems, misusing software or helping a person to gain access to protected files on someone's else's computer. Recently we have seen on the BBC news on how they were hackers on Facebook and how there was no password protection on users Facebook as the flaw meant that many accounts were viewable with only on click. Below is the website you can find more information.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20180229

b) There are also ethical issues that are dealt with using organisational policies and codes of practise such as: use of email, internet and whistle blowing. These go under business ethics meaning moral principles concerning acceptable and unacceptable behaviour by business.

Facebook has code of practise when people use their website or internet relating to them and what the users can and not use Facebook for. For instance users are not allowed to post anything offensive that can hurt or affect another user. Also if an image of a user is put on Facebook that you do not want anyone to see the user is allowed to report it and Facebook takes it off. There are also codes of practise which govern selling on the internet which many business or sites adhere to (believe in).

Whistle blowing is also one of the ethical issues users can use and relate to. This is when an employee raises a concern about a business practise either to management within the company or to an outside organisation like the press. In this case Facebook users will be reporting or whistle-blowing to the owners of Facebook if there is any kind of danger like crime, cyber bullying, fraud or posting posts that offend other users. Facebook users usually have trouble trying to take down either false post that IS posted to their walls or people posting images to them. Usually underneath the image Facebook gives the users a chance to decide on what they want to do on the picture. For instance either remove tag, spam or reporting the image so that those people will receive a message from Facebook notifying them to remove that post or image.

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Operational issues in relation to the use of business information, including security of information, backups, health and safety, business continuance plans and costs.

Organisations have to store and manage countless pieces of information with some being far more important than others. To make sure that information is managed appropriately, a number of policies and procedures have to be put in place, concerning; security of information, backups, health and safety, organisational policies and business continuance plans and cost.

For security of information it is important for business to have the right information available as and when they need it, in order to make good business decisions. Information security management deals with maintaining the integrity and availability of organisational information and knowledge. One of Facebook security rules is on how it is illegal  to create many accounts or an account using someone else's personal information. Giving truthful information on Facebook is also important for users of Facebook so that their information can be protected. Also security of information should be useful for sites like Facebook as there can be a problem with the system, this can be caused by hackers hacking into the system and being able to access people's accounts.

 As for Fcebook other users cannot access or view your account if you'renot friends with them. Facebook usually ask you if you want to protect your information from friends or if you only want people who are friends with you to be able to view your account. Facebook tries to be in line with operational issues as it tries to keep and manage countless pieces information. For instance if someone who is not one of your friends on Facebook sends you a message before you reply Facebook ask you if you really want to let that person in your information as it might not be safe.

Backups is also one of the operation issues as most businesses have developed programs constantly to try to minimise the risk of losing vital information stored on IT servers. This involves producing backups of information stored on the servers. Some companies back up constantly and some less frequently. As for Facebook if a user deactivates their profile with information, Facebook keeps all the pictures and post for the user just in case they decide to come back again. When a user comes back they do not have to go the same procedure of signing in but they can just activate their account as all their information will be backed up so they can just continue. This also means that all the pictures and post from before will not be destroyed when deactivating your account.

Health and safety is also one of operational system and so are business continuance plans and costs. Business continuance plans are the steps that a company puts into place to make sure it is capable of surviving a worst-case scenario. As Facebook is free to join it does not really need business continuance plans and costs.

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In this last part l will analyse legal, ethical and operational issues in relation to the use of business information for Twitter.

Legal issues are the laws raised by different companies so that users or customers will be aware of them. Ethical issues involve right and wrong or what is considered good, and what is considered evil in a society. Legal and ethical issues for social networking sites are usually different from other businesses.

Twitter has their own legal and ethical issues, these are;

• Make sure you conform with advertising regulation- this means for the users to respect the principles of fair competition generally accepted in business. Not mislead by inaccuracy, uncertainty, exaggeration or otherwise.
• Don’t make any offensive statements- for example two people have faced claims for slander after making comments about another person on Twitter.
• Don’t invade anyone’s intellectual property- it is not allowed to tweet anything which might be protected by copyright or any other intellectual property right. This includes all sorts of material, including photos and articles.
• you can find some of Twitter's legal issues here http://www.lawyers4mumpreneurs.com/%20/articles/twitter/top-10-legal-issues-to-consider-when-using-twitter
Operational issues is an issue to do with a process or how something is done. It can aso be a statement that describes how to measure a certain variable or how to define a certain term.
For Twitter's operational issues organisations have to store or manage pieces of information that are important and can be uselful in a later time. Some being far from important.
To make sure that information is managed appropriately, a number of policies and procedures have to be put in place, concerning; security of information, backups, organisational policies.