Edward Snowden Case And Morality Of Secrecy -Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: Discuss About The Edward Snowden Case And Morality Of Secrecy? Answer: Introduction Information Ethics is the branch of ethics that deals with the organization, collection and use of information or data according to the ethical standards and moral codes. It provides a framework concerning the ethical issues related to privacy and security of information, problems arising from the ownership of information, data or facts and many more (Floridi, 2013). An analysis of the most famous case of Edward Snowden is done in this report using Doing Ethics Technique and on the basis of ACS code of ethics. DET is a technique of analysing the ethical issues in a scenario. Though it does not provide best solution but van force someone to think ethically (McDermid, 2015). On the other hand, ACS code of ethics provides six core ethical values which are to be followed by each and every member of the society. These values allow the individuals to act with responsibility and integrity with respect to all their professional dealings (Acs.org.au, 2014). Edwards case is analysed on the basis of these two techniques, out of which one provides the details and all the facts including ethical issues and complications about the case, whereas the other deals with the degree of persuasion of ACS ethical codes by Snowden. The report provides details of various statements made by many authorities in respect to his actions followed by a conclusion that shows the result of both the analysis and provide overall recommendations. Synopsis of the case In year 2013, a 29 year old individual employed as a computer expert at National Security Agency and a former CIA systems administrator, Edward Snowden was held responsible for leaking the confidential government documents to reporters at The Guardian and The Washington Post. According to the US government and many legal authorities, Edward violated the Espionage Act 1917, which defines the leak of state records as an act of betrayal. But despite the fact that he broke the law, Edward argued that it was his moral responsibility to inform the public about what is done for and against them. Many people regarded the act of Snowden as ethical whereas many treated him as Traitor (Nolan, 2017). Case facts There are some facts about the case which describes it in a nutshell. They also provides the evidence regarding the statements made in support and against the case. Following are: Edward Snowden is an ex-CIA agent who released the intimate information to press about the data mining program of NSA. The documents which got leaked contains the details of NSA surveillance programs that collect and perform data mining on millions of US phones and Internet traffic data in order to identify the links with known terrorists (Branum and Charteris-Black, 2015). According to the government and American Law, his actions violates espionage. Snowden opposed all the allegations put on him by stating that it was his act of whistleblowing. The Attorney General of US, Eric Holder, stated that he harmed the national security and broke the law, for which he should be held accountable (Fenner, 2014) Jesselyn Radack, a member of Government Accountability Project took the side of Edward by considering his actions to be ethically true and by arguing that he worked for public welfare (Fenner, 2014). Issues related to the case The disclosure of the governments wide surveillance program has fuelled an emotional debate related to privacy, secrecy and security. These disclosure raised three fundamental issues that are: People raised the question on the working of governments that was it okay to conduct such a massive program and to maintain such extensive files. Another issue was that, the government keep the surveillance program secret from the public. The question raised that was it ethical to do so (Greenwald, MacAskill and Poitras, 2013). The case involved an issue which addresses that did the government provide a justification for the disclosure of classified information by Edward, if it was not hiding the program from public. Ethical issues related to breach of law, legality, nations privacy and security also arises in the case (Harding, 2014). However, there were no answers to these questions. In fact, the officials who respect privacy were also involved in this. People who get affected Edward Snowden Looking at his deeds, US Government annulled his passport and its Whistle blower Protection Act does not allow him to enter the country because of his contractual working with the government. So on a whole the case had negative impact on the life of Snowden (Von Solms and van Heerden, 2015). NSA As per the reforms presented by Obama administration, NSA could no longer directly collect the call records from the telephone companies and required a court approval to do the same. On the top of this, NSA was allowed to collect data two hops from the source. Foreign relationships The case had also impacted the foreign relations of United States. Countries like Brazil, Germany, and Russia with whom US maintain relations, had decided to downgrade the commercial ties with the country. Brazil president cancelled his planned visit to US in October 2013, Germany asked for the investigation of NSA spying on it and Russia took the advantage of Snowdens statements to define US as two-faced. All these incidents hinder the relationship of US with these countries (Von Solms and van Heerden, 2015). Cloud based companies There were doubts about the cloud based services offered by American companies on American soil, as the outside governments were suspecting that they might have been spied upon. Due to the disclosures, the US technological companies suffers high losses and damages (Von Solms and van Heerden, 2015). Ethical issues and its implications According to German philosopher Immanuel Kant, the actions of Edward Snowden were against the ethics. The Kant theory states that certain actions like murder, theft and lying are strictly prohibited, even if they give a positive result. He said that the reason for performing actions is not pleasure but to produce a will that is good and a good will is established by acting for the sake of the duty (O'Neill, 2013). According to his theory, Snowden must have act for his duty towards NSA and US government. By leaking the secret documents, he violates the ethics of privacy, secrecy and confidentiality of the nation. He must had perform his duty as an employee of NSA rather than acting as whistle blower. National security and privacy was hindered by his deeds which left a great impact on the overall country. USAs foreign relationships got worse, security and general public has affected a lot and even Edward himself had to face many things because of breach of his duty ethics (Lyon, 2014). Solutions to solve the case Considering Kants theory, Edward has many alternatives to stop the surveillance program. He could go to the regulatory authorities, or any legal department regarding the case. In fact he could consult with one of the organization member rather than secretly disclosing the information in the media. He could have done this without violating his duty ethics. Options available Various options were available like talking about the concern with one of the colleague, consulting to a NGO or legal authority or a regulatory department about the issue. Best Option The best option which could be exercised was Snowden taking the help of legal and regulatory departments regarding surveillance program. He must have spoken to them regarding penetrating privacy of general public by NSA. This could make his actions legal and also in favour of both the country and public. If he had opt for this alternative, then situation would be different than that of what happened after his sudden disclosure to the media. The primacy of public interest According to ACS code of ethics, one should keep the interest of public above all. An individuals actions must be in favour of public interest prior to the business or sectional interest. The person should act within the law and should comply with the society rule of giving first priority to the public (McDermid, 2015). In Edward Snowden case, he has followed this ACS code of ethics as he revealed about the NSA surveillance program to the public, fulfilling his duty of whistle blower. He told the public about NSAs secret program of collecting the private information of general public related to their phone calls, contacts, emails, messages and everything. He did not think of breaking the legal laws and security of the nation and follow his whistleblowing ethics by keeping public interest above all. The enhancement of quality of life This code of ethics deals with enhancing the quality of life of the people who are affected by the work of an individual. The development of ICT has significant impact on the life styles and society of people. The technology has both negative and positive impact, so in order to reduce such negative effects, an ethical approach of improving the quality of life of affected people is followed (Weckert, 2017). Edward knows that the surveillance program conducted by NSA would largely impact the live of Americans. Tracking the record of personal data of general public by using technology, would not be acceptable in any means and the organization should not cross its limits. Through leaking the classified documents, Snowden make the people aware about the deeds of NSA and protect them from their implications. In a manner, he followed the ethics of enhancing the life quality of Americans. Honesty All the professional decisions and actions of an individual must underline its utmost honesty and integrity. There may be some circumstances which forces an individual to be deceptive in some way and to act for his benefits. This type of behaviour is strictly prohibited as per the ethic of honesty (Bowern, et. al. 2006).Talking about honesty, Edward somehow not followed this code as he stole the documents and gave them to the reporters without the concern of NSA. This shows his breach of honesty towards his organization. Though his revelations benefited to public to some extent but his actions towards his duty shows dishonesty in his professional career. He broke the code of honesty and loses the trust of his stakeholders. Competence It means an individual must accept only that work, for which he is capable of doing. He must be competent to perform and should not hesitate to take advice from the qualified experts. The person must know his limitations, his capabilities and knowledge about using all the facets of ICT (Aasheim, 2011). Keeping this ethic in mind, Snowden was capable of doing both the work that is keeping the NSA program as a secret and revealing it about to the general public. As all knows, he chose to release the documents to the press agencies, following other ethics related to primacy of public interest and enhancement of quality of life. Though it is a fact that it did it in a dishonest way, but he was aware about all the facts, standards and legislation related to the program, which he thought to make people aware about. So in some manner, he followed competency in his profession. Professional Development This code allows the person to keep himself updated about the new technologies, standards and practices related to his work. An individual must increase its awareness about the issues which affects his relations with public and profession. He should support the programs concerning with training and development of ICT that helps in satisfying the needs of individual professional and their career. Edward Snowden was very much aware about the changes going in the organization, technologies used by NSA employees to conduct the surveillance program and the consequences of the same on the country. He updated himself with all the facts and classified documents related to PRISM, gather all the information and then released it into the public through the reporters of The Guardian and The Washington Post. The US government still feels that Edward has some more information regarding the program, which he did not disclosed to public. Professionalism This code of ethic defines that there should be professionalism in anything a person do. He should maintain professional standards and the society should be aware of the fact that ACS can help them to resolve ethical dilemmas. It can assist in taking correct actions like whistle-blowing (Al-Saggaf, Burmeister and Schwartz, 2017). Edward follow his professionalism to the extent where his actions justify the ethics of a whistle-blower. He went against NSA and decides to showcase organizations secret program as he thought that NSA was breaching the privacy of public. But from US government, NSA and some peoples point of view, he violates the law of Espionage, breaches national security and privacy which shows his unprofessionalism toward his duty. Conclusion The above report concludes that there were some ethical issues which came into notice by applying DET to the case study. It is reported that in order to fulfil his whistle-blowers responsibility, he violates the country laws which affected many people including himself. He loses the trust of his organization and US government and also hinders privacy and security of the country. By revealing the secret program of NSA, he portrays himself as a traitor in eyes of many people which includes government officials and legal authorities. The technique also provides some options that can be applied by Edward to solve the issues, which would not result in breaking of laws, his loyalty towards NSA and his duty ethics. The report also concludes that he almost followed all the six ethical values laid down by ACS. His actions justifies and reflects those moral code of ethics which are required to be followed by an ICT professional. From this perspective, his deeds completely justifies him but from the point of view of Kants ethical approach, Snowdens actions include one of the certain action that is stealing of the documents, which is prohibited and against ethics according to Immanuel Kant. Although he was seen as a hero for many people as he prevents the privacy of general people from being hampered. Many people justified his actions as his duty of whistle-blower and its ethics. So overall, it can be said that Edward Snowden was traitor as well as a hero according to his actions. But if he had followed a legal procedure for doing all this, then he might have saved himself from such allegations and repercussions. 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