Tech Dilemmas Featured in Week’s Ethics News
Nov 2nd, 2009 • Posted in: NewsPeople cleared of crimes find that digital information lives forever, even when it was expunged by courts; Facebook confronts a ticklish problem involving the pages of dead members; Egypt issues code of ethics for cell phone users
VARIOUS DATELINES
The ethics side-effects of technology were evident in several recent reports. Among them:
- National Public Radio reports that the immortal memory of digital media has created a dilemma for those who have been accused but acquitted of a crime: While many people used to be able to get on with their lives after a not-guilty verdict, that option has largely become obsolete. Defense lawyer Robert Perez told NPR that prospective employers and landlords will find out about criminal records because they use private database services that are unaffected by court expungement orders that typically follow an acquittal. And it’s not only official records that can haunt people: One lawyer, reports NPR, sued — and lost — in an attempt to get his college paper to pull a 25-year-old article about his arrest on a burglary charge.
- Egypt has issued an official code of ethics for cell phone use, reports the BBC. The guide includes warnings against annoying others with loud conversations or ring tones, and notes that users could face legal repercussions if they send “inappropriate words or indecent photos” or post pictures of others on the internet without their permission. Another piece of advice from the government guide: “On receiving a text message, verify the information mentioned in it before circulating it.”
- Facebook is dealing with a sticky situation involving a new feature of its homepage that automatically generates suggestions of people to “reconnect” with. Unfortunately, reports TIME magazine, some of those suggestions were for people who recently had died. Now, Facebook is publicizing a policy in which pages of deceased users are “memorialized” — taken out of public search results, sealed from any log-in attempts, but left open for visitors to pay their respects. According to the TIME report, the new policy actually was crafted after a July report from Canada’s privacy commissioner, who questioned the firm’s handling of deceased members’ information.
Sources: BBC, Oct. 29 – NPR, Oct. 29 – TIME, Oct. 28.
For more information, see: Related Newsline story, Oct. 26 — Related Newsline story, Oct. 19 — Related Newsline story, Oct. 12 — Related Newsline story, Nov. 13, 2007 — Related Newsline story, Nov. 5, 2007.
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