Ethics and Professionallism in the ICT Industry

Introduction

The ICT (Information and communications technology) is booming nowadays and it’s a very important part of our daily and professional lives. The ICT sector has given humans a better quality of life without any doubt. The code of ethics comes into the picture where the ICT’s quality of service is involved. The ICT code of ethics is very important factor to improve the service quality in the sector. Code of ethics provide a ethical conduct procedure and professional practices for customers and team members to implicate in their workflow. This essay, will focus on UBER’s ethical code of conduct and the issues they are currently facing in New Zealand operation. The issues that UBER is currently facing are sustainability, equity, social and cultural issues. Furthermore, we will also be discussing the controversial case of P2P platform-based website Pirate Bay, we will be discussing its potential implications for NZ’s ISPs. (AYNSLEY, 2015)

TASK 1

In the ICT industries professionals are committed to their set of rules and regulations. There are, however, many cases where ICT professionals are accused of stealing, corruption, and various forms of illegal activity. The guide to ethical standards is always important when making decisions in the right way. Nowadays, ICT workers need to focus on the standardisation process and methodologies that help them manage data from a variety of media such as social data, cloud-based data that lets them expand into new industry. Ethical values make the gap between rules and policies an exception in the role of ICT. (Carcary, 2018)

UBER is a global transportation network based company whose basic services are ride sharing. In simple words, UBER provides and modern and digitized form of taxi/cab services which is fast, cost efficient and easy to use. UBER operates in approximately 85 countries including nationwide operation in New Zealand also. According to the UBER community guidelines, their service guidelines stands on three pillars of conduct (Uber, 2020). The first pillar is defined as “treating everyone with dignity” that is actually the 8th Code of Conduct. The second pillar is the ensuring the individual’s protection and helping one another.  The second pillar is IEEE's 1st Code of Conduct that focuses on keeping the public's safety , welfare and health. The third and last pillar of Uber’s community guidelines follows IEEE’s 7^th code of conduct i.e. “to seek, accept, and offer honest criticism of technical work, to acknowledge and correct errors, and to credit properly the contributions of others” (IEEE, 2020)

TASK 2

Sustainability Issues

A study conducted by Department of Commerce in America revealed that Uber's ICT team uses internet data from web media. That gives individuals the offer in the form of advertising. The ethics code of the IEEE also lets the workers of Uber work on flexible time and customer satisfaction. Uber has a belief that sharing rides would help them make transportation by electric cars sustainable in environmental issues and increase transportation throughout the region. The fifth Code of Conduct (i.e “to improve the understanding by individuals and society of the capabilities and societal implications of conventional and emerging technologies, including intelligent systems;”) (IEEE, 2020) on improving technical skills is perfectly suited for these changes. (essays, 2018)

Equity Issues

The complaints on Uber say that the unlicensed taxi situation is charging for the service that is in turn misleading shareholders and costing more and paying fewer taxes at the start and afterword (essays, 2018). The 3rd Code of Ethics that tells us to be honest and realistic while stating claims (IEEE, 2020) is seen to be overruled here and must be followed to make amends.

Social issues

The demand of the employee is also increasing demand and service from Uber. Alternatively, a higher skilled driver must be hired and his income would improve in the comparison to another individual. Thanks to the 5th Code of Ethics, now one of the maturing enterprises ' sustainability reports has shown that Uber provides up to 25,000 lower fares and offers driver partners the benefits through the sharing of journeys. (Weinstein, 2014)

Cultural problems

Uber’s business culture is focused on aggression. Different cases claim that the Uber drivers show actions of dishonesty. This will also be shown in the profile when those drivers seeks new jobs. The higher position of the representative was also dishonest in his staff and was not aware of ethical values and advantages. The IEEE code of ethics needs to be adhered to strictly, such as honesty and integrity to address such issues. (Weinstein, 2014)

TASK 3

The Pirate Bay causes problems with original content and earns revenue from royalties.  In addition to it, no matter what the contents are, it is free information for everyone and can be accessed by any person any time. Pirate bay is one of many illegal piracy sites that are used with bit-torrent software used for Peer to peer (P2P) file sharing, which is faster but includes the illicit content (Tan, 2010). In New Zealand, the original material regarded as the property of individuals under the Sections 92A to 9E Copyright Act where they can sell the rights and infringement through the individual access. The NZ entertainment industries make their own content available to NZ ISPs for transmission under licencing. (Power, 2009)

Such content-sharing platforms have no limitation and guarantee that the specific age demographic is free of malicious activity and information control. New Zealand ISPs are losing 13 per cent of their entertainment market in 2016. Such as TV series, Films and research material can be accessed free of charge which is actually paid through ISP subscription. This powerful peer-to-peer communication is used for free access to the content of copyright, which is why NZ ISPs are surfing on P2P files where the Privacy Act is being implemented. This is how the individual gets the paid content for free and ISPs need to block that government-based P2P platform.  Because of these events the protocol Bit-torrent is neglected. (Tan, 2010)

TASK 4

The Uber was seen as an unethical and unlawful company but it is changing now - a-days. Transparency and consumer satisfaction are improving and being transparent with the company that lets them extend their operation globally. ⠀The company is paying their taxes promptly and the drivers are also getting their commissions paid properly Uber's digital marketing and app-based taxi services allow the company to get more and more clients. In addition, Uber can stay in touch with their customer via their social network and receives feedback regardless of whether it is good or bad, and improves their services. The code of ethics helps to create a useful working environment with ethical values and sustainability. (essays, 2018)

The platforms like pirate bay are best for the open source projects. They actually provide us access to peer 2 peer by bypassing the cloud. The services are free of charge; therefore, all the users get free access to any product. The entertainment digital media files such as video songs, movies and TV series are also freely accessible via bit torrent network. The files that are large in size are also easy to access because of the P2P connection-based communication. These web-based services have a interactive and attractive user interface. The multiple torrent sorting makes it the best bit torrent service. The code of ethics by IEEE and ITTP should be applied to put an end to the free accessibility of all the pirated content. (Bhowal, 2019)

Summary

The digital media has now become a very important part of our sub culture. It is always been free to access and is changing rapidly every day. People who are involved in working  in ICT sector , are also getting responsible towards the following of  laws where ethics and code of conduct by IEEE and ITTP provide the standard practise idea and forever increasing ethical values in cases of Uber and Pirate Bay.

Bibliography

AYNSLEY, B. (2015). Ethics essential for ICT professionals. Retrieved from https://www.theaustralian.com: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/technology/ethics-essential-for-ict-professionals/news-story/78307af0586683a61e7a0d537c5f6cf8

Bhowal, S. (2019, August 9). What is Pirate Bay and How Does It Work? Retrieved from technofaq.org: https://technofaq.org/posts/2019/08/what-is-pirate-bay-and-how-does-it-work/

Carcary, M. (2018). The role of ethics in developing professionalism within the global ICT community. International Journal of Human Capital and Information Technology Professionals , 3-6.

essays, U. (2018, November ). Ethical Issues Facing Uber. Retrieved from ukessays.com: https://www.ukessays.com/essays/business/uber-ethical-issues.php#citethis

IEEE. (2020). IEEE Code of Ethics. Retrieved from /www.ieee.org: https://www.ieee.org/about/corporate/governance/p7-8.html

Power, S. (2009, march 24). Government to amend Section 92A. Retrieved from beehive.govt.nz: https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/government-amend-section-92a

Tan, L. (2010). The Pirate Bay Countervailing power and the problem of state organized crime. Retrieved from http://ctheory.net/: http://ctheory.net/ctheory_wp/the-pirate-bay-countervailing-power-and-the-problem-of-state-organized-crime/

Uber. (2020, 1 23). Uber Community Guidelines. Retrieved from uber.com: https://www.uber.com/legal/en/document/?country=united-states&lang=en&name=general-community-guidelines

Weinstein, B. (2014). Opinion: Four other ways Uber is ethically challenged. Retrieved from https://money.cnn.com/: https://money.cnn.com/2014/11/21/technology/uber-ethics-oped/