legislation_ethics

Despite the various laws designed to protect our information privacy, there are still many activities that people can perform which, while not illegal, are certainly questionable or morally frowned upon. __**Ethics**__ refers to behaving in ways that are based on our morals and accepted standards. These standards may be common in a particular society or specific to a single organisation. They apply to questionable activities over and above any legal requirements. Ethics often provide us with a set of guidelines of appropriate behaviour. If we choose ignore these guidelines, we may not be committing a crime, but we may be sacked by an employer or shunned by society.
 * Legislation and Ethics**

When we apply ethics to the use of information systems within organisations, we can see several important areas affecting employers, employees and clients or customers. These key areas are:
 * The responsibilities of employers and employees to each other and clients
 * Codes of conduct
 * Company computer use policies
 * Employee monitoring
 * Free speach on the internet

Workplace Responsibilities Within any organisation, employees and employers have certain responsibilities towards one another, as well as to the customer or client. In particular, the employer must pay staff for the work they carry out and provide a suitable work environment in which that work can take place. In return, the employee is expected to work in the interests of the organisation for the duration of time they are being paid. In addition, the organisation is expected to provide good-quality products or high-levels of service to customers. If an employee is not working well for the organisation, it is understood that the manager has the right to sack the employee. The employee is not breaking the law, but they are going against the standards of service insisted upon by the particular company for which they work.

Codes of Conduct and Computer Use Policies It is, however, much harder to relate these workplace responsibilities to an ICT sense because many of the conventional ideas of responsibility may seem unclear. For example, a lawyer works on behalf of a client and a doctor prescribes treatment in the interests of a patient. A computer programmer, however, is in a difficult position because it is not clear who they are working for; is it their manager or the client?. A __**Code fo Conduct**__ might say that they are responsible to both, so what happens when there is a conflict? For example, a programmer might know that there is a bug in a piece of software that they are working on. This will have an impact on the accuracy of the software's data manipulation. Due to a strict deadline, the manager tells the programmer to ignore the bug, as it is more important to have the package delivered on time. In this situation, it is difficult for the programmer to know if they owe a greater obligation to their company or to the client, or even to the general public. In terms of ICT use within an organisation, a company **__Computer Use Policy__** ought to exist. This document would explain clearly to staff what the management believe should and should not be done on the computers or peripheral equipment. Employees will then be in no doubt as to what is permitted and when. While some companies may allow employers to use company computers for their own purposes, like network games, personal email, or general internet use, in their won time, others may not allow emploees o use computers for any purpose other than work, even during a lunch break.

Employee Monitoring If codes of conduct and computer use policies exist in organisations, it is in the company's best interest to enforce them. Often, managers will use __**Monitoring**__ systems to check on what their employees are up to. While these systems are not illegal, depending on the extent of their intrusiveness, they may be considered unethical because they invade the emploee's privacy. It might be considered acceptable for supervisors to monitor some telephone calls in a call center to ensure quality of service, but it is unethical to monitor and then possibly restrict employees' toilet breaks to certain times of the day. The most common monitoring occurs on email, PC use and web browsing. Email messages can be automatcally redirected to a manager if they contain certain words or attachments, especially .jpg or .exe, or if they come from an unrecognised email address. The Australian Privacy Commissioner has issued guidelines regarding the reading of emplyee's email, because certain actions are now covered by the Privacy Admendment Act. Some employees have been sacked because of using email for personal purposes, such as chatting wit friends or distributing okes during work time.

The Internet A final area where ethics are under review is the internet itself. There is no central server or network administrator policing the internet, so almost anything goes. Many people see he internet as a true meduim for free speach. Anyone with access to a server provider can set up a home page and publish any material they want. This might be something as harmless as photographs of a family birthday party or a research thesis on the habits of moths, or it could be hardcore pornography or extremist political views. __**Netiquette**__ evolved as a means of regulating what people publish on the internet. Many people believe that others in the global community should have the right to say whatever they want on the internet, as long as they do so reponsibly. As more families explore the internet, it is often in the interests of service providers such as AOL and Telstra, or a larger search engines like Yahoo! and Google, to tame the internet wilderness by imposing controls on what types of material are stored on their servers or can be found from their search pages. Often, it is public pressure of the desire to chase the large market of family-based customers that effectively forces these organisations to censor their content and liks. Even the federal government is trying to make the internet more family-friendly by promoting its $93 million 'National Filter Scheme'. The government will supply free software that blocks access to pornography, and any other inappropriate content, to homes and public ibraries.

Every citizen of a country has a responsibility to follow its laws. A law is a rule the must be followed. Organisations have legal responsibilities as well. While Australia has had lwas concerning the transfer of data via cable since the Post & Telegraph Act was passed in 1901, it has only been in recent years that significant changes have been made to the handling and release of data by government or independent agencies. Several laws have been introduced since 1988 as a reaction to the rapid spread of electronic communications and storage systems. There are several key laws relating to the ICT industry. At a National level, laws concerned with how information about people can be used are the //Privacy Act 1988// and the //Privac Amendment Act 2000//. In Victoria, we are especially concerned wi the Information //Privacy Act 2000// and the //Health Records Act 2001//. The //Copyright Act 1968//, which relates to using the work of others, has also expanded to cover electroni work by the //Copyright Amendment Act 2000.// Combined, these laws govern the collection and use of private information and intellectual property by both government and non-government organisations at both state and federal levels. Employers and government agencies have a legal responsobility to ensure that these laws are implemented within their organisations. In addition, organisations must make employees and customers aware of their rights, as well as their responsiblities in relation to these laws.

Privacy Act 1988 ﻿In the mid-1980's, the federal governemt attempted to introduce an 'Australia Card'. Due to overwhelming resistance from the public, this proposal was dropped. In its place, the pre-existing Tax File Number system was updated. There were many concerns about how the federal government might use tax file numbers, especially regarding he release of confidential tax information about individuals or matching data from different government departments. At the same time, the government was required by international laws to provide adequate protection for personal data being sent to other countries and to ensure that civil rights with regard to privacy were not being ignored. The government response was the Privacy Act 1988, whcih deals with three main areas: Privacy Amendment (Private sector) Act 2000 The
 * Safeguards relating to the collection and use of tax file numbers by federal government agencies
 * Protection of individuals' private information stored by federal government departments
 * Information about people's credit-worthiness held by credit reporting agencies and credit providers