In this assignment I will be talking about ethical and legal issues that business should consider. The business that I have chosen to talk about is phones4u however; I will relate some topics to Sony.
Legal Issues: laws that the business must operate under. Phones4u uses many policies (guiding principle) to make sure that their employees carry out daily task with ethics.
Computer Misuse Act 1990: this act covers three main criminal offences which are committed using a computer and if the laws are broken the punishment are six month imprisonment followed by a fine that has to be paid. This act covers unauthorised access to phones4us employees and company’s computer for purpose of committing a crime or access to employees or customer’s personal details held by phones4u. This act also includes unauthorised modification of computers. Between April 17 and April 19, 2011 Sony’s PlayStation network was hacked and caused the business to shut down the network which lead to 77 million users being unhappy with Sony which had a major affect on the Sony’s brand image and this can stop potential customers doing business with Sony. Under phones4u police employee’s computers must all be installed with a firewall and antivirus in hope of stopping any unauthorised accessing the information recorded on phones4u computers which lowers the risk of crime against the business.
Data protection act 1998: this act gives permission to business such as phones4u to only use customer’s information for specific purposes which is stated in the agreement. Data should not be shared with any third party unless it was agreed with the customer. Under phones4u code of conduct customers information will not be passed to any third party except under circumstances. This act prevents any crime using peoples information and it is an offence for obtain parties to have peoples information without authority. Under this act phones4u must have accurate and up to date information about its customer and the information must not be held for longer than necessary. Individual have the right to access any information held about them by business for reasons such as prevention or detection of crime. Sony was not able to protect its PlayStation networks users and give away 77 million users information and Sony was taken to court and lost its reputation which can stop potential customers to purchase from them which can lower the business cash inflow (revenue) and stop Sony’s expansion. Under policies that phone4u has the control of personal data is limited which means it cannot be used for any other purpose than what the customer has agreed to which allows the data to be safe.
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA): this act gives the right to general public to have access to any information held by phones4u or any other organisation about them. This allows them to see any record held about or against them which allows them to correct any mistake made by phones4u which can stop them having access to certain thing. WikiLeaks is non-profitable organisations which give out military and governmental information about USA which held a lot of information that was kept away from general public. Wiki leaks claimed that people were eligible to know the secrete information held by their governments.
Ethical: following a set of moral
Using emails: email is an electronic memo that allows individual and firm to communicate with one another. Phones4u uses email to send employees or customers remaining them about any information relating to the. Email allows phones4u to easily communicate with a large number of people in short time and get quick feedbacks.Phones4u ban any threatening or specious emails received by the employees or are send by them. This stops any computer virus to infect phones4u network and damage it or get customers information and use them for criminal purposes. Some organisations such as phones4u limit the use of employee’s emails for personal uses which encourages them to focus more on their work and stop any information about phones4u to be sent out. Also phones4u does not allow employees to send out confidential information via emails as because they can be hacked and read by other.
Use of the internet: phones4u employees have access to an intranet or better known as a private network which only authorised users have access to it. This type of network allows the phones4u to easily monitor employee’s use of the computer and there is a lower risk of computer virus infecting the employee’s computer that can steal customer’s information. Phones4u employees are banned to use the internet for any impropriate use and also finding information and giving credit to themselves which is against the law. In 2011 a bbc employee was sacked for using the internet to have access to impropriate websites which was aired on TV and millions saw which questioned BBCs code of practise.
Whistle blowing: these are employees who give out business confidential information and raise concern about the business management or code of practice. Information given out can lead to crime, fraud and jeopardise the information of customers of the business. Whistle blowers can receive legal protection through public. Wiki leak was able to gain access to USAs confidential information through a whistle blower.
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