Current events in cybertechnology

What exactly does it mean to be ‘ethical'? You might think something along the lines of ‘treat others the way you want to be treated' or ‘be a good person'. In everyday life, it is easy to act ethically and avoid social faux pas. For example, you would not likely follow someone around town to find out their daily habits, would you? However, many web sites, such as Google or Facebook, do so. Granted, they are not spying on you from the curb, but they do track your online habits, using them to generate the more focused advertising you see when browsing such pages. Of course, using these companies' services requires an agreement. Nevertheless, if you look at the analogue comparison, the ethical lines become a little more blurry.

Ethical and social issues such as this example, that involve cybertechnology, seem to arise almost daily. Sometimes these issues and controversies are reported in daily newspapers, and even in the ‘blogosphere' (i.e. blogging websites). Moreover, these issues are also regularly tracked on some websites dedicated to the ethical and social aspects of cybertechnology. These ethical and social issues are the catalysts for this Discussion. As such, your challenge is to locate a current story about a particular incident affecting issues such as privacy, security, intellectual property or any other issue you deem socially and/or ethically ambiguous.

To complete this Discussion:

Post: Create an initial post in which you examine a current story, of your choosing, about a specific incident that triggered social and/or ethical concerns (e.g. privacy, security, intellectual property, etc.). In your post, summarise your selected story and the ethical/social issues involved. Also, explain whether you think these social/ethical issues are positive or negative and justify your position. Lastly, explain your reasoning behind selecting this story for your Discussion post.