Ethical controversy and contemporary debates

Ethical IT

The question of whether or not it is right for a company to put spyware on all of its employee's workstation computers in order to detect private usage and so increase productivity -- or at the very least stem the loss of work hours due to private use -- that the company believes is occurring is indeed an ethically tricky one. There is a definite right on the part of the employees to their privacy, and yet there is a right by the company to get the proper work hours that the employee has been contracted and paid for. These rights, in the given situation, would seem to be in conflict, and though this need not be the case it presents in interesting grounds for the comparison of utilitarian and deontological ethical systems. Neither of these directly and simply answers the ethical question raised here, but both have clear and relevant positions supporting both the employees and the company.

The ultimate end and ethical measure in the system of utilitarian ethics is often summed up as "the greatest good for the greatest number," meaning that the ethical course of action is that which maximizes the benefits and minimizes the harm to all affected partied in a given situation (Andre & Velasquez 2008). The name of the system is actually derived from the economic term "utility"; the decision with the highest overall utility is deemed ethically correct (Mautner 2002). Deontology, on the other hand, derives from Greek words meaning "the study of duty," and is concerned with the motives and normative moral obligations that are seen to exist in all actions (Alxander & Moore 2007). Deontology, that is, specifies that there are right acts and wrong acts, and that the outcome of these actions does not determine their morality, but rather the act itself is classified as correct or incorrect.

Applying these theories to the situation at hand yields clear but inconclusive results. From the utilitarian perspective, it can be assumed that the use of spyware will reduce the private use of computers and restore the lost work hours, which is a benefit for the company. Employee relationships with the company will be damaged, however, perhaps irrevocably, and this could also affect productivity. Managing the data from the spyware will also require company resources, which can be seen as a detriment. Deontologically speaking, it is generally considered wrong to spy, but it is also wrong to waste company time when an employee is accepting money in an agreement to work, not take care of private business. The two wrongs do not cancel each other out, but either decision leaves one side wronged, so neither system provides a direct answer to the problem.