Ethics Assignment

Facebooks Targeted Ads

Facebook is a  great example of a software that many people use, but has many ethical problems behind it. These include false information, selling of information, and increased societal pressures. The primary ethical dilemma we discussed was with how Facebook collects user information and sells it to other companies. This seems unethical because your information and habits shouldn’t be collected by an application and sold at the expense of  your privacy. The reason people use the app is for social connections not to have private information stolen. This is a problem caused by the software engineers making the app collect this data. There is definitely a need to collect some information, but it’s too extensive. There is also the issue of how the software is being used which is when the people who have access to the data including personal information are selling it to other companies. 

Targets Customer Information Storage

Target and many other companies’ storage methods of customer information, specifically credit card information can be unethical. While many companies store credit card information to track individuals purchases it’s still unethical because it exposes them to having that data leaked by the company’s system. Target was hacked a while back and many of its previous customers had to go out and get new credit cards because of Target storing that information. This is a problem with storage features within Target software and how well it protects important information. 

Apple AirTags

Apple created a product known as AirTags to help consumers keep track of important things including luggage, keys, and many other things. By checking the app on your phone it can track a bluetooth signal the tag is sending out. We thought this could be unethical because these tags can easily be misused. Recently a woman is suing Apple because a man put an AirTag under her car’s bumper so he could stalk her. This is a problem with the feature of the software product which can easily be used for things other than its original intentions. There is also no easy way to ensure that AirTags are not misused to stalk or track other people and their things. The product behavior is too powerful for it to be easily accessible to anyone who can buy it when it has so many possibilities for misuse.