Privacy And Security A Technological World - 1356 Words

Megan Gabriel-King Dr. Johnson PHIL 3170-002 26 October 2014 Privacy vs. Security In a Technological World Since the September 11th terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in 2001, the subject of terrorism has played a major role in both politics and media. As America embarked on the war on terrorism, the government became much more aware that threats to our country were both internal and external. In this age of technology it is now more possible than ever to discretely use surveillance software on the American people without them ever knowing, as evidenced by the Edward Snowden scandal in which it was revealed that the NSA had violated citizens’ personal privacy in the name of national security. This revelation led to a large debate†¦show more content†¦I aim to evaluate the question of whether or not I would design the software in relation to each of the five principles. The first humanitarian principle is the valuation of life, Jacques Thiroux in the book â€Å"Ethics: Theory and Practice† describe this principle by stating, â€Å"Human beings should revere life and accept death.† This principle can be applied to the central question of designing software. The question then come to be: does invading personal privacy if it stops terrorism protect life? If I am just looking at this from the view point of the life valuation principle, the invasion of privacy is not going to cause any deaths. Furthermore, by designing this software lives would likely be saved. Therefore thus far with respect to the valuation of life principle, there is no ethical violation. The next principle is the principle of goodness or rightness. Thiroux states that there are three things that humanitarian ethics demands of humans which fall into two categories: beneficence and non-maleficence. He defines beneficence as, â€Å"Promoting goodness over badness.† When it comes to the main question, this principle is open for interpretation because in applying the principle the question dissolves into if it is â⠂¬Å"more good† to not write the software and protect privacy or if stopping terrorism is more good although