There have been many debates around the intended and unintended ethical consequences of digital technology. CIOs, senior IT professionals, boards, risk officers and investors need to pay close attention to digital ethics and digital risks in the evolving world of the digital business. 

The traditional IT function is expanding to fit digital business needs. While the journey becomes more and more complex, organizations need to develop and maintain digital ethics.

Awareness

Digital ethics are data ethics and moral governance of actions taken as a result of insights derived from the analysis of information. As enterprises become increasingly digital, they improve their ability to act and react quickly. They are able to launch products and services rapidly, collect data from millions of Internet of Things devices and personalize consumer interactions in real-time. But all these capabilities come with responsibilities - security and ethics. It is necessary for enterprises to know their moral responsibilities as a digital service provider. They are almost in the middle of the vast online traffic of the connected world and have the necessary tools to gain insights from analysis of all that data. The actions that occur because of these insights should be ethical and morally governed. The first step for any organization, therefore, is being aware of their ethics-related responsibilities.

Why do they matter?

The main reason why digital ethics are important is that the way organizations conduct themselves and use the data they receive will ultimately construct their public image and decide how their communications and intentions are received by consumers. A good public image and outlook will result in more business and increased revenue, and vice versa. Organizations must establish digital ethics because masses always have and will judge them through a moral lens. For example, the taxi service Uber was not allowed to use surge pricing in New Delhi in India after it was pointed out by users that their surge pricing rates were inaccurate, because of a possible problem in its algorithm.

How can an organization be more ethical?

There are some basic practices that organizations should keep in mind while conducting their business.

1. The organizations should be aware of all the data they possess and process, implement adequate controls to ensure data security and enhance data usability. For example, TomTom, a Dutch GPS company received a letter from the Chairman of the parish council in Wedmore, England asking to remove his village from the GPS navigation system. He complained that trucks and tractors come to his village all the time, following inappropriate routes. This happened because the shortest route is not always best route. If the company had researched the GPS data well enough they would have been aware of the problem.
2. Let the user control their personal data and also make it easy for them to do it so. Customers should be able to understand what happens to their private data and how to change data privacy settings better. For example, after facing a lot of flak for its complicated privacy settings, Facebook significantly changed the user interface for privacy settings, making it easier for people to understand what private data others could access.
3. Multi-national organizations should keep a track of the rules and regulations pertaining to data privacy and data distribution in each country in which they function. Different countries have different laws and cultural practices related to privacy.
4. It is firmly established in today’s world that anything legal may or may not be ethical. It is thus the responsibility of an organization to define their morals according to the society they function in.
   

   Ethical dilemmas of our society

   Digital businesses need to establish digital ethics, not to escape the judgement of people, but because it is the right thing to do. The law always takes time to catch up with technology and trends and it is the responsibility of the technology creator to use appropriate judgment in order to be digitally ethical.
   
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