Online methodology is being used for day-to-day meetings, institutional approvals in the administration and for teaching and learning in education sector to the extent telemedicine in the health sector is getting popular with the approvals of the competent authority. No doubt, it has advantages and disadvantages for both the beneficiaries and the system at large. Describe and discuss the ethical issues involved in the use of online method particularly to the vulnerable section of the society. UPSC IAS Mains 2022 General Studies (Paper – 4)
Digitization refers to application of ICT to make government SMART- Simple, Moral, Accountable, Responsive and Transparent. Ethical issues are those issues that lend themselves as situations or matters where an individual as a moral being engages his or her moral intellect to make a decision as to whether something is right or wrong. Ethical issues in use of online method are –
- Privacy- Refers to a “zone of inaccessibility” that surrounds a person. Privacy is also a recognized fundamental right. Solitude, anonymity and intimacy are also cherished human values which are challenged by digitization.
- Trust- Because the government information is generally sensitive and can be misused, there is an element of trust involved.
- Data protection- Prevention of misuse of personal data.
- Right to be forgotten- Prevent any display of personal data once the purpose of disclosing of data is ended.
- Computer decisions- When computers are relied upon to make decisions, a new phenomenon of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is created. It lacks human touch. Moral status of machine cannot be made equal to human being.
- Security- E governance initiatives still remain vulnerable to security breaches. Three aspects of data security are confidentiality, integrity and availability of information.
- Cyber-crimes- new technologies creating new opportunities of crimes, new ways to steal and new ways to harm others.
- Technology dependence- Our dependence on systems and our vulnerability to system errors and poor data quality have increased. Yet, our social rules and laws have not yet adjusted to this dependence. Standards for ensuring the accuracy and reliability of information systems are not universally accepted and enforced.
- Digital divide- E governance becomes an ethical issue when ICT tools cannot be afforded by all citizens intended to be served by their government. Issues of “digital divide” separating society into “haves” and “have nots”.
- Reliability- System crashes, challenge of hacking.
Thus, digital governance goals must ensure that that they do not violate the goals of ethical governance.
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