Writing Homework Help

The purpose of this assignment is to examine the interplay of business ethics, consumer privacy, and the collection and use by business of customer information in a digital marketplace.

Businesses have increasingly focused on understanding the customer, which has led to the collection and sharing of vast amounts of customer information. Some customers welcome the increased convenience and personalization of marketing that these approaches provide, but many customers are concerned about how these practices affect their privacy. There are currently no federal laws that ban the collecting, sharing, or selling of information regarding the customer, including but not limited to name, address, telephone/cellphone number, birthdate, age, email address, transaction history, purchase history, online search history, location history, and other information that is not protected by law.

Review the prompt below and address the associated questions in 750-1,000 words.

Currently, federal laws focus on protecting some financial and credit information, children’s privacy, some medical information, social security numbers (sometimes), required notice of the company’s privacy policy (to explain the entity’s information-sharing practices to their customers), notice of the use of internet cookies, the Do Not Call list, and network security to prevent security breaches, to name a few focuses. However, there are no laws protecting other customer information. Many businesses require customers’ personal information to be shared with the business in order to purchase a product or service from the business, for example, name, address, email address, and phone number. Some of this information is also obtained when a credit or debit card is used in a transaction. This information is often shared or sold. Much information that was formerly considered private is now readily accessible by anyone with access to the internet. Some additional issues related to sharing and selling such information include identity theft, robomarketing, geotracking, and cyberstalking.

1. Pick one ethical dilemma arising from the collection of customer information and one ethical dilemma arising from the sharing or selling of customer information. From an ethical standpoint, how should a business handle a customer’s information?
2. Discuss whether customers should have the option to provide personal information during a transaction.
3. The use of various forms of technology in business is ubiquitous. Discuss the potential ethical benefits and drawbacks of the use of technology in business regarding customer information. For example, think about the potential benefit of receiving coupons or notices of sales regarding the type of food a customer purchases because the customer’s food purchases are tracked. In addition, think about the potential danger of businesses or the government knowing what kind of food a person purchases because the business or government is tracking food purchases, then denying or limiting access to health care or health insurance based on the purchase of foods that are considered unhealthy.
4. From a Christian worldview, discuss the ethical dilemmas regarding businesses’ exploitation of customers’ personal information for financial gain.