Richard Mason (1986) summarizes the most important ethical issues of the information age in a single acronym – PAPA (privacy, accuracy, property, accessibility). Privacy stands for the level of exposure of personal information to other users. Accuracy refers to the accountability for errors in information and the subsequent choice of the person to blame. Property deals with the question of ownership of information and the means of its transmission. Finally, accessibility underscores the opportunity and conditions of obtaining information. Analyzing real-life examples is essential in understanding the exact nature of each ethical issue.
I personally experienced the inadvertent invasion of privacy when a professor instructed students to bring laptops for presentations. We connected the laptops to a projector in order to make the audience see the slides for themselves. Unfortunately, everyone also observed the layout of the desktop, which contained numerous shortcuts, some of which were of delicate nature. This situation was also indicative of access problems, as the lack of computer equipment in the classroom forced the students and the professor to use their own devices. Had there been a computer provided by the administration, no violation of privacy or the necessity to resort to personal gadgets would have taken place.
Another episode highlights the issues of accuracy and property of information. At some point, I had to take a seasonal job with an employer who paid most of my salary in cash in order to minimize taxes. However, when I contacted him for subsequent tax deductions, I suddenly realized that most of the transactions were never officially registered, which was a violation of accuracy. I tried to learn how much money he had actually saved by paying in cash. However, my employer framed my inquiry as a violation of his informational property, which was completely reasonable.