The problem of privacy on the Internet is getting ever more important as more and more private information is digitized and stored online. Such information includes credit card information, photos and information about a person's interests, hobbies, family and employment. Facebook and LinkedIn, two large social networks, store information about hundreds of millions of users, for instance. Ethics in IT is concerned with what information can and cannot be made public. Social networks may prefer to make users' profiles public in order to boost traffic; users, on the other hand, may want their profiles hidden away.
Hackers should not be underestimated. The damage persons with unauthorized access to computer networks can do is enormous. Banks alone store trillions of dollars in an electronic form, and even a small fraction of this money stolen can make a criminal rich overnight. Security in cyberspace, approached from an ethical viewpoint, should balance speed and convenience of access to websites for legitimate users with potent firewalls against hackers.
Intellectual property is one of the most controversial issues in cyberspace. The problem of cyber piracy and how to deal with it is of particular concern. On the one side of the argument are firms, such as record companies and movie studios, who argue that it is illegal and unethical to copy the work of others for which you didn't pay. On the other side of this argument are Internet users who believe that the Web is not a place to be policed.
A code of ethics is, essentially, a list of statements that guide a person in a certain professional field. There have been a number of attempts to create a code of ethics for an IT professional. One such code of ethics, developed by the Association of Information Technology Professionals, states that an employee working in the information technology sector has an obligation to management, society, employer, his college or university, and to his country, to uphold ethical and moral principles.