Management and the Technology Professional – B302

Case study answer 1

The most compelling reason for me not to develop such software would be that it is not in accordance with the U.K Legislation, International Conventions, Code of Conduct, Ethics and moreover is dangerous for the company in regards to business prospects.
This software gets installed without giving prior notice to the System User. Even if we neglect that it makes their system vulnerable to hackers and hides itself along with other malicious files and soft ware’s which can lead to system crash causing hassle and loss of important data, harming privacy and security of the user which could end in drastic results. Further more such software cannot be removed by using normal method of add/remove software and if is deleted manually it corrupts the system files.
By doing so it violates the Computer misuse act 1990 by having an unauthorised access to computer material and also violates the Data Protection act 1998 by having access to personal data without any rights granted.
According to the code of conduct we should protect The Public Interest and keep in mind the duty to the relevant authority, duty to the Profession and Professional Competence and Integrity to which this software disobeys. It also negates the importance of all the code of ethics as it is not in favour of the society and causes problems.
In regards to the business prospects of the company, it is very harmful as it destroys the reputation of a company and promotes lack of trust among the users and so we should always avoid such bad practise.
From the company's prospective I would suggest that in order to protect their interest, if it’s necessary to develop such software’s they should give the users an adequate notice that by using this CD such and such would happen and then it is down to the users’ discretion if they intend to go further and make an informed decision like for example all the cigarette companies on every cigarette pack have warning for the consumer that this is injurious for health and causes cancer which I think is far more a professional attitude.