The legal, ethical and operational issues Essay Example for Free

The legal, ethical and operational issues Essay In this task i will be going over the legal, ethical and operational issues regarding Vodafone. There are many laws/acts that have impacts on businesses such as Vodafone. Some of these acts are The Data Protection Act 1998 , The Computer Misuse Act 1990 and The Freedom of Information Act 2000. The Data Protection 1998 This act makes sure that a company can not share any information with anyone except from inland revenue. All of this information must be kept securely for example in a locked filling cabinet or a secure data which requires password and username. Personal information must be kept safe online as well, For example if somebody wants to make a online purchase on the Vodafone website they must make sure that the website is secure. The website must have a locked padlock at the top of the page and a HTTPS URL. All secure websites must have https and the padlock around the URL. If it does not have that, then it is not a secure website and will not be wise to give personal information. The Data Protection Act 1998 makes sure that all secure websites include these features. The Data Protection Act makes sure that Vodafone keep all their employees and customers information secure. The Computer Misuse Act 1990 This act prevents people from accessing data that is restricted. It is illegal to hack into somebodys computer and access unauthorised data. This act is very beneficial to businesses such as Vodafone as it means anyone who accesses unauthorised Vodafone data will be prosecuted. Vodafone will also have protection on their computers which will require staff to have a login and password. The Computer Misuse Act also prevents people from modifying/corrupting data, along with using viruses to gain access to computers. The Freedom of Information Act 2000- This act gives everyone the right to request information from public authority such as hospitals. This means that you can ask for any information the hospital or GP has regarding you and if they refuse the commissioners office would declare whether the information should be released or not. Ethical Issues are moral principles that concern acceptable and unacceptable behaviour by businesses. Whistle blowing- This is when a employee of a business raises concern about certain acts that impact people. For example if Vodafone where deliberately charging customers more money that they should and a employee raised awareness in the media, which ended in Vodafone getting in trouble with the law and also losing customers. Whistle blowers ensure that businesses such as Vodafone follow the law and act morally as they do not want bad media attention. Internet A lot of companies and organisations have policies regarding the internet. This can be the regulation of certain websites in company computers. For example many schools and business black social networking sites, as they distract people from work. Vodafone can black websites like Facebook and Youtube if they feel that it is distracting employees from work. Use of email- Businesses can use emails for a lot of thing such as sending standard information to people and sending reminders. However businesses can not use emails to to send a lot of things such as confidential information e. g. bank details, they also cant send large documents to many people. Vodafone employees will not be able to send bank details or complicated queries which means that they will need to do these face to face. Operational issues summarise how businesses keep their information safe. Security of information- Businesses will have a lot of vital information saved within their computers. This means that they will need to protect their computers from hacking and viruses. A lot of business and organisations have staff log in accounts which require a password. Along with this they also restrict a lot of actions, for example Vodafone staff may not be able to access information in certain areas of the system. Backups- Businesses will need to backup any information they have in order to not risk losing it. Any vital information should be backed up to another hard drive or a USB memory stick. Large companies like Vodafone will need to backup important information such as customer details in a secure location to not risk losing it and prevent from theft. Some businesses will automatically backup information every hour in order to keep information safe. Health and safety- As a lot of jobs require people to sit in front of a computer for long hours, there are a lot of health and safety issues regarding this. Business like Vodafone will need to regulate employees and make sure they know how to sit with correct postures and make sure computer screens are at correct distance/level in order to prevent eye sight problems.