RT Article
T1 Electronic Monitoring and Privacy Issues in Business-Marketing: The Ethics of the DoubleClick Experience
JF Journal of business ethics
VO 35
IS 4
SP 243
OP 254
A1 Charters, Darren
LA English
PB Springer Science + Business Media B. V
YR 2002
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/178561696X
AB The paper examines the ethics of electronic monitoring for advertising purposes and the implications for Internet user privacy using as a backdrop DoubleClick Inc’s recent controversy over matching previously anonymous user profiles with personally identifiable information. It explores various ethical theories that are applicable to understand privacy issues in electronic monitoring. It is argued that, despite the fact that electronic monitoring always constitutes an invasion of privacy, it can still be ethically justified on both Utilitarian and Kantian grounds. From a Utilitarian perspective the emphasis must be on minimizing potential harms. From a Kantian perspective the emphasis must be on giving users complete information so that they can make informed decisions as to whether they are willing to be monitored. Considering the Internet advertising industry’s current actions, computer users and government regulators would be well advised, both practically and ethically, to move to a user control model in electronic monitoring.
K1 Privacy
K1 Electronic Monitoring
K1 cookies
K1 computer ethics
K1 business marketing
DO 10.1023/A:1013824909970