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Ethics Analysis

Mitra DehghaniMeybodi 1918893

University Canada West

BUSI 601

Dr. Bruce Hiebert (Ph.D.)

Feb 07, 2021

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Ethics Analysis

Report

Dear Mr. Jeff Bezos,

According to Ring's spokesperson, Ring's doorbell camera's premise is that customers

trust the company to keep their homes secure. However, there are concerns about privacy and

the organization's privacy policy, which requires your kind attention.

Our right to privacy may be affected by the capturing or distributing video or audio

material involving other individuals or collecting visual data from other people. After

observing Ring's privacy rules, I concluded that the mentioned terms are vague and

continuously changing, so there seems to be little protection for the users from collected

materials and allows customers' private data to be shared with others. Additionally, I share

Senator Ed Markey's concerns about integrating Ring's camera with law enforcement offices

as they are not prohibited from sharing the footage with another party (Feiner, 2019).

I want to quote part of your statement: "Customer trust is hard to win and easy to

lose" (Bezos, 2020, para. 13). Carrying out some policy revisions will ensure that everyone's

civil liberties are protected. One suggestion is to provide visible warnings on the product and

an explicit and clear policy about sharing the customers' data with specific third parties and

allowing them to make an informed decision. Furthermore, instead of the current procedure,

which specifies that the organization keeps recordings to engage in the Ring Neighborhoods

feature, the system could start storing the footage only after obtaining permission and consent

from the customer and immediately notify them if there are any changes to the privacy policy

and ask them to reconfirm.

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Appendix 1

Stakeholders Definition

Freeman and Reed (1983) state, 'stakeholders' are all those that can impact the

accomplishment of corporate goals or are influenced by them. Garvare et al. (2010) indicate

organizations must function in such a manner as to fulfill the needs and desires of a variety of

stakeholders for long-term sustainability. This is essential to generate trade value and avoid

moral failures (Freeman et al., 2010).

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Appendix 2

Figure 1.
Amazon Ring's Stakeholders Mind Map

Note. DehghaniMeybodi, M. (2021, February 7). Miro.Com. https://miro.com/app/board/o9J_lVCcGuc=/

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Appendix 3

Online privacy as a corporate social responsibility: an empirical study

Pollach's (2011) empirical study examined whether and how corporations perceive

online privacy as CSR as not many studies were available. A quantitative study on 95 IT

companies and their privacy policies using positivist and constructivist methods in three

categories.

Thirteen companies expressed motivation to protect privacy (moral, relational or

instrumental), and only one expected to achieve a reputational advantage.

In the CSR Behavior Test, only one organization adopted 19 out of 41 steps to support

user privacy, and two organizations have not taken any measures.

In assessing businesses' engagement with their stakeholders, only six companies were

connected with their non-primary stakeholders.

The author concluded, privacy is new to the CSR concept and can mature from an

ethical to a more constructive perspective.

Limitations: Sample size and data were gathered from corporate self-reports.

Reference

Pollach, I. (2011). Online privacy as a corporate social responsibility: an empirical study.

Business Ethics: A European Review, 20(1), 88–102. https://doi-
org.ezproxy.myucwest.ca/10.1111/j.1467-8608.2010.01611.x
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Appendix 4

Privacy in the Information Age: Stakeholders, Interests and Values

Bhatia et al. (2019) analyzed the language and vagueness of 15 privacy policies using

semantic frames of 949 statements, using four key data-related actions: Collection, Retention,

Usage and Transfer.

They realized that shopping policies had the highest number of data Collections and

sometimes neglected to mention which data will be Transferred to another party. 55.2% of

transfer and 36.8% retention had the condition for when the action will be performed. 79.6%

of usage, 28% retention, 22.2% collection and only 21.8% transfer actions had a purpose for

why they will act on the information.

They concluded that obtaining permission from users before processing their data

increases the client's willingness to share their information. Additionally, specifying precise

Condition and Purpose, lowers users' perception of privacy risk up to 20%.

Reference

Bhatia, J., Evans, M. C., & Breaux, T. D. (2019). Identifying incompleteness in privacy
policy goals using semantic frames. Requirements Engineering, 24(3), 291–313.
https://doi-org.ezproxy.myucwest.ca/10.1007/s00766-019-00315-y
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References

Bezos, J. (2020, July 29). Statement by Jeff Bezos to the U.S. House Committee on the
Judiciary. About Amazon. https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/policy-news-
views/statement-by-jeff-bezos-to-the-u-s-house-committee-on-the-judiciary
Feiner, L. (2019, November 20). Senators ask Bezos for answers on how Amazon's smart
doorbells retain videos and personal data. CNBC.
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/20/amazons-ring-doorbells-scrutinized-in-senators-
letter-to-bezos.html
Freeman, R.E.; Harrison, J.S.; Wicks, AC; Parmar B.; de Colle, S. (2010). Stakeholder
theory: the state of the art. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Freeman, R. E., & Reed, D. L. (1983). Stockholders and stakeholders: A new perspective on
corporate governance. California management review, 25(3), 88-106.
Garvare, Rickard; Johansson, Peter. (2010). Management for sustainability - A stakeholder
theory. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence 21, p737-744.