The 'Five-Eyes' Alliance In The Fight For The Virtues Of Ethical Philosophy In Computer Science
It is incontrovertible to say that international security has risen to become one of the largest global peril over the years. In 1956 the Five English speaking countries (UK, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand) gave rise to an International Intelligence sharing Alliance, namely 'Five-Eyes'. It has come a long way since then with the organization recently announcing that they will be forcing technology providers to use encryption backdoors to monitor billions of private communications worldwide, in attempt to curb down threats like terrorism and cyber-crime. With 'whistleblowers' and leaked excerpts everyday shedding light on how the organization operates, one but many questions are invoked in our minds, Is our personal information even personal anymore? Is everything we do throughout the day logged and kept track of by the government? Am I being monitored while I write this essay? Is this even ethical? Before coming down to culmination just yet, I am further going to explain why I think such an alliance is a principled and effective boon contending to the virtues of Ethical Philosophy in Computer Science.
When taking their first glance at something like this, one ought to think of it in all but a virtuous manner. Expressions such as immoral, democratically undermining and breach of privacy have been associated with the operation in the past. Even Governments of participating countries have not hesitated in raising concern upon cognizance of the matter, as majority of the operations and collection methods infringe legislative terms and would be considered illegal. But to determine whether this is ethical or not depends on what one alludes to while answering a question based on morality. It is important to distinguish between morality and ethics in order to retort, morals have more to do with one's own principles determining whether something is right or wrong, while ethics refers to a set of mandates laid out to one by an organization. This is where it is important to realize that such a conglomerate's ethical code of conduct might not always pertain to an individual's merits of morality.
Even so, referenced by many excerpts from the internet, the initial uproar raised by the population upon the expose quickly subdued as very few were able to provide rationale for their vexations. This is because upon scrutinizing the subject matter, an individual comes down to discerning the motive behind the entire plot which suggests that it may be wrong, immoral, an issue of legislative reluctance, but a bit inadequate to express a desire for change. This further leads us into discussing the philosophical theory of utilitarianism, which states that organizational behavior should be evaluated based on the terms of its consequences, taking into consideration the welfare of individuals beyond oneself. Contingent to this situation it is indispensable to concede the altruist outcomes of the subject matter which intend to curb down and pursue security threats, terrorism and cyber-criminal activity to maximize the wellbeing of as many as possible which in turn is the outcome. T
he theory of Utilitarianism also states that the intentions that an organization acts with while deciding are trivial, and of barely any importance, which justifies the statement we are studying. Also, the subject matter and the motive of the alliance seem to be appealing from a normative viewpoint, in which the determinacy of betterment in the prospect is the driving force behind the intentional choice. Adding on further, there have been reports from the participating nations to manifest the fact that the outcome has been beneficial to the welfare of the society with Britain releasing a public statement that said they have been able to effectively avoid terrorist attacks ever since the formation of the alliance through interception of communication media. This certainly asserts the successful functioning of the Five Eyes as a successful Utilitarian organization. While it is true that Utilitarian practices rarely coincide with morality, it is important to note that in this scenario, both the technology providers and intelligence organizations possess their own separate code of ethical conduct, and although legislatively defiant are responsibly working organizations that ensure that user-data and information need not fall in the wrong hands or be abused. The fact that morally banded individuals themselves work in these highly confidential organizations, adds vindication to the fact that the information collected from the interceptions and backdoors has never been subject to embezzlement unless an external clandestine or hacker has been involved.
On a deductive note, I would like to conclude that while it may not seem morally appealing by the working strategies of these organizations, I very much think their utilitarian approach to contribute to the overall welfare of society is prudent, ethical and a great way to eliminate the threat of global security.
