Introduction
Pasquali (cited in Jordin and Beaken 2010) claims that “we live in an age of communication without a morality of communicating.” Indeed, the Internet radically transformed communication standards as we knew it, shifted the rules and accelerated the processes. Therefore, it altered our moral behaviour. With the spectacular takeoff of the World Wide Web, a debate emerged among scholars. They seek to determine whether Information and Computing Ethics (ICE) represent a continuation of traditional ethics, or if they radically shift our ethical thinking (Ess 2009). Some authors claim that online ethics only raise already well-known problems, whilst others as Johnson (2001) see them as “new species,” which bring up unprecedented ethical problems to communication. O’Neil (2001) specifies that “one of the more prevalent topics concerning the Internet is consumer privacy” and defines privacy concern as a “desire to keep personal information out of the hands of others”. I will demonstrate that the Internet is an ideal ground to privacy violation as it is a fast and easy way to gather information in a worldwide dimension and that its nature puts the individual at a distance from ethical concerns. I will then confront the Internet and its moral issues to the two salient and universalist ethical theories; the Kantian and the Utilitarianism frameworks.

The Internet: a fast and easy way to violate privacy
The Internet is an extraordinarily fast and easy means to copy data, transgress property and gather illegally or not information from users about their characteristics. O’Neil (2001) writes that “there is a growing concern that easily accessible information and databases available on the Internet are giving rise to serious privacy violations”. Internet advertising companies have realized the power of the web and the significance of the data they could collect through this virtual network. Users provide information without knowing by two ways. First, when they visit websites, people run the risk to get cookies (1), which will provide clues to these corporations about their prospects’ identities, interests and expectations. Another inexhaustible resource of information resides in social networks. In this context, people share expressly personal details with their friends, relatives and colleagues, but they do not necessarily know how to protect their privacy on social networks as Facebook, and thus publish...

-135 -225 .. /default.aspx?tabid=13463#isp /upm-data/23227_chapter_7.pdf /wiki/internet_privacy 1 124 13 131 167 17 19 1995 1996 2 20 2001 2008 2009 2010 238 25 3 30 3rd 4 5 abl abus acceler access accord achiev act action activ actor actual address adopt advertis advoc age al albeit allow alreadi alter alway among analog analysi anoth anyon anytim appear approach argu arnett around asian attack author avail bad bank base basic be beaken behaviour behind bell benefit brief bring browser bulletin busi c cambridg campaign card case caus challeng chang charact characterist cite claim close clue code collabor colleagu collect communic compani comput computer concern conclus confer confront conger consent consequ consequentialist consid consum context continu cooki copi corpor could countri covert creat credit crimin cross cross-sit cultur d damag data databas debat decemb decis deepli defin delet demonstr denial deontolog deperson desir detail determin dialogu differ difficult digit dimens discomfort discov disinform disregard distanc distract distribut domain draw drive due duti e e-mail easi easili ed edit educ effect electron emerg en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org/wiki/internet_privacy enabl encyclopaed end end-us entiti ess essenti establish et ethic european even evid expect explain expos expressli extraordinarili f facebook facilit factor fals fast fault feel file financi find first follow framework francisco fraud fraudul frequent friend fundament furnish furthermor game gather general get give global globe glossari goal good govern ground grow hacker hall hallam hand hard harden harm harmon harrington haupman hauptman henc hide his/her howev huge human ice ideal ident identifi ignor illeg illicit import impos inappropri incom incurs inde individu induc inexhaust inexperienc inform infring insecur institut intang intellectu intent interact interest internet interperson introduct intrus irrelev irrespons issu j.m jani jefferson jibe john johnson jordin judgment kant kantian keep kizza knew know known lack larg last law lead leann legisl legislatur less lessen level list literaci live look m ma made mail main make mani manner match matter may mcfarland mean media medium menu mere messag might mill mindset mis money moral moreov naiv nation natur nc ncsl necessarili need neil network never nevertheless new newsgroup note novemb nowaday number o oblig obtain obvious occasion offenc offend offer one onlin oper order organis other overview owner packet pain particular pasquali pass password peopl per perceiv perpetr person perspect pervas phenomenon phish physic point politi pop pop-up possibl power pp practic pragmat predecessor prentic preval principl privaci privacy-friend privat problem process product profil profit properti propos prospect protect provid public publish purport purpos put quater r radic rais rapid realiz reason receiv recogn refer refus regard reject relat relationship remain reprehens repres represent reput request resid resourc respect respons reveal review revolut right rise risk ronald rubin rule run sage salient san satisfi save scholar scienc screen script se second secur see seek seem seen select self send sens sent serious server servic set seven shape share sheffield shift signific site social softwar someon sourc spam speci special specifi spectacular spi spite spread standard state steal store stuart studi succeed superimpos suppress surf system tailor takeoff techniqu technolog temptat tend theori theorist therefor think thus tie time tool topic toward track tradit transform transgress transmit tri two unabl undeni uneth union uniqu unit univers universalist unpreced unsubscrib use user user-track util utilitarian various victim view violat virtual visit vol wafa want ware way web websit well well-known whatev whether whilst wide wikipedia window withdraw without wordreference.com work workbook world worldwid worst write www.ncsl.org www.ncsl.org/default.aspx?tabid=13463#isp www.sagepub.com www.sagepub.com/upm-data/23227_chapter_7.pdf year yield