Corporate Voices, Personal Voices: The Ethics of the Internet

Melser, P. and Byrne-Armstrong, H.

Two distinct discourses are competing for dominance of the Internet. Each of these 'voices' identifies different ethical issues as being the key ones. The Corporate voice of press releases and official company statements makes the legal enforcement of property rights a key issue. Advocates of the 'personal voice' of e-mails and chat rooms make freedom of expression and personal conversation more important. The paper compares these contesting ethical visions for the Internet. Neither voice makes a serious issue of 'privacy of personal information', a key concern of a more 'humanist' intellectual tradition associated with public institutions. The issue is more the relationships and relative strengths of these discourses. 'Ethical conversations' are one way in which the personal voice can be strengthened within organisations.

Cite as: Melser, P. and Byrne-Armstrong, H. (2001). Corporate Voices, Personal Voices: The Ethics of the Internet. In Proc. Selected papers from the 2nd Australian Institute of Computer Ethics Conference (AICE2000), Canberra. CRPIT, 1. Weckert, J., Ed. ACS. 39-45.

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