Ethics in a Digital World

Source: "You Don't Need a PhD to Formulate an Ethics Code for Digital" -  http://adage.com/article/digitalnext/a-phd-formulate-ethics-code-digital/237168/

 As a consumer who is often preoccupied with my privacy online, I have always been curious about the legislation that protect us in this new digital world.  It was perplexing to read that legal parameters on data driven marketing are pretty broad.  Some companies strive to meet just the baseline of these regulations which is extremely worrisome.  Nevertheless, one cannot discount that some do strive to meet a higher ethical standard.  The Digital Advertising Alliance Code does require enhanced notice for customers which go beyond existing legislation, but is this self regulation sufficient?  These general regulations still allow some companies to behave below an acceptable line of conduct.  What is the trade off between profits and privacy? At what point is invading a consumers privacy unethical? All these "subjective questions" make one's individual values the key to determining right and wrong.  Are our own personal views and values sufficient? Is common sense and personal judgement enough? I do not believe so, as each of us have different ethical guide maps stemming from our different religious and secular experiences.  Why not set up more specific foundations rather than broad industry standards. I believe there are bigger risks in lacking regulation, but then again there is a fine line between too much regulation and too little regulation.  It will be extremely interesting to follow the progression of legislation in the digital arena in the coming years.