Privacy from a Saudi Arabian Perspective: The Case of Students in a Private University

IntroductionTo say that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has affected Saudis tremendously is an understatement. This is because ICT has in actual fact revolutionized every aspect of their lives including the way they communicate, the way they conduct business, the way they learn, and the way they work.There is strong evidence particularly from the local Saudi media that suggests that ICT has in fact subjected people in Saudi Arabia to circumstances they have never previously experienced and as a result challenged their understanding of how to behave ethically amidst competing demands from self, employer, clients, friends, and community. The invasion of privacy, for example, which employees suffer when their employers use video cameras to systemically monitor them without their consent or even knowledge, is considered by many employers in Saudi Arabia, even the most religious, as acceptable and not wrong and unethical.The massive rise in the adoption of ICT has seen the birth of many unethical behaviors including the use of Bluetooth on mobiles to spread obscenities or blackmail women, the use of Facebook to cyber-bully teenagers, the use of email to spam people, and the use of web-based forums to offend people or spread rumors. These of course are in addition to other typical unethical behaviors like the setting up of insecure networks, the delivery of software products that are behind schedule, over budget, and incompatible with customer requirements, the violation of intellectual property rights, and the use of bit torrent software to download copyrighted materials, among other things.The biggest ethical problem, however, that information and communication technologies have created is probably invading people's privacy through the use of these ICTs. The use of mobile cameras to photograph women or film them in ways that invades their privacy is a good example of these unethical behaviors. What has become a serious problem for Saudi women in recent times, as reported in the media, is when criminals threaten women to either submit to their sexual desires or face the consequences of having their photos or video clips posted on the internet or distributed publically using Bluetooth on mobiles causing serious damage to their family reputation. The recent case of an immigrant computer technician who discovered some personal photos of a female when he was fixing her computer and then blackmailed her is an example of these cases of extortion. It should be noted that the male honor and family reputation are to a large extent in the hands of the female members of the family. If it was discovered and became public that a woman committed adultery, for example, or engaged in an illicit sexual relationship with a man or just met secretly and privately with him in the real world, the family honor and reputation would be destroyed.Ethics is the cornerstone of the Islamic religion and there is no doubt that the Muslims' sacred book, Al-Quran, and the sayings of the prophet Mohammed (saw), which complement it, provide adequate guidance for Muslims in what to do in every situation they encounter. However, the issues created by the latest ICT have generated new possibilities for human actions, as suggested by Jim Moor (Tavani, 2007), an American computer ethicist, and thus these issues need to be examined, clarified, and put into context before they can be assessed from both moral and religious perspectives.Western nations are fully aware that people's religion and upbringing alone are not sufficient to deal with the complexities that the new technologies have created. They also understand that ethics awareness is important in clarifying the problems that emerge as a result of the introduction of new technologies in the school, home, or workplace. For this reason they integrate ethics awareness in their education systems, university curriculums, and computing professional bodies' websites and also support and encourage research in this area. …