Informatics in Education, 2012, Vol. 11, No.

1, 65–79 65
© 2012 Vilnius University

Digital Footprints in the Context of Professional

Ethics

Stanislava Nerutė KLIGIENĖ

Vilnius University, Institute of Mathematics and Informatics
Akademijos 4, LT-08663 Vilnius, Lithuania

Received: August 2011

Abstract. The paper surveys the risks and benefits which the user faces in the networked environ-
ment and how those challenges can be overcome. The question is how to measure the potential
or benefits of such a complex phenomenon – the collaborative cross-domains in social media. As
one of the solutions we propose to consider this in the context of digital tools and the entities in-
volved into cooperation-collaboration: core researches, engineers, developing information systems
and tools, marketing technologists, users-consumers of services and products. The ways of col-
lecting data and the measures for protecting privacy issues of the data collected online, as they
were applied during the last two decades are overviewed in this paper. There is no universal law
protecting the privacy of online users in the global world and hardly will it ever be. For a while,
only the awareness of the users, the professional Codes of Ethics and fairness of firms involved into
collaboration could help them avoid pitfalls hidden in social media. The summary table shows at a
glance benefits and dangers met in social by its explorers and users.
Keywords: social media, networking, digital footprints, data privacy, professional ethics.

1. Introduction

Internet and social networks have become an integral part of our life. Two decades ago
nobody predicted that the sights of any place of Earth would be visible and interactively
controlled in computer networks – the object is approached and viewed on the desirable
side – that it would be possible to discuss and exchange the contents, to communicate
with people wherever they were at the moment, to search in large data arrays in a remote
way and instantly get answer. A violent recent development of the internet and social net-
works has surpassed all expectations challenges of scandals because of Wiki Leaks doc-
ument publicity in 2010, political events in Northern Africa in 2011 have demonstrated a
huge power of information technology (IT). It is supposed that Facebook and other social
networks were helpful in organizing protests even in such counties of Africa where the
penetration of the internet is not so noticeable. At first, their governments tried to forbid
social networks, but soon they have changed their mind since it is better to use the internet
to achieve their own purposes than to forbid. On that occasion, the USA promised to sup-
port the internet development in non-democratic countries, while China took more drastic
censorship measures on the internet. In our so spasmodic digitalized age theoretical mod-
els and IT applications now have to be critically reconsidered. The former information
66 S.N. Kligienė

recipients in the Web 2.0 environment become information conveyers ever more often.
In the references (Ala-Mutka et al., 2009; Verdegem, 2011), social media are defined
as open internet-based and user-friendly IT applications that establish new opportuni-
ties for participants: in creating the contents (Wiki, blogs, Flickr, Twitter); taking part in
social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn), in sharing opinions, and looking for information
(Google, Amazon). Really, this creates a collective brain, which has never occurred in the
history of mankind. Soon there appeared some critical voices (Fish; Hassan and Thomas,
2006) about the danger of social media as information about the users in aggregated and
then shared. The motto of the book “Digital Footprint” by Fish was: “A two-sided digital
business model where your privacy will be someone else’s business!”. In a networked
society there emerge new powerful and interesting links that should be explored and con-
sidered. The aim of this survey is to discuss the benefit and threats of social media in the
concrete context of users and their creators by destroying two myths contradicting each
others: (i) techno-enthusiastic vision as to unlimited IT abilities; (ii) exaggeration of dan-
gers and pitfalls hidden in the new technology. Let us elucidate WHEN and to WHOM
the benefit may become a real danger and in what ways we can overcome imaginary or
real threats.
Figure 1 illustrates interactions in the interdisciplinary activity spheres – theoretical
and applied-involving users into the process. Data of users are the object of research, and
the main aim of the whole process in meeting the needs of users (also taking into con-
sideration the profit of service providers). It is of interest to note that the mathematical
methods and principles, used in the new technologies, are almost the same as that of the
past ages. Classification rules of multidimensional data, algorithms of automated teach-
ing, statistical accuracy metrics, models of Bayes networks, Pearson’s correlation, accu-
mulation forming and solution theory are but several methods and models. Well-known
in the classical mathematics that currently are every widely used in creating modern IT
tolls and applied programs for data mining and analysis. Let us consider the process that
takes place in a networked society (Fig. 1) more in detail. Using mathematical methods,
software is developed that is necessary to accumulate and analyze the users’ data, mar-

Fig. 1. Major spheres of activity and their relationship, realized in social media of the internet.
 Digital Footprints in the Context of Professional Ethics 67

keting methods and applied in producing services for users and a profitable business for
enterprises. The data are collected, analyzed, and stored. The internet and social networks
are the basis of the process where the data are collected, while the developers it ranked
from the base of the pyramid, respectively are: scientist, researchers of theoretical – math-
ematical basics, principles and methods, engineers of IT who create systems, networks
and applications, founders of social networks, marketing technologists, managers, firms,
that develop their business in this environment , and users whose data are collected and
used for producing the necessary services (or sometimes just insistently offered).
As seen from Fig. 2, users in social networks are distinct in many aspects. From the
viewpoint of participation, some of them are active creators; others are “digital tourists”
that are looking round (exploring) in the digital medium; in line with their habit distinc-
tions: some of them born in the digital era, accept IT tools as a natural endowment, others
are the so-called “digital emigrants” who have to learn to conform to the digital technol-
ogy. Users are also different according to other socio-economic factors: education, social
status, dwelling-place, etc. Even more differences arise when classifying according to
a user’s understanding about a digital footprint; some of them know and take care of
collected and accumulated their data, while others have not got the slightest idea about
data collection and their possible handing over to the companies having interest in them,
still others are aware and think that it is worth giving data in exchange for better and
innovative products, services; and, finally, some users are aware of that only partly, but
underestimate the risk emerging due to a large amount of the data accumulated. So, we
will consider the advantages and threats provided by social media in the context of the
participants mentioned above. We are living in the age of information abundance, when
the news is instantly announced on the internet and most distinct viewpoints are pub-
lished on the internet or in traditional press. Therefore it is very easy for a reader or a
participant of the new media, to be mistaken. Selection of information and capability to
filter and objectively estimate it becomes the most important and indispensable property
for a successful activity in the age of information.

Fig. 2. Differences of users from various angles (aspects).

68 S.N. Kligienė

In Second 2, we consider the principal notions of the digital era and how they are man-
ifested in the present society. The Section 3 is meant for discussion of the challenges and
problems of the digital era as well as for search of the ways of their solution in separate
countries by making an attempt to overcome those e-challenges. The Section 4 overviews
the whole complex and conclusions are drawn about the advantages and threats caused
by social media for each participant of the process. For data analysis we use computer
technique power that enables us to extract the necessary knowledge from large scale ar-
rays. Researches of this kind seem to be on the verge of scientific ethics as, without any
suspicion of an individual, the data about his/her behavior in the internet are aggregated
and he is appointed to one or other group and products are offered to him that he had not
asked for. Is that a smaller infringement of an individual’s rights than in biotechnologi-
cal researches where the ethics is a traditional priority? The necessity of IT professional
ethics, as one of more important ways of decreasing danger, is discussed in Section 5.

2. Notions of the Digital Era

Specific methods of information communications technologies, developed in line with

the needs of the digital era, indicate a shift from social informatics to social intellect,
achieved by investigating social dynamics, by modeling and analyzing social behavior,
by crating artificial social agents and by generating and controlling social knowledge.
That is how behavioral targeting comes into being that can operate only if the data are
collected. Earlier the data were collected by applying various polls, census by talking
representative statistical samples and drawing from those well-founded statistical con-
clusions about the population researched. That was a complicated and laborious process.
After the digital interaction has become common place, data collection was simplified
a great deal, however we can’t ignore arising juridical problems. We should essentially
revise online collected data processing methods. People operating online leave the data
about themselves via the so-called digital footprints and social graphs. Let us define these
and other notions, necessary for a deeper understanding of a problem, more exactly.

Digital Footprint and Digital Shadow

This notion appeared first and was called “slug trail” (Negroponte, 1996), later Tim
O’Reilly called it “data exhaust”. The notion was used then only to define the informa-
tion that remained after browsing on the internet. At present this phenomenon is named
as a digital footprint and it reflects the data created and used no matter by which digital
devices. The digital footprint is a trace that remained after an individual’s actions in a
digital environment, including the use of TV, mobile telephone, internet, sensor or any
other device. The digital footprint connected with WWW is sometimes called as an in-
ternet footprint, a digital shadow or a cybernetic shadow, i.e., the information left after
browsing on the internet, including that obtained via cookies. The term of footprint is
applied not only to individuals, but also to firms and enterprises. A digital footprint is a
combination of activities and behavior when the entity under consideration (a person or
 Digital Footprints in the Context of Professional Ethics 69

something else) is acting in the digital environment. These may be log on or off records,
address of visited web pages, open or developed files, e-mails or chat records. Digital
footprints of this kind are accessible to data mining when the interested parts seek to
learn more about some entity or individual. The footprints show the sites where we have
been, how long and how often they were visited. That is as if the moments of memory.
They do not include either data of personal identity or numbers of passport, bank and in-
surance accounts. However in some cases, those exhaustive data arrays allow us to reveal
a person’s identity almost exactly. The digital footprints collected from mobile commu-
nications internet entries, interactive TV, as well as metadata of these actions show the
truth about individual persons or enterprises, so that control of these data becomes a field
of severe fight between the interested parts.

Footprinting and Reality Mining

Input into a digital footprint embraces a lot: day time, site, search results and keyword,
created or reviewed contents, digital activity and data from sensors and social environ-
ment. Some of the data may arrive from depth of internet data IP which is called foot-
printing. Recommendations, contextual adaptation and personalization are created from
such collected inputs and data analysis. A part of this analysis is called reality mining.
The reality mining explores the human interaction based on wireless devices such as mo-
bile telephones and GPS localization which yields a very exact image: what people are
doing, where they are going and with whom they are communicating. That is even more
trustworthy than stories of the very individual. Reality mining is one of the important
aspects of the digital footprint analysis.

Social Graphs and Social Networks

The notion of graph arose and is used in discrete mathematics. According to Wikipedia,
the social graph reflects the links among individuals on the internet networks which ought
to describe the relations of the real world. In reality these notions intertwine and now so-
cial networks are most frequently comprehensible as communications on the internet. In
this paper, the social network notion will be used in the sense of internet communica-
tions (most popular are: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twiter, Youtube, Skype, Flicr, hi5, Klase.lt,
One.lt). The initial data presented in a social network embrace not so many aspects: hob-
bies, activities, social and demographic data (Fig. 2). By adding the whole digital foot-
print (friends, influences, games, contents under development and much more from the
internet and TV), we get a powerful real time data flow bearing plenty of information
about an individual and his environment. The nature communications social networks in
Fig. 3 are disclosed with humor by one of the authors of the portal Nežinau.lt.

Social Medium

This is a phenomenon of the late age which arose after developing easily accessible and
simple online published technologies used for social intercourse. Social media use in-
ternet technologies that turn the communication into an interactive dialogue. Kaplan and
70 S.N. Kligienė

Fig. 3. “Sociology” according to one of the participants of the Nokia N8 contest announced in the portal
Nežinau.lt.

Haenlein (2010) define social media as a set of created applications based on Web 2.0
ideology and technologies that enable us to exchange the contents developed by users.
From the standpoint of business the contents developed by users is stressed more. Some
of the authors (Wedergem, 2011; Fuchs, 2010) also notice the wrong side of an active
role of user. It seems to them that the users’ contents generated in youtube, MySpace or
Facebook leads to new forms of exploitation and work reorganization in information cap-
italism. In all definitions amalgamation of technology and social interactions is common
in creating a new value by common efforts. When estimating the situation the founder of
internet Tim Berners-Lee (2010) expressed his concern as to unlimited spreading of so-
cial networks and emerging monopolize tendencies. The statistic of social media spread
and usage in startling large data volumes are accumulated and their usage is sometimes
illegal. Social media systems can accumulate and analyze activities of participants even
without their suspicion. The data flow is constantly received from users and this large
data arrays are accumulated that include individual interests, groups, behavior and their
 Digital Footprints in the Context of Professional Ethics 71

location. Discrimination between the content and flow data was clear in the traditional
communications processes, e.g., in telecommunications the flow data are: who phoned,
where it was phoned, how long it lasted and the content data are topics of conversa-
tion. In the case of internet, such discrimination is complicated or maybe impossible at
all (Štatilis, 2005). To ensure the respect for private life in e-communications by con-
trolling that communications for the sake of lawfulness, there is a lack of some legal
acts following the laws, edition of the Lithuanian criminal code has some drawbacks in
sanctifying information retrieval from service providers about the past e-communication
events (Štatilis, 2005). Thus, juridical problems are important and not yet solved. This is
the reality to be understood and accepted, because, just like the whole democratic world,
we have regulations for developing an open and free contents and exchanging it on the
internet. Following the vivid statement of Eurocommissar Meglena Kuvena (Behavioural
Targeting . . ., 2009): “personal data are the new fuel for the internet and the true currency
of digital world”. There are attempts to retain the accumulated information unidentified
though to personalized, to inform the subjects of private data about possible actions and
to get permission for using their data, however they are not always a success. The efforts
to control the process in various countries of the world are overviewed in the next section.

3. Problems of the Digital Era and Attempts for Solving Them

Let us look over the attempts to solve data privacy problems that emerged with the devel-
opment of the new technologies in several countries.
The research data of internet users show (Story, 2008) that large internet companies
now learn about their customers mush more than at any earlier time: what they are look-
ing for, what is their taste and choice, because hundreds of visits per month of a typical
user are fixed, users do not complain of data fixing as yet since most frequently they are
not aware of that: they are not informed or simply they do not read the service provid-
ing conditions expressed in a hardly understandable lingo. Defenders of privacy tried to
sound the alarm time and again referring to the large amount of data aggregated by com-
panies. According to data of one investigation (Samuelson Low, Technology & Public
Policy clinic at the University of California at Berkeley), 85% of grown-ups in California
would not allow to watch their behavior on the internet in order that a company give the
most relevant advertisements to them. By the data of Berkeley university, the majority of
the USA web users rejected “behavioral advertising” (US web uses . . ., 2009). The Uni-
versity of Ottawa Canadian Internet policy and Public Interest Clinic (Top Story, 2008)
has required exploring the situation as to the usage of internet users giving them adver-
tisements. Since 1999 a group of internet and data handling companies were concerned
how to change the data collection technology, but they were not a success. The USA
State office of users’ rights protection, Federal Trade Commission (FTC), has applied the
self-regulation method since 1990 to guarantee that a user would get information about
a possible usage of his data for target marketing (Protecting Consumer . . ., 2010). This
method turned out to be insufficient and now a new law is prepared. It was evident that to
72 S.N. Kligienė

ensure the internet privacy, the so-called “notice&consent” approach not sufficient. Af-
ter discussions in 2009–2010, FTC has stressed to have found in the present society the
followings things:
• universal collection and usage of user’s data;
• growing flow of information and computer power;
• tender limits between personal and anonymous data;
• importance of privacy for many users;
• lack of understanding and limited opportunities for a user to select a safe strategy.
FTC is preparing a new strategy to be announced in 2011. The European Commis-
sion (EC) is also concerned about the current interaction problems. Interaction defines
the ability of computers and information systems to exchange and use one another’s in-
formation (Digital agenda, 2010). EC intends to rewrite the rules of the IT sector with a
view to:
1. Increase the users’ trust.
2. To set the “Digital agenda” that regulates interaction and standards.
EC will revise the current Data protection directive. The executive power of EC
promised to announce the results already at the beginning of 2011. One of the regulations
of the directive is that the personal data “have to be stored no shorter than 6 months and no
longer than 2 years since the date of communication”. Up till now data storage terms are
very distinct in the EU counties. EC promise to control how the internet companies, es-
pecially social web pages such as “Facebook” and advertisement companies use personal
data of citizens. Other participants of the digital agenda discussion think that “this direc-
tive is the measure, violating the privacy at most in it extend, that has ever been adopted
by EU”. The strategy prepared states that “citizens have to be informed what rights they
have to access, correct or delete their data”. On the other hand, the right to delete their
digital footprints may turn into a possibility for criminal elements to delete their crime
footprints . . . there was a desire to supplement the “Digital agenda” with the statement
that supports internet blockage and filtration, however, for other people these objectives
cause a great concern. There are more problems than real solutions in this field so far.

4. Benefit and Possible Threats of Social Media in the Context of Participants in

the Process

All those participating in the process of social media cooperation, mentioned in the in-
troduction, have their own challenges, benefit, threats and dangers about which we can
discuss only in a concrete context. We have elucidated peculiarities of the data collec-
tion and accumulation process and the importance of a digital footprint when analyzing
and grouping the social internet participants. The expected benefit, advantages, and pos-
sible pitfalls threats action of interdisciplinary fields are presented a summary table “At a
glance” (Table 1).
Internet and social media are an unknown area to many governments and legal in-
stitutions, because they merely do not know what to start from. Several counties try to
 Digital Footprints in the Context of Professional Ethics 73

Table 1
At a glance: benefit or possible threats to participants of the process

Participants Activity, Activity/objects Positive results Possible threats

field of research

Users – Ordinary and pro- Usage of services, Proper proposals Abundant spam
customers fessional activity products
Users Ordinary and pro- Becomes the Targeted ads, Privacy violations
fessional activity source of data e-Inclusion, self
(deliberately presentation on the
or not) internet

Social media and networks: participation and research

Companies Business, finance Striving for profit, Profitable activi- Shortage of techno-
management development of ties, new products, logical knowledge
new business agreeable to users’ and finances
models needs
Marketing Economics, sociol- Collect digital foot- Efficient targeting, Can lose bene-
technologists ogy prints, perform data announcements fit having only
mining economic purposes
Developers Social informatics, Develop the strat- Use the internet as Suit for illegally
of social communications egy and observa- a new currency in collected data ar-
media theory, information tion measure digital world rays
sciences
IT Application of Develop software Interesting environ- To work for the 3rd
engineers webs, informatics, for social networks, ment for new ap- customer’s benefit,
recognition theory, database and in- plications, increas- to be involved into
optimization theory formation system, ing competency dishonest business
applied programs
for various services
Scientists, Discriminant anal- Develop new con- Important new To lose the rights
researchers ysis, data classi- cepts, methods and communication of intellectual
fication and clus- models. Apply the are explored in a property, while
tering, mathemati- available methods computer replete other partners
cal statistics, math- in a new situation society, new sci- accumulate wealth
ematical logic entific areas are
developed

regulate data preservation by their own laws, however the e-networks is global – without
bounds and territories, other that the way of life usual for mankind for ages. There is
no common legal system in the global world and it can hardly ever be. Let us look at
a typical situation: a citizen of country A is looking for information in sever of country
B, data were collected in countries C, D, and they will be used, for instance, in country
E for users’ behavior advertising. Of which country would the laws be in force for data
protection? Traditional regulations of the intellectual property right do not suit in the case
of the global network. Possibilities of cybernetic attacks and experiences have exposed
dramatic violability of network systems and lack of protection strategies. Dangers in the
networked global world are increasing and self-control, based only on notification and a
user’s approval of personal data collection is ineffectual. Attempts to regulate data pri-
vacy matters were not efficient so far, there are no proper laws, protection technologies
lag behind and are unable to ensure the security of systems.
74 S.N. Kligienė

In view of the situation I can see three ways of solution that would cover all the
participants of the process:
(a) users,
(b) companies of social media,
(c) specialists creating software for social network maintenance, data collection and
analysis.
The first way is education of a deeper user’s understanding about a digital footprint
and how it can be used for his disadvantage. To this ends, it is necessary to acquaint users
much more with the existence of its digital shadow and with all the possibilities of its
utilization, which would help a member of e-society to avoid many troubles and pitfalls
of digital media. The second important factor would be honesty of the companies that
collected data analyze and use them to attract their customers – users of their services
and products. However we can hardly trust the honesty of companies that are mostly ori-
ented only to profit. Very strict laws would be indispensable that are almost impossible
in the global network, as we have already found out. On the other hand, even the strict
constraints will hardly change anything in essence if powerful profit interests dominate –
some ways will be found how to evade any restrictions. It remains the third most impor-
tant leverage on stopping questionable collection, analysis and usage of personal data.
That is a clear understanding of responsibility of the specialists who create information
systems for interactive collaboration on the internet and legalization of professional ethics
norms in information technologies. IT specialists are one of the most important links in
developing social networks. Marketing technologists could surely not accomplish any-
thing without the help of informatics specialists. These have to know clearly what data
are collected, where and for what they will be used, what consequences of that data anal-
ysis could ne and they have to draw adequate conclusions. Just like medical professionals
can say “no” to some procedures, biotechnologists obey the ethical principles in their re-
search, the specialists of engineering informatics have also approached the borderline in
the current development of their sciences when, in certain cases, they have to say: “No, I
will not do that”, based on their professional ethics code. Codes of professional societies
are no news; they were created and followed as far back as the past age. Now it is time to
recall and renew them by adapting to the up-to-date technologies, this activity is preceded
rather intensively: the scientific ethic is promoted in the USA and Europe, and the Global
Ethics Observatory sponsored by UNESCO is operating.

5. Codes of Professional Ethics

We have elucidated that there are no universal methods that ensure data privacy of
the internet browser or other social media participant and that allow only enjoying the
advantages of the new technology. One of the few possibilities in that all the partici-
pants engaged in the computer network process, those collecting data, analyzing them or
constructing programs necessary for marketing would observe their Professional Ethics
Code. Scientific and professional ethics became especially urgent due to the wild devel-
opment of the new IT attacks of computer virus, hacking into computer systems would
 Digital Footprints in the Context of Professional Ethics 75

Fig. 4. Virus attack: artfully made threats and diagnoses imitating the security systems. On ordinary user does
not dare ignoring them, thus becoming a dupe.

be impossible, if everybody obeyed the ethical principles. Computer viruses are created
under the semblance of security systems that attack and threaten users, as shown in Fig. 4.
Such programs can be developed only by professionals.
There would be no such cases if IT professionals followed the professional ethics
code. Let us consider the heritage available in the field of ethical codes. The oldest code
that will soon celebrate its centenary – Code of Principles of Professional Conduct of the
American Institute of Electrical Engineers, is dated 1912 (Code of Principles . . .). Now it
is accessible via the digital library of the Professional ethics Study Center (Online Ethics
Center . . .). The general principles, consisting of 22 of them, remain the same in the lapse
of time, starting from: “1. in all the activities an engineer should follow the topical prin-
ciples of honor” and finishing by: “22. An engineer responsible for work must prevent
a change of his engineering decision for persons without a technical education”. The li-
brary mentioned has aggregated lots of professional ethics codes. Nowadays the Online
Ethics Center together with National Engineering Academy is operating in the Illinois
Technological Institute. They provide easily accessible information on engineering ethic
topics issues meant for studies and discussions – both for practitioners and educators,
for students and all individuals taking interest in the professional ethics of researchers.
One can find many scenarios that concern internet privacy issues relevant to us as well
and suitable for teaching. Such a course would surely be of use at Lithuanian universities
that prepare IT specialists. Even mathematicians in America have their ethical principles:
Ethical Guidelines of the American Mathematical Society, 2005, though they seem to
have little opportunities to violate the ethics in their research. The Code of Ethics of As-
sociation of Engineering Technicians and Technologists of Newfoundland and Labrador,
Canada, 2009, are quite modern. It contains, e.g., such principles: “To act jointly with
respect to customers and employers” interests, to observe confidentiality and avoid the
conflict of interests, and in case it happens, to disclose the circumstances immediately
both to a customers and an employer” <. . .> “To work honestly, to communicate with
customers, colleagues and others with respect and confidence, to appreciate the work of
76 S.N. Kligienė

others, to accept and honestly make right notes.” Such principles would be also applied
in the IT professional ethics code in Lithuania. It is of importance to pledge ourselves
not to conceal possible consequences of data collection and their processing, which are
often understandable only for specialists and usually inconceivable for ordinary media
participants.
Researches in the scientific ethic field were pursued in Europe as well. In 2000, the
European Science Foundation initiated a discussion in the society of researchers on the
application of the highest standards in scientific research practice. As a result, a survey
has been published (European Science . . ., 2008) that considers the situation in detail of
18 countries (out of 32 countries) it disclosed the examples of good practice in scientific
research as well as misunderstandings still present in different European countries. The
survey offers recommendations to scientific societies, to agencies that financially sup-
port science and to research institutions, and presents examples of good and bad practice,
that could be applied avoiding some dangers, arising in interdisciplinary researches of
social media. Another significant source for research and practice of ethical problems is a
database system developed and supported by UNESCO. The Global Ethics Observatory
(GEObs, 2005). It is a repository of rules, ethical codes and teaching programs of all the
world of tree access, searched by ethical institutions and experts, operating since 2005. It
consists of 5 independent databases: of ethical experts, institutions functioning in the eth-
ical field, programs of teaching ethics, ethical codes of law and, finally, codes of ethics –
it contains 151 codes of ethics. After analyzing many sources mentioned above, we can
pose questions to ourselves: whether the Lithuanian IT specialists can be responsible for
their works, can behave following the professional ethics code, and can work not only for
career or money.

6. Conclusion

With a violent change in IT and their tools both the rules of theoretical research and
methods and IT tools and applications have to change as well. A massive spread of com-
munications, created by users they make an interesting space for original research in a
computer networked society and many critical remarks appear thereby. This paper has
reviewed the positive and negative features of the new phenomenon – social media.

Positive Aspects

When analyzing e very stormily changing situation during the past two decades, the pos-
itive changes observed are as follows: former users become creators of digital contents;
their e-inclusion is increasing. After analyzing users’ needs, the companies are working
more efficiently: personalize the supply, develop only what the users need, innovative
products and services, fit to the internet visitors’ needs, come into being. A large amount
of data accumulated is the basis of research after the analysis of which behavioral target-
ing is undertaken, and only the needed and interesting services and products are proposed
to customers.
 Digital Footprints in the Context of Professional Ethics 77

Negative Aspects

In reality the advantages mentioned above rather frequently are derogated by means of
malicious usage of data and information. There is additional risk in this field of research
due to great penetration of internet in the society and a large amount of users involved.
Temptation of illegal data usage and easiness arises due to that individuals and companies
often are not aware what is fixed and how their data are used and analyzed, where they
are stored and transferred. Most frequently there is no possibility of controlling or elimi-
nating our own data that have got into the digital space. The measure of legal regulation
lag behind, the law and order officers often even do not conceive that the e-environment
needs essentially other measure that in the traditional environment. Securities technolo-
gies cannot keep up with the capabilities of the new media, even the bank of Information
System considered safe so far are also breakable. It suffices to recall the recent hackers’
attacks of PayPal systems in connection with WikiLeaks scandals.

Responsibility of Researchers and Tasks for the Future

It is necessary to develop security technologies in order to stop malicious usage of data

and information. There are no methods as yet how to surely evaluate the social network
security. Just like the quality of digital repositories is estimated (Kligienė, 2009), it is
necessary to develop the methods and criteria for estimating a more complicated phe-
nomenon, i.e. to estimate the quality of social networks – to find aspects that predetermine
the quality, to find proper criteria taking into consideration a great many of participants in-
volved in interdisciplinary research and practice. The measure for observing social media
are just begun to develop (Chinwag . . ., 2008; Measurementcamp, 2011). It is needed to
develop methods suitable for data research other than traditional. The part of researchers
when creating the rules and applying the codes of professional ethics is of almost impor-
tance. We can diminish threats and dangers as yet only by enlightening users, educating
specialists in the spirit of professional ethics already at the university lecture-rooms, by
stressing the importance of professional ethics in the stages of social media creation and
keeping to them. Thus, social media pitfalls that threaten users because of possible usage
of digital footprints could not be dangerous in the context of professional ethics.

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 Digital Footprints in the Context of Professional Ethics 79

S.N. Kligienė (1944.03.03 – 2011.06.18) has been with the Institute of Mathematics and
Informatics since 1967. She graduated from Vilnius University in 1967 in mathematics,
and she obtained her doctorate there in 1973. She was an associate professor at Vilnius
Gediminas Technical University and lectures in mathematical statistics and time series
analysis. Her scientific interests were statistical analysis of time series and the detection
and estimation of changes in model parameters. She is the author of more than 70 scien-
tific articles.

Skaitmeniniai pėdsakai internete profesinės etikos kontekste

Stanislava Nerutė KLIGIENĖ
Straipsnyje aptarti interneto ir socialiniu tinklu iššūkiai, keliami vartotoju ir kūrėju ben-
druomenei. Siūloma kartu nagrinėti naujuj  u mediju galimybes ir socialiniu tinklu dalyviu visuma: 
mokslininkus – tyrėjus, inžinierius, kuriančius informacines sistemas ir programine irang  a, rinko-
daros technologus, suinteresuotas firmas ir pagaliau vartotojus, kuriu duomenys panaudojami ku-
riant paslaugas ir inovatyvius produktus. Aptarti pavojai, iškylantys dėl internete masiškai renkamu
individu duomenu ir bandymai apsaugoti sukauptu duomenu privatuma atskirose šalyse. Paaiškėja,
kad nėra universalaus istatymo,
 apsaugančio itinklintos
 visuomenės nario privatuma globaliame
pasaulyje ir vargu ar kada nors toks gali būti. Gilesnis vartotojo supratimas apie paliekama
pėdsaka ir kaip jis gali būti piktavališkai panaudotas, padėtu e.visuomenės nariui išvengti skait-
meninės medijos spast  u.
 Firmu, dalyvaujančiu duomenu rinkimo, analizės ir ju panaudojimo pro-
cese sažiningumas
 yra svarbus faktorius. Dar svarbesnė yra atsakomybė specialistu, kuriančiu infor-
macines sistemas, socialiniu tinklu portalus. Tyrimo rezultatai sumuojami lentelėje, kur matyti visi
privalumai ir pavojai, patiriami socialinės medijos dalyviu:  tyrėju,
 kūrėju ir naudotoju.
 Pavojams
sumažinti yra būtinas profesinės etikos normu iteisinimas
 informacinėse technologijose. Apžvel-
gtos veiklos, propaguojant profesinės etikos kodeksus pasaulyje, ir ju naudojimas mokymo procese,
skatinant sažining
 a bendradarbiavima globaliame tinkle.