4A Ming Ming is a Data Analyst who works in a large government state department dealing with drug and alcohol abuse. The agency administers programs for individuals with drug and alcohol problems and maintains a huge database of information on the clients who use these services. Some of the data files contain the names and current addresses of clients. Ming has been asked by her supervisor, Michelle to take a look at the track records of the treatment programs. She is to put together a report that contains the number of clients seen in each program each month for the past five years: length of each client’s treatment, number of clients who return after completion of a program, criminal histories of clients, and so on. In order to put together this report, Ming has been given access by Michelle to all files in the agency’s main server. After assembling the data into a file that includes the clients’ names, she downloads the file to her office computer. Under pressure from Michelle to get the report finished by the deadline, Ming decides she will have to work at home over the weekend in order to finish on time. She copies the file to a USB and takes it home. After finishing the report, she leaves the USB at home and forgets about it. What professional ethical dilemmas are Ming and Michelle dealing with here? (e.g. Should we allow or sanction Ming’s behaviour? Is there a public interest question raised by this scenario? What actions do everyone involved need to take to ensure that this kind of situation does not occur again?) Copy and Paste the case study above. ‘Click’ on the button below to make your declaration and get one point towards your assessment grading. I accept this case study as mine for Assignment 1
