Is it really breaking the rules if those rules did not exist?

"I am sorry Officer, I didn't know I couldn't do that."

One of my favorite lines from Dave Chapelle, who talks about how his white friend got away with drunk driving which was clearly illegal. When I first read up on policy vacuums as brought up by Moor, this particular scene flashed through my mind.

For the past 2-3 years I have read up on and watched interviews of tech executives, such as Mark Zuckerberg, commit increasingly daring privacy malpractices. 

Yet, they always get away with a simple fine and no real legal consequences. Much as the officer in Dave's story seems uncaring about the truth of Chip's crimes, Congress seems no more aware of the technical and moral issues that Zuckerberg is propagating. Not necessarily the same because there are rules for drink driving, but I think the moralistic sentiment behind doing something ethically wrong is so comedically similar. 

Of course, the debate comes down to the fact that policy creation simply cannot match the pace at which technology increases its influence. However, can we really rely on just our current policies for technology's ability to enable what were once impossible acts? 

I agree with Moor that a more forward-thinking approach should be taken for policy-making for technology. However, after reading up Vallor's article, I believe that a strong virtue-based perspective instead of a more complex ethical analysis would be ideal.

This is because the range of issues that information technology these days bring about is simply unfathomable. Every month or so there appears another new issue for just privacy or data handling. Tik Tok with a surge of pedophiles using the app to stalk young children. The FBI requesting for private user data from Apple. To formulate a proper response to each and every scenario is nigh impossible.

Instead, we should have a core set of values that we hold true in handling technology. This core set has to also ironically be reviewed periodically to ensure that it is not left behind by the rapid growth of technology. If there is only one constant in technology, it is change.

Only by having an open mind and an adaptive axiom can we truly address the ethical issues brought about by technology. Otherwise, we might end up just like the officer, never able to solve a true problem.