Ideally, protecting privacy should be an ingrained habit of thought, not simply a technical application of rules or protocols. Having one or more colleagues who routinely exemplify good privacy practices helps to build a culture of discernment, whatever the individuals' function within the organization. The contributions of such individuals to the moral culture of the organization should be recognized. Codes of ethics, of which there are many among the various professions and organizations involved in generating and managing health information, equally play a role in creating and sustaining the moral culture of a profession or organization. They help to create an environment in which ethical behavior, that is, conduct that conforms to and expresses the core values of the group, is the expected norm, not the exception.
Codes demonstrate as well a group's commitment to ethics.
And, of course, they offer moral guidance, not so much by providing specific rules of conduct perhaps, as by reminding us of what ethical considerations we must take into account in deciding how to act. No code is ever fully self-explanatory. To provide broad moral guidance, a code of ethics is necessarily written in general terms that can apply to the many different situations in which individuals will have questions about what the ethical course of action is. At the same time they help foster discernment, that is, they call on those who subscribe to them to exercise that discernment in the process of specifying and interpreting the code in concrete situations. The overarching goal shared by codes of ethics that are evolving for the health Internet is to create a trustworthy environment for those who use the Internet for health-related purposes.