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Information System Ethics Notes

In: Computers and Technology

Submitted By krh421
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Chapter 11 Ethical and Social Issues 11.1. Understanding Ethical and Social Issues related to Systems * Ethics: principles of right and wrong that individuals use to make choices to guide their behaviour. IS creates opportunities for intense social change, threatening existing distributions of power, money, rights and obligations. * Internet and digital firm techs make it easier to assemble, integrate and distribute info, unleashing new concerns about appropriate use of customer info, protection of personal privacy and protection of intellectual property * Other issues: establishing accountability, setting standards to safeguard system quality, and preserving values and institutions * 5 moral dimensions of the info age * Info rights and obligations individuals/firms possess in respect to themselves * Privacy – Claim of individuals to be left alone, free from surveillance/interference from other individuals, organizations, or the state; claim to be able to control info about yourself * Privacy in public spaces * Data storage & exchange * Laws & expectations in US Vs. EU & Australia * Protecting traditional intellectual property rights in digital society * Who is held accountable and liable for harm done to info and property rights * System quality: standards of data and system quality to protect individual rights * Quality of life: preservation of values in an info and knowledge based society * 4 technological trends of concern * Computing power doubles every 18 months
Increased reliance on, and vulnerability to, computer sys * Data storage costs rapidly declining
Multiplying database on individuals * Data analysis advances
Greater ability to find detailed personal info on individuals * Networking advanced and the Internet
Enables moving and accessing large quantities or personal data

* Software errors cause losses in productivity. Major problem is the presence of bugs. * Main source of bugs in the complexity of decision-making code * Flaws in software create security vulnerabilities that open networks to intruders

11.2. Ethics in an Information Society * Responsibility – accept the potential costs, duties and obligations for decisions made * Accountability – feature of systems and social institutions, means that mechanisms are in place to determine who took responsible action and who is responsible * Liability – feature of political system in which body of laws is in place that permits individuals to recover the damages done to them by other actors, systems or organisations * Due process – laws are known and understood, and there is an ability to appeal to higher authorities to ensure that the laws are applied correctly * Ethical analysis * Identify and describe clearly the facts * Define the conflict or dilemma and identify the higher-order value involved * Identify the stakeholders * Identify options that you can reasonably value – arriving at an ethical solution may not always be a balancing of consequences to stakeholders * Candidate ethical principles * Golden rule – thinking of yourself as the object of the decision * Immanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative – action is not right not everyone to take, it is not right for anyone * Descartes’ rule of change – if action cannot be taken repeatedly, it is not right to take at all * Utilitarian principle – take the action that achieves the higher or greater value * Risk Aversion principle – take action that produces least harm or least potential cost * Ethical “no free lunch” rule – assume that all tangible and intangible objects are owned by someone else unless there is a specific declaration otherwise * When people claim to be professionals, they take on special rights and obligations as they have special claims to knowledge, wisdom and respect. * Dilemmas: employees displaced by IS may argue that employers have some responsibility for their welfare. Business owners might feel obligated to monitor employee email and Internet use to minimise drains on productivity.

11.3. Moral Dimensions of IS * Privacy: claim on individuals to be left alone, free from surveillance or interference from other individuals or organisations * Fair info practices (FIP): based on mutuality of interest between record holder and the individual. Once record is gathered, it may not be used to support other activities without individual’s consent. * Privacy protection for consumers of financial services – all FIs are required to disclose their policies and practices for protecting the privacy of non-public personal info and to allow customers to opt out of info-sharing arrangements with non-affiliated 3rd parties * Informed consent: consent given with knowledge of all the facts needed to make rational decisions * Safe harbor is a private, self-regulating policy and enforcement mechanism that meets the objectives of govt regulators but does not involve govt regulation or enforcement * Challenges to privacy: * Cookies identify the visitor’s Web browser software and track visits to the web site. * Web beacons are tiny objects invisibly embedded in email messages and Web pages that monitor the behaviour of user visiting a website or sending email. * Spyware can secretly install itself on an Internet user’s computer by piggybacking on larger applications. Once installed, the spyware calls out to websites to send banner ads and other unsolicited material to the user, and it can also report the user’s movements on the Internet to other computers. * P3P provides a standard for communicating a website’s privacy policy to Internet users and for comparing that policy to the user’s preferences or to other standards. Users can use P3P to select the level of privacy they wish to maintain

* Intellectual property (IP) * Trade secret laws grant a monopoly on the ideas behind a product. Software that contains novel or unique elements, procedures or compilations can be included as a trade secret. * Copyright: statutory grant that protects creators of IP from having their work copied by others for any purpose * Patent grants the owner an exclusive monopoly on ideas behind an invention for 20 years. * Computer abuse: commission of acts involving a computer that may not be illegal but that are considered unethical * Digital millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) makes it illegal to circumvent technology-based protections of copyrighted materials. ISPs are required to take down sites of copyright infringers. * Redesigning of biz processes cause millions of mid-level managers and clerical workers to lose their jobs

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