Social, Ethical, & Legal
Issues in ISs
CHAPTER
4
(U PDATED N O V . 26, 2013 )
Ethics
2
 Principles of right & wrong that individuals, acting
as free moral agents, use to make choices to guide
their behaviours*
 Not the same as legal, but frequently, actions that
are unethical are also illegal – and not everything
that is illegal is unethical*

Digital Law – new, expanding**
Chapter 4
MIS 2000
A Metaphor for Thinking about
Ethical, Social, & Political Issues
3
• Society as a calm pond
• IT as a rock dropped in pond, creating ripples of
new situations not covered by old rules
• Social & political institutions cannot respond
overnight to these ripples — it may take years to
develop etiquette, expectations, laws
• Requires understanding of ethics to make choices
in legally grey areas
Chapter 4
MIS 2000
Five Moral Dimensions
of the Information Age
4
• Information rights & obligations
• Property rights & obligations
• Accountability & control
• System quality
• Quality of life
Chapter 4
MIS 2000
The Relationship among Ethical, Social, &
Political Issues in an Information Society
5
Chapter 4
MIS 2000
Technology Trends
that Raise Ethical Issues
6
Chapter 4
MIS 2000
Nonobvious Relationship Awareness
7
Chapter 4
MIS 2000
Basic Concepts:
Responsibility, Accountability, Liability
8
 Responsibility: Accepting the potential costs,
duties, & obligations for decisions
 Accountability: Methodology for identifying
responsible parties
 Liability: Permits individuals to recover damages
done to them
 Due process: Laws are well known & understood,
with an ability to appeal to higher authorities
Chapter 4
MIS 2000
Ethical Analysis
9
1. Identify & clearly describe the facts
2. Define the conflict or dilemma, & identify the
higher-order values involved
3. Identify the stakeholders
4. Identify the options that you can reasonably
take
5. Identify the consequences of your options
Chapter 4
MIS 2000
Candidate Ethical Principles
10
1.
Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have
them do unto you.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Rule
2.
3.
Immanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative: If an
action is not right for everyone to take, then it is
not right for anyone
Descartes’ rule of change: If an action cannot be
taken repeatedly, then it is not right to be taken
at any time
Chapter 4
MIS 2000
Candidate Ethical Principles #2
11
4.
5.
6.
Utilitarian Principle: Take the action that
achieves the greatest value for all concerned
Risk Aversion Principle: Take the action that
produces the least harm or incurs the least cost
to all concerned
Ethical “no free lunch” rule: Assume that all
tangible & intangible objects are owned by
someone else, unless there is a specific
declaration otherwise
Chapter 4
MIS 2000
Privacy in the Internet Age
12
 Privacy: Claim of individuals to be left alone, free
from surveillance or interference from other
individuals, organizations, or the state. Ethical
(cultural) norms with legal backing.
 Personal Information Protection & Electronic
Documents Act (PIPEDA) establishes principles
for collection, use, & disclosure of personal data*
 Provinces have parallel legislation
Chapter 4
MIS 2000
Internet Challenges to Privacy
13
 Internet facilitates tracking of online activities
(e.g., cookies are used to trace Web site visits)*
 Web bugs & spyware can install automatically
Opt-in versus opt-out models of informed consent
(e.g., filling in online profiles in order to get access to
some documents or software)
Chapter 4
MIS 2000
Cookies
14
Figure 4-3
Chapter 4
MIS 2000
Privacy Policies
15
Figure 4-4
Chapter 4
MIS 2000
How Google Uses the Data It Collects
16
Chapter 4
MIS 2000
Technical Solutions
17
 Platform for
Privacy
Preferences (P3P)
Enables automatic
communication of
privacy policies
between an ecommerce site & its
visitors
 Privacy policy can
become part of the
page’s software

Figure 4-4
Chapter 4
MIS 2000
Intellectual Property Rights
18
• Intellectual property is intangible property created
by individuals or corporations
• Protected by:
•
•
•
Chapter 4
Trade secrets
Copyright
Patents
MIS 2000
Trade Secrets
19
Intellectual work or product belonging to a business
and not found in the public domain
Supreme Court test for breach of trade secrets:
1. Communications must be labelled “confidential”
2. Communicated content must have been misused
by the receiver
3. Effects must have been harmful to the
complainant
Chapter 4
MIS 2000
Copyright
20
Statutory grant protecting intellectual property from
being copied for at least 50 years
Canadian copyright law protects original literary,
musical, artistic, & dramatic works. It also
includes software & prohibits copying of entire
programs or their parts.
NOTE: This week, the US Congress began
entertaining a bill to reduce copyright to 50 years
from 70.
Chapter 4
MIS 2000
Patent
21
A grant to the creator of an invention giving the
owner an exclusive monopoly on the ideas behind
an invention for between 17 & 20 years
Patent law grants a monopoly on underlying
concepts & ideas of software
Originality, novelty, & invention are key concepts
Chapter 4
MIS 2000
Challenges to
Intellectual Property Rights
22
 Perfect digital copies cost almost nothing
 Sharing of digital content over the Internet costs
almost nothing
 Sites, software, & services for file trading are not
easily regulated
 A Web page may present data from many sources
& may incorporate framing
Chapter 4
MIS 2000
Accountability, Liability, & Control
23
• Computer-related liability problems
• System quality
• Data quality & system errors
• No software is perfect, errors will be made, even if the
errors have a low probability of occurring
• Software developers knowingly ship “buggy” products
• At what point should software be shipped?
Chapter 4
MIS 2000
Accountability, Liability, & Control
24
 Quality of life: Equity, access, & boundaries
(continued)
•
•
•
Computer crime & abuse (stealing data vs. using work
computer for private purposes)
Employment: Trickle-down technology & reengineering
job loss impact
Equity & access: Increasing racial & social class divisions
•
•
AKA The Digital Divide
Health risks: RSI, CVS, & technostress
Chapter 4
MIS 2000
Mason’s PAPA Model
25
 Property: Whose property is it anyway? Do NOT
pirate anything!
 Accuracy: How accurate does it need to be? Think
of the Hubble Space Telescope.
 Privacy: Do you want everything about you to be
public knowledge? How can you protect your
privacy? (The Globe & Mail test, the Mama test)
 Access: Who should have access? Equity of access
within a business. Do not omit staff from access if
they need access.
Chapter 4
MIS 2000
Brabston’s Extension to
Mason’s PAPA Equity
26
 Layoffs: These are people’s lives, not statistics!
 Access to IT: For an equitable society & one that
trains everyone in certain fundamental skills,
everyone must have access to appropriate hardware,
software, & networks
 Access to computer literacy: Everyone must
understand how to use a computer & the Internet
 Access to informing literacy: Everyone should
understand what information is valid, reliable,
consistent, accurate, appropriate, etc. --?
Chapter 4
MIS 2000