Computer Ethics
What is Computer Ethics?
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Deborah G. Johnson: Respect for Proprietary Rights
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Richard Stallman: Sharing
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Eugene H. Spafford: Something irrelevant - the general public too
uneducated
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Peter G. Neumann: Must be replaced by security
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John Weckert: A complex matter
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James H. Moor: A matter of privacy
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Swedish Banks: Good taste
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Krystyna Górniak-Kocikowska: Something global
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NSF–Ethics of Human Enhancements: Something that lags (far) behind
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Council of Europe: Computer ethics?
James H Moor
• High speed computers- privacy
• Computers memory undercuts human fraility to assist
privacy
• Greased information is available for any purpose
• Core values= a value humans and cultures need for
survival. Privacy is not a core value, but it expresses a
core value
• Normative privacy-protected by ethical, legal
conventional norms
• Normative privacy often natural as well
Views and principles
• Restricted access view:focuses what to concider when
developing policies for protecting privacy
• The publicity principle:rules and conditions that govern
private situations should be clear and known to the
persons affected by them
• The adjustment principle: If the private circum stanses
justify a change in parameters of a private situation, then
the alteration should be an explicit and public part of
rules and conditions that govers the private situation
Ethics is implicit in this paper:
The harm caused by the discloser will be so much
less than the harm prevented that an impartial
person would permit breach in this and in morally
similar situations
Ethics in this paper- implicit and ends up in
dilemman of what is best, right, wrong and so
on
Ethics of human enhancements
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Human Enhancement [HE]- technology into our bodies
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Definitions of HE: Changes the structure and function of
the body
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Discusses grey zones- when is it HE and when it is not?
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Questions what is morally problematic and what is not
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Uses the concepts ethic and moral without defining them
Ethics in this paper-just uses, no defintions
Questions to discuss
What are the concequences of differences in
understandings of ethics?
Can technology and technology design be used to
increase ethical quality and reduce negative
concequences of differences in conceptual
interpretations?
Old and new ways of thinking
• With the virtualization of data, the way we are
thinking and interacting with it changes.
• The question about harm that is done when
“violating” virtual property/artifacts is much
harder to answer.
– Those authors that try to find analogies in the material
world, struggle to make their argumentation coherent.
• Is a new ethical framework needed?
Perception of data
The issue
of privacy
The issue of
property
Personal
Information
Creation