ITIS 1210
Introduction to Web-Based
Information Systems
Ethical & Social Issues
Objectives
 What ethical, social, and political issues
are raised by information systems?
 Are there specific principles for conduct
that can be used to guide decisions about
ethical dilemmas?
 Why does contemporary information
systems technology pose challenges to
the protection of individual privacy and
intellectual property?
Objectives
 How have information systems affected
everyday life?
 How can organizations develop corporate
policies for ethical conduct?
Objectives
 Moral risks of new technology
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Technology change = individual choice
change
Risk/reward balance shifts
 Corporate ethics policies that include
information systems issues
Ethics and Society
 What are computer ethics?
 Moral guidelines that govern use of
computers and information systems
 In what situations?
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Unauthorized use of computer systems
Information privacy
Intellectual property rights
Software theft
Information accuracy
Codes of conduct
Ethics and Society
What do you think about ethical issues?
Ethics and Society
What do you think about ethical issues?
Ethics and Society
What do you think about ethical issues?
Ethics and Society
 What are the ethics of using computers to
alter output?
 Alteration could lead to deliberately misleading
photographs
Ethics and Society
Ethics and Society
http://www.nppa.org/news_and_events/news/2007/04/toledo01.html
Ethics and Society
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/archives/006020.html
Ethics and Society
Ethics and Society
Ethics and Society
Ethics
 Principles of right and wrong
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Can be used by individuals
Acting as free moral agents
To make choices to guide their behavior
 IT provides opportunities for rapid
social change that threaten existing
balances of power, money, rights, etc.
A Model for Thinking About Ethics
 Illustrates the dynamics connecting

Ethical, social, and political issues
 Identifies the moral dimensions of the
“information society”

Across individual, social, and political
levels of action
A Model for Thinking About Ethics
 Information rights and obligations
 Relative to personal information
 Property rights
 How is intellectual property affected by IT?
 Accountability and control
 Who is liable?
 System quality
 What standards should society demand of
data/systems?
 Quality of life
 How does IT affect our culture?
A Model for Thinking About Ethics
Key Technology Trends
 Information systems proliferate
because:

Computing power doubles every 18
months
 Dependence on computer systems
 Rapidly declining data storage costs
 Easy maintenance of individual databases
 Datamining advances
 Analysis of vast quantities of data
 Networking advances and the Internet
 Remotely accessing personal data
Key Technology Trends
Basic Concepts
 Responsibility
 Accepting the potential costs, duties,
and obligations for decisions made
 Accountability
 Mechanism to assess who took (or
should have taken) responsibility for
decisions made and actions taken
Basic Concepts
 Liability
 Extends responsibility into the legal
area
 Permits individuals to recover for
damage suffered
 Due process
 Laws are well-known and understood,
with an ability to appeal to higher
authorities to ensure the correct
application of laws
Candidate Ethical Principles
 Golden rule
 Do unto others as you would have
them do unto you
 Immanuel Kant’s categorical imperative
 If an action is not right for everyone to
take, then it is not right for anyone
 If everyone acted like this, would
society be better?
Candidate Ethical Principles
 Descartes’ rule of change
 If an action cannot be taken
repeatedly, then it should not be taken
even once
 Slippery Slope theory
 Utilitarian principle
 Take the action that achieves the
greater good. Assumes: (1) Choices
can be ranked and (2) Can
understand the consequences of
various courses of action
Candidate Ethical Principles
 Risk aversion principle
 Take the action that produces the
least harm or incurs the least cost
 Balance failure cost and probability of
occurrence
 Ethical “no free lunch” rule
 All tangible and intangible objects are
owned by a creator who is due
compensation for their work
Real-World Ethical Dilemmas
Information system may create ethical
dilemmas where one set of interests is
pitted against another
Minimize drains on productivity
 Voice recognition systems eliminated
thousands of operator positions
Prevent wastage of resources for nonbusiness activities
 Monitoring employee activity
Information Rights
Moral Dimensions of IS
 Information Rights
 Property Rights
 Accountability, Liability, Control
 System Quality
 Quality of Life
 Ethical, social, political issues
Information Rights
 Privacy
 Claim of individuals to be left alone, free
from surveillance or interference from other
individuals, organizations, or the state
 Fair information practices
 Set of principles governing the collection
and use of information on the basis of U.S.
and European privacy laws
Information Rights
Privacy Laws
 Freedom of Information Act, 1968
 Privacy Act of 1974
 Electronic Communications Privacy Act of
1986
 Computer Matching and Privacy
Protection Act of 1988
 Computer Security Act of 1987
 Federal Managers Financial Integrity Act
of 1982
Privacy Laws
 European privacy protection based on
informed consent
 Consent given with
 Knowledge of all facts
 Needed to make a rational decision
Challenges to Privacy
 Opt-out model
 Informed consent permitting the collection of
personal information
 Consumer must take an affirmative action
specifically requesting the data not to be
collected
 Without this action, information will be
collected, possibly without the user’s
knowledge.
Challenges to Privacy
 Opt-in model
 Informed consent prohibiting an
organization from collecting any
personal information
 Individual has to approve information
collection and use
 Without this specific approval,
companies may not collect information
Challenges to Privacy
 Under what conditions should the
privacy of others be invaded?
 Under what conditions is it legitimate to
intrude into others’ lives through
unobtrusive surveillance, through
market research, or by whatever
means?
Challenges to Privacy
 Do we have to inform people that we
are eavesdropping?
 Do we have to inform people that we
are using credit history information for
employment screening purposes?
Challenges to Privacy
 www.trafficland.com
 www.earthcam.com
 Downtown Charlotte, Christmas 2006
 Via cell phone
Social Issues
 Concerns the development of
“expectations of privacy” or privacy
norms, as well as public attitudes
 In what areas of life do we have the
expectation of privacy?
Social Issues
 Surveillance Equipment
 School bus
Political Issues
 Concern the development of statutes
 Govern the relations between record
keepers and individuals
Property Rights
 Intellectual property
 Intangible creations protected by law
 Inventions, writings, and works of art
 Protected under three legal traditions:
 Trade Secrets
 Copyrights
 Patent
Property Rights
 Trade secret
 Intellectual work or product belonging to business, not
in public domain
 Copyright
 Statutory grant protecting intellectual property from
getting copied for 28 years
 Patents
 Legal document granting the owner an exclusive
monopoly on the ideas behind an invention for 20
years
Property Rights
 Digital media are:
 Easy to reproduce (physical media not
necessary)
 Easy to alter
 Hard to establish ownership of
Challenges to Property Rights
 Ethical issues
 Protection of intellectual property (Is it OK to
copy for personal use?)
 Social issues
 Current intellectual property laws breaking
down (easy to break a law). Does this
discourage creativity?
 Political issues
 Creation of new property protection measures
Liability
 Information technology challenges
existing liability law
 Who is liable if a software-controlled
machine injures someone? The machine
manufacturer, the programmer, someone
else?
 Is AOL responsible for offensive content
distributed by AOL but not necessarily
under AOL’s direct control?
Liability
 Ethical issues
 Who is morally responsible for consequences
of use?
 Social issues
 What should society expect and allow?
 Political issues
 To what extent should government
intervene?
 Where is the balance between service
providers and users?
System Quality
 Three major causes of system failures
 Bugs
 Hardware failures
 Poor input data
System Quality
 Ethical issues
 At what point do you release the software?
 Social issues
 Should people be encouraged to believe
systems are infallible
 What are the potential consequences if
they do?
 Political Issues
 Who sets laws of responsibility and
accountability: Congress or marketplace?
Quality of Life
 Maintaining boundaries
 Family, work, and leisure
 “Do anything anywhere” environment
blurring boundaries between work and
family time
 Dependence and vulnerability
 No regulatory or standard-setting forces for
the Internet as there were for telephones,
electrical utilities, radio, television, etc.
Quality of Life
 Computer crime
 Commission of illegal acts through the use
of a computer or against a computer
system
 Computer abuse
 Commission of acts involving a computer
that may not be illegal but are considered
unethical
Quality of Life
Quality of Life
 Employment
 Trickle-down technology and reengineering
job loss
 Causes millions of middle-level managers
and clerical workers to lose their jobs
 Equity and access
 Increasing racial and social class
cleavages
 Society of computer literate and skilled,
versus computer illiterate and unskilled