COMP 2903
Computing Profession
Codes of Ethics
Danny Silver
JSOCS, Acadia University
Computer Technology:
A double-edged sword
It has the potential to do wonderful things:
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Make routine tasks quick & easy
Save lives
Explore space and the world
Communicate
It has the potential to do terrible things:
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Loss of privacy
Theft in ways never before imagined
Stimulate perversity and addition (games, pornography, etc)
Breakdown of complex systems that we rely on
Do Computer Professionals Have
Special Responsibilities?
Gotterbarn (1999) believes that because
software engineers and their teams are have
significant opportunities to:
• Do good or cause harm
• Enable others to do good or cause harm
• Influence others to do good or cause harm
http://www.acm.org/crossroads/xrds1-4/gotterbarn.html
Gotterbarn
• The development of safety-critical systems is a
differentiating factor
• A "safety-critical system" = computer system that can
have a direct life-threatening impact:
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aircraft and air traffic control systems
mass transportation systems
nuclear reactors missile systems
medical treatment systems.
design of bridges and buildings;
election of water disposal sites;
development of analytical models for medical treatment.
An Example
• You are a computer system manager. An employee is out sick and another
employee requests that you copy all files from the sick person’s computer
to theirs so that they can do some work.
• What do you do?
• Risks: Privacy, Law suit, Loss of time/work by employee making request
– Financial consequences of not making a deadline
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Ethical decision can depend on policies and expectations at particular company.
Often require additional information.
Can call sick employee. And if they say yes??
Request authorization from management. And if they say yes??
In actual case, system manager refused to transfer all files, but agreed to transfer
specific files if given the filenames.
Professional Codes of Ethics
• Many professions have established professional societies,
which have adopted codes of conduct:
– AMA (American Medical Association)
– ABA (American Bar Association).
• Two computing professional societies:
– The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
– The Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers –
Computer Society (IEEE-CS)
Isaac Asimov – “Runaround” 1942
His Four Laws of Robotics in priority order:
1. A robot may not injure humanity, or, through inaction, allow humanity to
come to harm (added later).
2. A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a
human being to come to harm.
3. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such
orders would conflict with the First Law.
… infamous last words: “I was just following orders”
4. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does
not conflict with the First or Second Law.
Try replacing “robot” with “program”, “system” or “person”
What is Ethics?
• Moral philosophy - concepts of right and wrong behaviour
• Metaethics — where do our ethical principles come from?
– metaphysical issues
– psychological issues
– linguistic issues
• Normative ethics — arrive at moral standards that regulate
right and wrong conduct
– deontological theory
– consequentialist theory
• Applied ethics — considers specific controversial issues, use
normative ethics (and metaethics) to try to resolve the
controversy
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In our discussion, we will assume that people are rational and have free choice
Professional Ethics
The professional is a specialist; the products of professionals
affect many people.
Ethical rules are not universal, but the tools we use should
include:
– Reason, Introspection
– Observation of human nature, values and behaviour
– An understanding of ethical principles
Ethical behaviours within a profession are based on ethical theory and
what is possible using current technology and what is generally accepted practice.
Professional responsibility includes:
– Maintaining a level of competence
– Learning enough to do a good job
– Honouring agreements and contracts made
Question
• Do organizations have ethical status or is it
only individuals who should be expected to
behave ethically?
ACM Code - Preamble
• Commitment to ethical professional conduct is
expected of every member of the Association
for Computing Machinery (ACM)
• The code of ethics consists of
– 24 imperatives formulated as statements of
personal responsibility
– Identifies the elements of commitment
– Supplemented by a set of Guidelines
Preamble
• Intended to serve as:
– Basis for ethical decision making in the
conduct of professional work
– basis for judging the merit of a formal
complaint pertaining to violation of
professional ethical standards.
• It is understood that any ethical principle may
conflict with other ethical principles in specific
situations
ACM Code - Outline
Major Sections:
1. General Moral Imperatives - fundamental ethical
considerations
2. More Specific Professional Responsibilities conduct for computing professionals
3. Organizational Leadership Imperatives – specific
issues for those in leadership role
4. Compliance with the Code – principles for following
the code
1. General Moral Imperatives
1.1 Contribute to society and human well-being.
1.2 Avoid harm to others.
1.3 Be honest and trustworthy.
1.4 Be fair and take action not to discriminate.
1.5 Honor property rights including copyrights and
patent.
1.6 Give proper credit for intellectual property.
1.7 Respect the privacy of others.
1.8 Honor confidentiality.
2. More Specific Professional
Responsibilities
As an ACM computing professional I will ....
• 2.1 Strive to achieve the highest quality, effectiveness and dignity in
both the process and products of professional work.
• 2.2 Acquire and maintain professional competence.
• 2.3 Know and respect existing laws pertaining to professional work.
• 2.4 Accept and provide appropriate professional review.
• 2.5 Give comprehensive and thorough evaluations of computer
systems and their impacts, including analysis of possible risks.
• 2.6 Honor contracts, agreements, and assigned responsibilities.
• 2.7 Improve public understanding of computing and its
consequences.
• 2.8 Access computing and communication resources only when
authorized to do so.
3. Organizational Leadership
Imperatives
BACKGROUND NOTE: This section draws extensively from the draft of IFIP
(International Federation for Information Processing) Code of Ethics,
especially its sections on organizational ethics and international concerns.
The ethical obligations of organizations tend to be neglected in most codes
of professional conduct, perhaps because these codes are written from
the perspective of the individual member. This dilemma is addressed by
stating these imperatives from the perspective of the organizational
leader. In this context "leader" is viewed as any organizational member
who has leadership or educational responsibilities. These imperatives
generally may apply to organizations as well as their leaders. In this
context "organizations" are corporations, government agencies, and other
"employers," as well as volunteer professional organizations. (emphasis
added)
Progress towards a World-Wide Code of Conduct
by John A. N. Lee and Jacques Berleur
http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~cs3604/lib/WorldCodes/Gatlinburg.html
3. Organizational Leadership
Imperatives
As an ACM member and an organizational leader, I will ....
• 3.1 Articulate social responsibilities of members of an organizational
unit and encourage full acceptance of those responsibilities.
• 3.2 Manage personnel and resources to design and build information
systems that enhance the quality of working life.
• 3.3 Acknowledge and support proper and authorized uses of an
organization's computing and communication resources.
• 3.4 Ensure that users and those who will be affected by a system have
their needs clearly articulated during the assessment and design of
requirements; later the system must be validated to meet
requirements.
• 3.5 Articulate and support policies that protect the dignity of users and
others affected by a computing system.
• 3.6 Create opportunities for members of the organization to learn the
principles and limitations of computer systems.
4. Compliance with the Code
As an ACM member I will ....
• 4.1 Uphold and promote the principles of this
Code.
• 4.2 Treat violations of this code as inconsistent
with membership in the ACM
An approach for ethical analysis (Baase)
1. Identify all people and organizations affected (stakeholders)
2. List all possible actions
3. Consider impact of each action on stakeholders
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Consequences
Risks
Benefits
Harms
Costs
4. Identify responsibilities of decision makers & rights of
stakeholders
5. Decide which choices are ethically wrong, ethically obligatory,
acceptable but not required
6. If there are several ethically acceptable options, consider
ethical merits of each
Example
• You work for one of the large credit card companies. Someone
asks you to get a copy of a person’s file. He will pay you
$1000.
• What do you do?
– Who are the stakeholders?
– What alternative actions are open to you?
– Which are ethically prohibited or obligatory?
A variant of the scenario:
• You know another employee who sells files with people’s
personal information.
• What do you do?
Example
• You are the manager of a university computer system that
provides computer accounts and email facilities to students.
You discover that a handful of students have been spamming
the entire class and sending junk email to all of the email
aliases.
• You are unable to find out exactly who these students are as
they are using a facility outside the university and posting
anonymously.
• What do you do?
IEEE Code of Ethics
• Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• http://www.ieee.org/web/aboutus/home/index.html
IEEE Code of Ethics
1. To accept responsibility in making engineering decisions
consistent with the safety, health and welfare of the public,
and to disclose promptly factors that might endanger the
public or the environment;
2. To avoid real or perceived conflicts of interest whenever
possible, and to disclose them to affected parties when they
do exist;
3. To be honest and realistic in stating claims or estimates based
on available data;
4. To reject bribery in all its forms;
5. To improve the understanding of technology, its appropriate
application, and potential consequences;
IEEE Code of Ethics (continued)
6. To maintain and improve our technical competence and to
undertake technological tasks for others only if qualified by
training or experience, or after full disclosure of pertinent
limitations;
7. To seek, accept, and offer honest criticism of technical work, to
acknowledge and correct errors, and to credit properly the
contributions of others;
8. To treat fairly all persons regardless of such factors as race,
religion, gender, disability, age, or national origin;
9. To avoid injuring others, their property, reputation, or
employment by false or malicious action;
10. To assist colleagues and co-workers in their professional
development and to support them in following this code of ethics.
Criticisms of Ethical Codes
• Ladd (1995) argues that ethical codes rest on a series of
confusions that are both "intellectual and moral."
• His argument has three main points.
– First, ethics is basically an "open-ended, reflective,
and critical intellectual activity."
– Second, codes introduce confusions with respect
to micro-ethics vs. macro-ethics.
– Third, giving codes a disciplinary function makes
them more like legal than ethical rules.
In Defense of Professional Codes
• Gotterbarn argues that we need to distinguish
between:
– codes of ethics
– codes of conduct
– codes of practice
In Defense of Professional Codes
(Continued)
• Codes of ethics are "aspirational," because they often
serve as mission statements for the profession and thus
can provide vision and objectives.
• Codes of conduct are oriented more toward the
professional and the professional's attitude and behavior.
• Codes of practice relate to operational activities within a
profession.
Purpose of Professional Codes
• Professional codes of ethics are often
designed to motivate members of an
association to behave in certain ways.
• Four primary functions of codes are to:
– inspire
– guide
– educate
– discipline the members.
Table 4-1: Some Strengths and
Weaknesses of Professional Codes
Strengths
Weaknesses
Codes inspire the members of a profession to
behave ethically.
Directives included in many codes tend to be too
general and too vague.
Codes guide the members of a profession in
ethical choices.
Codes are not always helpful when two or more
directives conflict.
Codes educate the members of a profession
about their professional obligations.
A professional code’s directives are never
complete or exhaustive.
Codes discipline members when they violate one
or more of the code’s directives.
Codes are ineffective (have no “teeth”) in
disciplinary matters.
Codes “sensitize” members of a profession to
ethical issues and alert them to ethical aspects
they otherwise might overlook.
Codes do not help us distinguish between microethics issues and macro-ethics issues.
Codes inform the public about the nature and
roles of the profession.
Directives in codes are sometimes inconsistent
with one another.
Codes enhance the profession in the eyes of the
public.
Codes can be self-serving for the profession.
Conflicts of Professional Responsibility: Employee Loyalty
and Whistle-blowing
• What exactly is employee loyalty?
• Do employees and employers have a special obligation of
loyalty to each other?
• Should loyalty to one’s employer ever preclude an
employee’s "blowing the whistle" in critical situations?
• In which cases can whistle-blowing be justified?
Do Employees Have a Special
Obligation to Employers?
• Some believe we have a prima facie obligation
of loyalty in employment contexts.
• In other words, all things being equal, an
employee should be loyal to his or her
employer and visa versa.
Does employee loyalty still make sense in the context of a
large computer corporation?
• Duska (1991) argues that in employment
contexts, loyalty only arises in special
relationships based on a notion that he calls
"mutual enrichment."
• So in relationships in which parties are
pursuing their self-interests, the notion of
loyalty would not be applicable.