Social and Ethical Issues in IS

1. Social and Ethical Issues in IS

2. Understanding Ethical and Social Issues Related to Systems • Ethics are the principles of right and wrong that individuals, acting as free moral agents, use to make choices to guide their behaviour. • Information systems raise new ethical questions for both individuals and societies because they create opportunities for intense social change.

4. Understanding Ethical and Social Issues Related to Systems • Four key technology trends that raise ethical issues • Computing power doubles every 18 months • Increased reliance on, and vulnerability to, computer systems • Data storage costs rapidly declining • Multiplying databases on individuals • Data analysis advances • Greater ability to find detailed personal information on individuals • Profiling and nonobvious relationship awareness (NORA) • Networking advances and the Internet • Enables moving and accessing large quantities of personal data

5. Computer Ethics • Key Ethical Concerns • Information Privacy • Information Accuracy • Information Property • Information Accessibility

6. Information Privacy • What information should you have to reveal? • Information you might want to keep private: • Social security number • Medical history • Family history • Identity theft • Fastest growing “information” crime • Biometrics for better protection

7. Information Privacy (cont’d) • Companies seem to know about our every move—how much information do we need to reveal? • Amazon.com is famous for personalization • What are the costs?

8. Internet Challenges to Privacy • The Internet poses new challenges to the protection of individual privacy because information can easily be monitored, captured, and stored as it passes through its network of computer systems. • Web sites can learn the identity of their visitors if the visitors voluntarily register at the site or they can capture information about visitors without their knowledge using "cookie“, web bugs &/or spyware technology.

9. Internet Challenges to Privacy • Opt-out model • Informed consent permitting the collection of personal information • Consumer specifically requests for the data not to be collected • Opt-in model • Informed consent prohibiting an organization from collecting any personal information • Individual has to approve information collection and use

12. How to Maintain Your Privacy Online • Review the privacy policy of the company with which you are transacting. • The policy should indicate: • What information is being gathered about you. • How the seller will use this information. • Whether and how you can “opt out” of these practices. • Additional tips: • Choose Web sites monitored by independent organizations. • Avoid having cookies left on your machine. • Visit sites anonymously. • Use caution when requesting confirmation e-mail.

13. Information Accuracy • Ensuring of the authenticity and fidelity of information • High costs of incorrect information • Banks • Hospitals • Example: a software error in a radiation therapy device caused massive overexposure, causing multiple deaths and injuries

14. Information Property • Selling information about people has become a big business. • Who owns information about individuals? • How can this information be sold and exchanged?

15. Data Privacy Statements • Company maintaining the database with customer information legally owns it • Is free to sell it • Cannot sell information it agreed not to share • Must insure proper data handling practices • Social networking complicates matters • Complexity of privacy settings • Friends can tag you without your knowledge.

16. Information Accessibility • Who has the right to monitor the information? • Example: e-mail monitoring at the workplace by employers • Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) offers far stronger support for voice mail than for e-mail communications.

18. The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems: Computer-related liability problems • Quality of Life: Negative social consequences of systems • Balancing power: Although computing power is decentralizing, key decision-making power remains centralized • Rapidity of change: Businesses may not have enough time to respond to global competition • Maintaining boundaries: Computing and Internet use lengthens the work-day, infringes on family, personal time • Dependence and vulnerability: Public and private organizations ever more dependent on computer systems

19. The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems: Computer-related liability problems • Computers may be responsible for: • 1. Repetitive stress injury (RSI). • The single largest source of RSI is computer keyboards. • 2. Computer vision syndrome (CVS) • any eyestrain condition related to computer display screen use • 3. Technostress • stress induced by computer use - aggravation, hostility toward humans, impatience, and fatigue.

20. Digital Divide • The gap between people who are computer literate and have access to the Internet and those who do not • Strong linkage between computer literacy and a person’s ability to compete in the information age • Still, people in rural communities, the elderly, people with disabilities, and minorities lag behind national averages. • One Laptop per Child (OLPC): global project that attempts to distribute low-cost laptops to children in developing countries

21. Need for a Code of Ethical Conduct • Issues: changing photographs, using school computers for personal use, compiling information about shopping patterns and credit history • Many businesses have guidelines for appropriate use. • Universities endorse guidelines proposed by EduCom.

22. Need for a Code of Ethical Conduct (cont’d) Responsible computer use (based on work of the Computer Ethics Institute) prohibits: • Using a computer to harm others • Interfering with other people’s computer work • Snooping in other people’s files • Using a computer to steal • Using a computer to bear false witness • Copying or using proprietary software without paying for it • Using other people’s computer resources without authorization • Appropriating other people’s intellectual output

23. Ethics in an Information Society • Basic concepts form the underpinning of an ethical analysis of information systems and those who manage them • Responsibility: Accepting the potential costs, duties, and obligations for decisions • Accountability: Mechanisms for identifying responsible parties • Liability: Permits individuals (and firms) to recover damages done to them • Due process: Laws are well known and understood, with an ability to appeal to higher authorities

24. Ethics in an Information Society • Ethical analysis: A five-step process • Identify and clearly describe the facts • Define the conflict or dilemma and identify the higher-order values involved • Identify the stakeholders • Identify the options that you can reasonably take • Identify the potential consequences of your options

25. Six traditional principles can be used to help forming an ethical decision The 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, it is not right for anyone. Descartes' rule of change: If an action cannot be taken repeatedly, it should not be taken at any time. The Utilitarian Principle: Take the action that achieves the higher or greater value. The Risk Aversion Principle: Take the action that produces the least harm or least cost. The ethical "no free lunch" rule: All tangible objects are assumed owned by someone else unless specifically declared otherwise.