IT Ethics

1. IT Ethics MIS 3003 Introduction to MIS

2. Definitions • Moral • Personal convictions about right/wrong • Influenced by family, religion, education, etc. • E.g., Defense lawyer may be morally against what his client has done. • Ethic • Societal or group beliefs regarding right/wrong Vary by age, cultural group, etc. E.g., The defense lawyer has to still defend his client, as per ethics. • Law • Legislated by governing body.

3. Rights to Information – Mason 1986 • Privacy “concerned with what information an individual should have to reveal to others through the course of employment or through other transactions such as online shopping” • Accuracy “concerned with the authenticity and fidelity of information, as well as identifying who is responsible for informational errors that harm people” • Property “focuses on who owns information about individuals and how information can be sold and exchanged” • Access “focuses on defining what information a person or organization has the right to obtain about others and how this information can be accessed and used”

4. Discussion of Several Scenarios • What would we have done? • Would we continue to be friends with someone if they did it? • Would we turn them in if it was a work place? • Is it Moral? Personal. • Is it Ethical? Group, societal. • Is it Legal? Legislative.

5. Scenario A It is 11:00 p.m. and Susan is Facebook chatting with her friends. She has not started writing her research essay due the next day. One of her friends suggests finding papers on the subject from the Internet. Susan takes her friend’s suggestion and copies and pastes three paragraphs exactly from a website and places them in her essay. She puts the URL at the end of the three paragraphs referencing the web site, but does not include any quotation marks. She continues by adding some paragraphs of her own to the writing. Even though University policy indicates that all material taken directly from sources must be quoted, Susan feels that the URL placed at the end of the paragraphs is sufficient. Moral? Ethical? Legal? Would we turn them in? Would we do it? Would we be wary of them?

6. Scenario B Students in Professor Ziegler’s management information systems class are required to complete a group project via a chat room as one of their assignments. Professor Ziegler announces to the class that it is important that each member of the group work on the project equally as the group will receive only one grade, and only those teammates that do contribute equally should receive credit for the assignment. Group One consists of four members, Alyssa, Brian, Carole, and David. One week before the project is due, all four members met electronically in a chat room, each individually participated, and together they completed half of the project. The night before the project is due, the members meet via chat room again to complete their project. Brian, Carole, and David each contribute equally during the session. Alyssa logs into the chat room but does not contribute. The other members work for over two hours and send her repeated messages, but she never responds. The next day, Alyssa arrives to class with no excuse for her lack of contribution during the online chat session. The group turns in the assignment with all four names on the cover page. Moral? Ethical? Legal? Would we turn them in? Would we do it? Would we be wary of them?

7. Scenario C Sara is a senior at ABC University. She has earned very good grades and participates in a number of extracurricular activities. She is beginning the job search process to seek a full time position after graduation. She joins two online job placement websites. These sites allow her to post her resume, search through job openings, and they also send her weekly updates of new jobs that match her interests. The job placement websites also have message boards and chat rooms for fellow job hunters to share advice and encouragement. Sara notices several advertisements on these websites that offer services to job seekers. Since some of her job applications require a written essay, she is especially interested in one website that offers an essay-editing service for a fee. Sara posts a question on the discussion board to find out if anyone else has used this service. After receiving several good reviews, Sara writes her essay and then uploads it to the service and pays her fee. A week later, the revised essay is e-mailed to Sara. The essay had been changed substantially. Sara’s original idea was there, but most of the writing was new. She realized this essay was much better than her original and submitted it with her job application and resume. • Moral? Ethical? Legal? Would we turn them in? Would we do it? Would we be wary of them?

8. Scenario D Just for fun, Alice (a high school senior) tells other people in an on-line chat room that she is a registered nurse. The people in the chat room have begun emailing her health-related questions and Alice is answering the questions. Moral? Ethical? Legal? Would we turn them in? Would we do it? Would we be wary of them?

9. Scenario E Jennie and Grace are rooming together in the freshmen dorm, and the two of them seem to be getting along well. They are both in the room when Grace needs to leave to take laundry from the dryer. While she is gone, Grace receives a text message on her phone which she has left in the dorm room. Jennie reads the text message. The message is from one of Grace’s friends asking how the “snobby” roommate is working out. This upsets Jennie so she posts a comment to Facebook regarding Grace’s weekend escapades. The Facebook comments are viewed by prospective sorority sisters. Grace is not invited to join any of the sororities. Moral? Ethical? Legal? Would we turn them in? Would we do it? Would we be wary of them?

10. Scenario F Victoria is registered for Introduction to Business Statistics for the next semester. The textbook is available at the university bookstore or as an e-book from the publisher’s website.  Instead of purchasing the textbook or paying the e-book fee, Victoria’s friend, Susan, sends Victoria her login and password for the e-book in an instant message so that Victoria can download it prior to the first day of class. Victoria logs into the system using Susan’s login and password; then she prints the e-book for the first day of class. Moral? Ethical? Legal? Would we turn them in? Would we do it? Would we be wary of them?

11. Scenario G Sam and Ginger are both taking an advanced visual basic programming class this semester. According to the class syllabus, each assignment is to be done individually and not in groups. They have been working individually on a project for the class for several days and are having difficulty getting either of their own programs to run correctly. Around 2 am on the day the project is due, they agree via a text message to work together. They decide to combine their efforts and skills, pull the best parts from each individual project, debug the problem spots and turn in the project as their individual work. Moral? Ethical? Legal? Would we turn them in? Would we do it? Would we be wary of them?

12. Scenario H Professor Smith is reviewing the final papers in his management class. He turned the papers into turnitin.comto check for plagiarism prior to reading them. When reviewing the turnitin.com reports, he learns that Jason has 42% of his paper copied directly from various Internet sites. As a result, Professor Smith gives Jason a zero on the paper and reports him to the college on charges of academic misconduct. Moral? Ethical? Legal? Would we turn them in? Would we do it? Would we be wary of them?

13. Scenario I A programmer at a bank realized that he had accidentally overdrawn his checking account. He made a small adjustment in the bank’s accounting system so that his account would not have an additional service charge assessed. As soon as he made a deposit that made his balance positive again, he corrected the bank’s accounting system. Moral? Ethical? Legal? Would we turn them in? Would we do it? Would we be wary of them?

14. Scenario J A computer programmer enjoyed building small computer applications to give his friends. He would frequently go to his office on Saturday when no one was working and use his employer’s computer to develop computer applications. He did not hide the fact that he was going into the building; he had to sign a register at a security desk each time he entered. Moral? Ethical? Legal? Would we turn them in? Would we do it? Would we be wary of them?

15. Scenario K George needed help desperately. He owed the university library $150 in fines. He was in this mess because he had been under such severe stress from his course he had forgotten to renew his books. Coupled with this he was worried about his ill mother. The bills were mounting up; he needed to buy plane tickets to visit his ill mother. He couldn’t ignore the problem any longer. George knew that his friend Tony had already broken into the library system to change his own account several times. George asked Tony to break into the library computer system and delete the fine on his record making it look as though he had paid the fine. Tony complied. Moral? Ethical? Legal? Would we turn them in? Would we do it? Would we be wary of them?

16. Scenario L Luke is shopping online for some textbooks. He orders one textbook from a website. When he receives his order, he notices that he has received two textbooks, one of which he did not order. However, his invoice statement indicates that he has only been charged for one textbook. Luke decides to keep both textbooks. Moral? Ethical? Legal? Would we turn them in? Would we do it? Would we be wary of them?