Podcast
Questions and Answers
What are the three principal sources of poor system performance mentioned in the text?
What are the three principal sources of poor system performance mentioned in the text?
What is the largest source of repetitive stress injury?
What is the largest source of repetitive stress injury?
What is the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) concerned with?
What is the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) concerned with?
Which of the following is NOT mentioned as a negative social consequence of systems in the text?
Which of the following is NOT mentioned as a negative social consequence of systems in the text?
Signup and view all the answers
What is an example of computer abuse mentioned in the text?
What is an example of computer abuse mentioned in the text?
Signup and view all the answers
Which factor contributes to businesses not having enough time to respond to global competition?
Which factor contributes to businesses not having enough time to respond to global competition?
Signup and view all the answers
What is a health risk associated with computer usage mentioned in the text?
What is a health risk associated with computer usage mentioned in the text?
Signup and view all the answers
Which act makes it illegal to avoid technology-based protections of copyrighted materials?
Which act makes it illegal to avoid technology-based protections of copyrighted materials?
Signup and view all the answers
What is another name for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome mentioned in the text?
What is another name for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome mentioned in the text?
Signup and view all the answers
In computer crime, what acts are typically considered unethical but not illegal?
In computer crime, what acts are typically considered unethical but not illegal?
Signup and view all the answers
Study Notes
Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems
- Ease of replication, transmission, and difficulty in classifying software are issues in digital copyright.
- Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) makes it illegal to avoid technology-based protections of copyrighted materials.
System Quality
- Flawless software is economically unfeasible.
- Three principal sources of poor system performance: software bugs, hardware or facility failures, and poor input data quality (most common source of business system failure).
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 are ever more dependent on computer systems.
Computer Crime and Abuse
- Computer crime: Commission of illegal acts through use of a computer or against a computer system.
- Computer abuse: Unethical acts, not illegal.
- Spam: High costs for businesses in dealing with spam.
- Employment: Reengineering work resulting in lost jobs.
Health Risks
- Repetitive stress injury (RSI): Largest source is computer keyboards.
- Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS).
- Computer vision syndrome (CVS).
- Techno-stress, radiation, screen emissions, low-level electromagnetic fields.
Learning Objectives
- Identify the ethical, social, and political issues raised by information systems.
- Identify principles for conduct that can be used to guide ethical decisions.
- Evaluate the impact of contemporary information systems and the Internet on the protection of individual privacy and intellectual property.
- Assess how information systems have affected everyday life.
Understanding Ethical and Social Issues Related to Systems
- Ethics: Principles of right and wrong that individuals use to make choices to guide their behavior.
- Information systems raise new ethical questions because they create opportunities for intense social change, new kinds of crime, and loading.
- A model for thinking about ethical, social, and political issues: Society as a calm pond and IT as a rock dropped in the pond, creating ripples of new situations not covered by old rules.
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, enabling the finding of detailed personal information on individuals.
- Networking advances and the Internet, enabling the moving and accessing of large quantities of personal data.
Nonobvious Relationship Awareness (NORA)
- NORA technology can take information about people from disparate sources and find obscure, nonobvious relationships.
Ethics in an Information Society
- Responsibility: Accepting the potential costs, duties, and obligations for decisions.
- Accountability: Mechanisms for identifying responsible parties.
- Liability: Body of laws in place that 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.
- Ethical analysis: A five-step process involving identifying facts, defining the conflict, identifying stakeholders, identifying options, and making a decision.
Studying That Suits You
Use AI to generate personalized quizzes and flashcards to suit your learning preferences.
Description
Test your knowledge on the ethical, social, and political issues raised by information systems as well as principles for ethical decision-making. Evaluate the impact of contemporary information systems and the Internet on individual privacy and intellectual property protection.
