Ethical Issues in Information Systems

Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems

• Ethics are principles of right and wrong that guide individual behavior.
• Information systems create new ethical dilemmas due to the opportunities for:
  • Significant social change
  • Threatening existing distributions of power, money, rights, and obligations
  • New kinds of crime

A Model for Thinking About Ethical, Social, and Political Issues

• Society is like a calm pond.
• Information technology (IT) is like a rock dropped in the pond, creating ripples of new situations that weren't covered by existing rules.
• Social and political institutions may take years to respond to these changes, developing the appropriate etiquette, expectations, and laws.
• Understanding ethics is critical in navigating gray areas.

The Relationship Between Ethical, Social, and Political Issues in an Information Society

• The introduction of information technology creates a ripple effect, raising ethical, social, and political concerns at individual, social, and political levels.
• Morally relevant, ethical issues of information technology encompass:
  • Information rights and obligations
  • Property rights and obligations
  • System quality
  • Quality of life
  • Accountability and control

Key Technology Trends Raising Ethical Issues

• Computing power doubles every 18 months.
• Dependence on computer systems increases due to cost reduction in data storage, and improved data analysis capabilities.
• Databases containing personal information on individuals are multiplying.
• Increased ability to gather detailed information about individuals (Profiling and Nonobvious Relationship Awareness (NORA)).
• Networking advances and the Internet allow for the transmission of large amounts of personal data.

Nonobvious Relationship Awareness (NORA)

• NORA technology combines information about individuals from disparate sources.
• It can reveal previously unknown, nonobvious relationships.
• For instance, NORA technology could connect a job candidate to a known criminal through shared phone numbers, enabling an alert to the hiring manager.

Ethical Analysis: A Five-Step Process

• Step 1: Identify and clearly describe the facts.
• Step 2: Define the conflict/dilemma, and identify higher-order ethical, social, and political values involved.
• Step 3: Identify stakeholders (individuals with an interest in the situation and its outcome).
• Step 4: Identify all possible courses of action.
• Step 5: Identify the potential consequences of each course of action.

Candidate Ethical Principles

• Golden Rule: Treat others as you would like to be treated.
• Immanuel Kant's Categorical Imperative: An action is right if it can be taken by everyone without creating problems for anyone else.
• Descartes' rule of change: An action is right only if it can be repeated over time.
• Utilitarian Principle: Choose the course of action that produces the best overall consequences.
• Risk Aversion Principle: Choose the course of action that produces the least harm or potential cost.
• Ethical "no free lunch" rule: Assume that all tangible or intangible items are owned by someone unless there's a specific declaration otherwise.

Professional Codes of Conduct

• Professional codes of conduct, established by professional associations like AMA, ABA, AITP, and ACM, guide professional behavior and enforce standards in the general interest of society.
• Codes ensure that professionals maintain a high level of integrity.
• Professionals may also face ethical dilemmas where competing interests conflict.

Information Rights and Obligations

• Individuals have the right to be free from interference or surveillance from other individuals, organizations, and the state.
• Individuals have the right to control information about themselves.
• In the U.S., privacy is protected by the First Amendment (freedom of speech), the Fourth Amendment (unreasonable search and seizure), and other federal laws.
• The Privacy Act of 1974 serves as an important law related to privacy.

Fair Information Practices (FIP)

• Fair Information Practices (Federal Government Advisory Committee report written in 1973) are a collection of principles that govern the collection and use of information.
• Principles are based on the mutuality of interests of the record holder and the individual.
• The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) extended and restated the principles to provide guidelines for protecting privacy online (1998).

FIP Core Principles

• Notice/Awareness: Businesses reveal their data collection practices.
• Choice/Consent: Individuals can choose how businesses use their information.
• Access/Participation: Individuals can view and challenge the accuracy of information about them.
• Security: Businesses are responsible for protecting their data.
• Enforcement : Mechanism are in place to enforce FIP principles.

European Directive on Data Protection

• EU regulations require companies to inform individuals when and how personal data is collected and used.
• Informed consent is essential, meaning individuals must be given enough information to understand the implications of their data being used by a company.
• Transfer of personal data across EU member states requires similar privacy protections. This is not the current situation outside the EU.

Internet Challenges to Privacy

• Cookies: Tiny files placed on user's hard drive by webpages to track visits and create profiles
• Web Beacons: Small graphics to monitor activity, used to collect website visitor data
• Spyware: Malicious software that collects personal data and transmits it without user consent

Technical Solutions - The Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P)

• P3P enables websites to disclose their privacy policies to website visitors, allowing users to specify privacy settings.

Property Rights: Intellectual Property

• Intellectual property is intangible property created by individuals and corporations.
• Intellectual property is protected in several ways, including trade secrets, copyright, and patents.
• Trade secrets: confidential business information.
• Copyright: protects authors' original works.
• Patents: protect inventions and new ideas

Challenges to Intellectual Property Rights

• Digital media (e.g., ebooks) are easily replicated and transmitted.
• Classifying software and defining uniqueness are challenging.

Accountability, Liability, and Control

• Responsibility for computer-related failures or harms has no easy answer.
• Who is responsible for software failures, or harms?
• Software producers and operators may be accountable.

System Quality: Data Quality and System Errors

• Acceptable levels of system quality are generally not flawless.
• Poor or erroneous data input, software bugs, and hardware failures are the main issues.

Negative Social Consequences of Systems

• Quality of Life: Computers and information technologies can potentially destroy valuable elements of culture and society.
• Rapidity of Change: Businesses may not have time to respond to global competition and use.
• Maintaining Boundaries: Extended work hours, and reduced personal time, may result from computing and internet use.
• Dependence and Vulnerability: Public and private organizations gain dependence on computer systems.
• Computer Crime and Abuse: Illegal acts involving computers may include computer crime, computer abuse, spam.
• Employment: Reengineering may result in lost jobs.
• Equity and Access: The "digital divide" is a barrier to equitable access, which may result from unequal access to computers and the internet for certain ethnic or income groups.
• Health Risks: Repetitive stress injuries, carpal tunnel syndrome, computer vision syndrome, technostress, and potential radiation.

Explore the ethical, social, and political dilemmas posed by information systems. This quiz delves into how technology influences behavior, societal norms, and power dynamics. Test your understanding of the ripple effects created by information technology in our society.