Understanding Ethical Dilemmas

Ethical Dilemma

• Ethical dilemmas involve difficult choices between conflicting principles or values, often resulting in ethical compromise
• Determining the "right" course of action can be challenging due to conflicting values, no clear right or wrong solution, and significant impacts on individuals, organizations, or society

Key Characteristics of an Ethical Dilemma

• Conflicting values create difficulty in decision-making
• Ethical consequences accompany any decision, with no perfect solution
• Decisions impact individuals, organizations, or society in a meaningful way

Examples of Ethical Dilemmas

• Medical ethics involves deciding whether to tell a terminally ill patient the full truth, which may cause distress
• Business ethics involves deciding whether to recall a product with a safety defect and suffer financial loss, or continue selling it and risk harming customers
• Software engineering ethics involves deciding whether to implement a dark pattern that tricks users, even if it costs the developer their job

Main Terms in Ethics

• Morality involves principles regarding the distinction between right and wrong
• Ethics involves the study of what is good and bad, and building ethical frameworks
• Normative ethics focuses on principles and morals covering right and wrong

Morality

• Relates to beliefs about right and wrong that guide human behavior
• Is shaped by culture, values, and society

Ethics Definition

• The study of moral principles that govern right and wrong behavior
• Applied in professional or societal contexts to guide fair and just decisions

Normative Ethics

• The study of moral principles that define how people should act
• Focuses on establishing rules for right and wrong behavior

Theories in Ethics

• Relativism states that morality is not absolute but depends on cultural, social, or individual perspectives; right and wrong vary between societies or situations
• Deontology focuses on following moral rules and duties, regardless of consequences, developed by Immanuel Kant
• Utilitarianism determines right and wrong based on consequences, aiming to maximize overall happiness and minimize suffering

Moral Reasoning

• The process of thinking about what is right or wrong to make ethical decisions
• Involves applying moral principles, logic, and values to a situation

Summary: The Development of Moral Reasoning

• Kohlberg proposed a three-level moral development, each with two stages

Pre-Conventional External Influence

• Morality is based on avoiding punishment (e.g., obeying rules to prevent consequences)
• Actions are based on personal rewards rather than ethical principles

Conventional Social Influence

• Morality is driven by seeking approval from others
• Right and wrong are based on maintaining social order and fulfilling societal roles

Post-Conventional Independent Moral Thinking

• Morality reaches beyond laws; however, fairness is key aspect
• Ethical principles are based on justice, empathy, and equality, forming a personal moral code

Humanitarianism

• Theroux proposed humanitarianism as a flexible ethical theory designed to address conflicts in other theories
• Based on five moral principles

Five Moral Principles

• Value of life: Preserving, respecting, and accepting human life, including an understanding of death
• Goodness (rightness): Promoting good, avoiding harm, and preventing harm where possible
• Justice (fairness): Ensuring fairness in the distribution of outcomes
• Truth-telling (honesty): Striving for honesty to be morally correct
• Individual freedom: People should be free to follow their values as long as they don't violate the other four principles

Summary: Ethical Implications of Being a Software Developer

• Privacy and security: Protect user data, prevent misuse, and ensure transparency
• Bias and discrimination: Design fair, inclusive software
• Intellectual property: Respect copyrights, patents, and open-source licenses
• Environmental impact: Minimize energy use and waste
• Transparency and accountability: Follow best practices

Summary: Religion, Morality, And Law

• Morality requires reason and impartiality
• Basing laws on a single faith is impractical in diverse religions
• Laws guide behavior but don't always align with morality
• Moral reasoning is needed where laws fall short due to being outdated or unclear

Moral Distance

• Relates to how emotionally or ethically connected we are with others in making moral decisions
• Distance reduces empathy and responsibility

Moral Distance Examples

• Helping close friend verses helping a stranger who is far away Drone warfare feeling less personal than facing direct combat Companies ignoring poor conditions in distant factories

Summary: Ethics In The Business World

• Ethical behavior maintenance is difficult due to globalization's diverse cultures, economic pressures to stay profitable, and technology's role in creating ethical obligations

Rights, Obligations And Consumer Rights

• Rights are entitlements to act or be in a certain state, or to not have something done to you
• Obligations are either moral, legal, or social duties or responsibilities

Purpose of Consumer Rights

• They promote a fair, sustainable marketplace
• Rights ensure consumer protection
• Consumer rights encourage responsible consumer behaviour

Key Consumer Rights

• Right to equality
• Right to privacy
• Right to choose

Summary: Normative Theories of Business Ethics

• Stockholder Theory - Maximize profits for shareholders, often at the expense of other concerns; largely rejected
• Stakeholder Theory - Benefit all stakeholders, but can complicate decision-making
• Social Contract Theory - Benefit society, avoid harm, and act ethically; seen as vague

Summary: Ethical Decision-Making

• It is a complex process influenced by various factors

Influential Factors on Complexity

• Culture shapes standards, and ethics
• Organizational culture depends on ethical behavior and core values
• Social Factors occur when people conform to societal expectations
• Personal factors rely on integrity, trust, virtue
• Demographic factors which include gender, age, education may influence ethics

The Law

• Morals are the principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behavior.
• Law is a system of rules that a particular country or community recognizes as regulating the actions of its members and may enforce by the imposition of penalties.

Moral But Illegal Cases

• Whistleblowing exposes corporate issues
• Giving life saving medicine to someone in need
• Peaceful protesting

Legal But Immoral Cases

• Dark patterns that trick user subscriptions or sharing data
• Taking advantage to dodge taxes
• Overcharging for necessities such as gouging

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Summary

• CSR is a company's ethical duty to minimize its negative impact on society, the environment, and employees

Demonstrating CSR

• Reducing carbon footprint
• Promoting diversity and inclusion
• Purchasing fair trade products
• Engaging in volunteer work

Corporate Social Investment (CSI)

• Companies in South Africa above a certain size must invest at least 1% of their net profit after tax into the community
• This can be done through donations, sponsorships and/or education

Supply Chain Sustainability

• Ensuring suppliers follow ethical and sustainable practices Starbucks sources coffee only from sustainable suppliers as an example

Benefits of CSR

• Can increase profits, build customer loyalty, and improve reputation
• Results may not be immediate, but will provide long-term sustainability

Key Benefits of CSR

• Community goodwill is earned via ethical practices attracting talent and boosting reputation
• Operational consistency is promoted via clear values encouraging ethical decisions
• Good business practices avoid lawsuits and retain customers
• Legal protection occurs for employees when employers are liable for negligence
• Reputation management is easier because bad ethics damage public trust and stock value causing financial penalties

Improving Corporate Ethics

• Ethical Behavior Starts at the top and influences employees
• By establishing a code of ethics which defines key values and ethical issues that provides help training for employees to understand what's right and what's wrong

Intellectual Property (IP)

• Intellectual Property is protected through copyrights, patents, and trademarks, legally
• Patents must be novel, useful, and inventive to be patented in South Africa
• Reverse engineering is legally allowed in cases but often restricted by license agreements

Further IP Considerations

• Open Source Code - Freely available software that encourages innovation
• Competitive intelligence gathers business via legal means
• Trademark infringement involves the Protection of brand identity
• Cybersquatters register domain names to resell

Internet Crime / Cyber Security

Internet Issues

• When victimized, one must inform customers/stakeholders alongside weighing the risks of legal action (Avoiding negative publicity)
• By informing the parties at stake the firm can then proceed to take appropriate security measure

Cyber Threats and Attacks

• Zero-day attacks take place when Exploiting software before developers can fix them
• Malware attacks (such as worms, viruses, Trojans) combat traditional threat-types
• Ransomware locks data and demands payments for access
• DDos attacks overload servers to malfunction and crash
• Rootkits grant access to administrators and make detection even more difficult
• Phishing through emails tricks users into leaking sensitive information

Types of Crime through Deception

• Cybercriminals can exploit human's weaknesses through deception and/or manipulation
• Social engineering can be used as a tactic to gain unauthorized access to data by using psychological means

Malware Differences

• Worms spread alone via flaws of the network
• Virus need a host file to spread
• Trojans have to trick the user into installing

Six Tactics of Persuasion for Victims

• Through reciprocity, criminals create obligation by offering small favors
• Scarcity creates an urgency towards a limited/rare item
• Authority is gained through the impression of the exploiter being, officials, experts,
• Consistency gaining small commitments, leading to bigger ones

More Exploitation Via Liking and Consensus

• Liking is established by flattering a liking from user
• Consensus influences those through peer pressure

Prevention Guidelines

• Keep your information private
• Do not share links or download files to be safe

Types of Cybercriminals

• Hackers go in for exploration whereas crackers do harm and steal information
• Malicious users who are insiders commit collaborating fraud with employees
• Industrial Spies illegally obtain trade secrets from competition

More Crime

• Cybercriminals engage in crimes of fraud, identity theft
• Hacktivists are the main users behind intimidating cyberterrorism

Computer Incidents

• Arise from complexity, user expectations, and reliance
• Personal device use/growth can become personal and risk device
• A BCDR-plan protects operations, maintains resilience, enabling recovery

South African Cybercrime Law 2021

• Law to cover cyber offenses: unlawful access, software and hardware misuse, and unauthorized credential use
• Cyber fraud and theft
• Cyber extortion

Risk Assessment to prevent Cybercrime

• One must prioritize assets, identify potential threats, and assess risks of the likeihood
• A plan to Evaluate and mitigate should be developed with security measures

INTERPOL Summary

• Interpol is an organization working for the African Cyberthreat that works for the assessment report
• It highlights key threat tactics, which are frameworks, enforcement and corporation laws

Recommendation against Crime

• Promoting digital hygiene
• Streamlined reporting
• The Africa joint operational framework is working to identify threats
• They work to develop operations via strategy

Data Privacy Summary

• Protection from unauthorized access, prevention of data misuse, ensuring accuracy and completeness, and the availability to update, inspect, and correct data
• Technical to increase security with software and hardware
• Social raising policy awareness

Regulatory Protections

• The NSA raises concerns for its monitoring agencies, global comms, and with its surveillance concerns
• GDPR ensures data transparency, giving users control over their information It requires transparent consent.
• Protection within South Africa is done through searches protections

Further Protection

• To protect information, the processes are regulated, through protecting it from misuse
• Lawfulness occurs when information is correctly and fairly legally processed

Further Steps: Key Principles

• It must happen when data is only used for its original intentions
• Restrictions of the like are that it is not used beyond that scope
• It's quality is based on completion
• Accountability occurs when processes are compiled

Freedom of Expression (with limitations)

• Guaranteed by South Africa and the press
• Theory: censorship undermines citizens

Free Speech Theory

• Speaker Theory individuals have a right to have identity be expressed
• Democracy and freedom of intellectual development

Free Speech - Limitations:

• External Limits - The Harmful Speech Laws
• Internal Limits - The Limited Speech Laws
• True defenses are allowed to allow protection of violence as long as is protected
• South Africa censorship in cases of pornography with laws of revenge

Al Framework

• In cases of a healthcare system, Al should save the most lives
• It must be designed for honesty and fairness
• AI must take into account all decision factors
• The AI system is complex and difficult to understand