12.1 © 2007 by prentice hall ethical and social issues in information systems

31
12.1 © 2007 by Prentice Hall Ethical and Social Ethical and Social Issues in Information Issues in Information Systems Systems

Upload: clement-cannon

Post on 28-Dec-2015

214 views

Category:

Documents


1 download

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: 12.1 © 2007 by Prentice Hall Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems

12.1 © 2007 by Prentice Hall

Ethical and Social Issues Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systemsin Information Systems

Ethical and Social Issues Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systemsin Information Systems

Page 2: 12.1 © 2007 by Prentice Hall Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems

12.2 © 2007 by Prentice Hall

Understanding Ethical and Social Issues Related to Systems

• Recent cases of failed ethical judgment in business

• Enron,

• WorldCom,

• Parmalat

Page 3: 12.1 © 2007 by Prentice Hall Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems

12.3 © 2007 by Prentice Hall

EXAMPLES OF FAILED ETHICAL JUDGMENT BY MANAGERS

• Enron Top three executives convicted for misstating earnings using illegal accounting schemes and making false representations to shareholders. Bankruptcy declared in 2001.

• WorldCom Second-largest U.S. telecommunications firm. Chief executive convicted for improperly inflating revenue by billions using illegal accounting methods. Bankruptcy declared in July 2002 with $41 billion in debts.

• Merrill Lynch Indicted for assisting Enron in the creation of financial vehicles that had no business purpose, enabling Enron to misstate its earnings.

• Parmalat Italy’s eighth-largest industrial group indicted for misstating more than $5 billion in revenues, earnings and assets over several years; senior executives indicted for embezzlement.

Page 4: 12.1 © 2007 by Prentice Hall Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems

12.4 © 2007 by Prentice Hall

EXAMPLES OF FAILED ETHICAL JUDGMENT BY MANAGERS

• Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceutical firm agreed to pay a fine of $150 million for misstating its revenues by $1.5 billion and inflating its stock value.

• KPMG LLP, Ernst & Young, and Senior tax accountants of three of the leading “Big Four” public accounting firms are indicted by the PricewaterhouseCoopers Justice Department over the selling of abusive tax shelters to wealthy individuals in the period 2000-2005. This case is frequently referred to as the “largest tax fraud case in history.

Page 5: 12.1 © 2007 by Prentice Hall Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems

12.5 © 2007 by Prentice Hall

• Ethics Principles of right and wrong that individuals, acting as free moral agents, use to make choices to guide their behaviors

Page 6: 12.1 © 2007 by Prentice Hall Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems

12.6 © 2007 by Prentice Hall

Understanding Ethical and Social Issues Related to Systems

Information systems and ethics

Information systems raise new ethical questions

because they create opportunities for:

• Intense social change, threatening existing distributions of power, money, rights, and obligation

• New kinds of crime

Page 7: 12.1 © 2007 by Prentice Hall Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems

12.7 © 2007 by Prentice Hall

Understanding Ethical and Social Issues Related to Systems

Ethical issues in information systems have been given new urgency by the rise of the Internet and electronic commerce.

Internet and digital firm technologies make it easier than ever to assemble, integrate, and distribute information, unleashing new concerns about the appropriate use of customer information, the protection of personal privacy, and the protection of intellectual property. Insiders with special knowledge can “fool” information systems by submitting phony records, and diverting cash, on a scale unimaginable in the pre-computer era.

Page 8: 12.1 © 2007 by Prentice Hall Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems

12.8 © 2007 by Prentice Hall

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

Understanding Ethical and Social Issues Related to Systems

• Society as a calm pond

• IT as rock dropped in pond, creating ripples of new situations not covered by old rules

• Social and political institutions cannot respond overnight to these ripples—it may take years to develop etiquette, expectations, laws

• Requires understanding of ethics to make choices in legally gray areas

Page 9: 12.1 © 2007 by Prentice Hall Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems

12.9 © 2007 by Prentice Hall

Understanding Ethical and Social Issues Related to Systems

Figure 12-1

The introduction of new information technology has a ripple effect, raising new ethical, social, and political issues that must be dealt with on the individual, social, and political levels. These issues have five moral dimensions: information rights and obligations, property rights and obligations, system quality, quality of life, and accountability and control.

The Relationship Among Ethical, Social, Political The Relationship Among Ethical, Social, Political Issues in an Information SocietyIssues in an Information Society

Page 10: 12.1 © 2007 by Prentice Hall Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems

12.10 © 2007 by Prentice Hall

Five Moral Dimensions of the Information AgeFive Moral Dimensions of the Information Age

1. Information rights and obligations

2. Property rights and obligations

3. Accountability and control

4. System quality

5. Quality of life

Understanding Ethical and Social Issues Related to Systems

Page 11: 12.1 © 2007 by Prentice Hall Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems

12.11 © 2007 by Prentice Hall

Key Technology Trends That Raise Ethical IssuesKey Technology Trends That Raise Ethical Issues

• Doubling of computer power

• More organizations depend on computer systems for critical operations

• Rapidly declining data storage costs

• Organizations can easily maintain detailed databases on individuals

• Networking advances and the Internet

• Copying data from one location to another and accessing personal data from remote locations are much easier

Understanding Ethical and Social Issues Related to Systems

Page 12: 12.1 © 2007 by Prentice Hall Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems

12.12 © 2007 by Prentice Hall

Key Technology Trends That Raise Ethical IssuesKey Technology Trends That Raise Ethical Issues

• Advances in data analysis techniques

• Companies can analyze vast quantities of data gathered on individuals for:

• Profiling

• Combining data from multiple sources to create dossiers of detailed information on individuals

• Non-obvious relationship awareness (NORA)

• Combining data from multiple sources to find obscure hidden connections that might help identify criminals or terrorists

Understanding Ethical and Social Issues Related to Systems

Page 13: 12.1 © 2007 by Prentice Hall Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems

12.13 © 2007 by Prentice Hall

Understanding Ethical and Social Issues Related to Systems

Essentials of Business Information SystemsEssentials of Business Information SystemsChapter 12 Ethical and Social Issues in Information SystemsChapter 12 Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems

Figure 12-2NORA technology can take information about people from disparate sources and find obscure, nonobvious relationships. It might discover, for example, that an applicant for a job at a casino shares a telephone number with a known criminal and issue an alert to the hiring manager.

Non-obvious Relationship Awareness (NORA)Non-obvious Relationship Awareness (NORA)

Page 14: 12.1 © 2007 by Prentice Hall Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems

12.14 © 2007 by Prentice Hall

Understanding Ethical and Social Issues Related to Systems

Credit card purchases can make personal information available to market researchers, telemarketers, and direct-mail companies. Advances in information technology facilitate the invasion of privacy.

Page 15: 12.1 © 2007 by Prentice Hall Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems

12.15 © 2007 by Prentice Hall

Ethics in an Information Society

• Ethical analysis: A five-step process

1. Identify and clearly describe the facts

2. Define the conflict or dilemma and identify the higher-order values involved

3. Identify the stakeholders

4. Identify the options that you can reasonably take

5. Identify the potential consequences of your options

Page 16: 12.1 © 2007 by Prentice Hall Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems

12.16 © 2007 by Prentice Hall

Property Rights: Intellectual PropertyProperty Rights: Intellectual Property

The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems

• Intellectual property: Intangible property of any kind created by individuals or corporations

• Three main ways that intellectual property is protected

• Trade secret: Intellectual work or product belonging to business, not in the public domain

• Copyright: Statutory grant protecting intellectual property from being copied for the life of the author, plus 70 years

• Patents: Grants creator of invention an exclusive monopoly on ideas behind invention for 20 years

Page 17: 12.1 © 2007 by Prentice Hall Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems

12.17 © 2007 by Prentice Hall

The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems

• Challenges to Intellectual Property Rights• Digital media different from physical media (e.g.

books)• Ease of replication

• Ease of transmission (networks, Internet)

• Difficulty in classifying software

• Compactness

• Difficulties in establishing uniqueness

Page 18: 12.1 © 2007 by Prentice Hall Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems

12.18 © 2007 by Prentice Hall

The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems

• Accountability, Liability, Control

• Computer-related liability problems

• If software fails, who is responsible?

• If seen as part of machine that injures or harms, software producer and operator who may be liable

• If seen as similar to book, difficult to hold author/publisher responsible

• What should liability be if software seen as service? Would this be similar to telephone systems not being liable for transmitted messages?

Page 19: 12.1 © 2007 by Prentice Hall Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems

12.19 © 2007 by Prentice Hall

The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems

• System Quality: Data Quality and System Errors• What is an acceptable, technologically feasible

level of system quality?

• Flawless software is economically unfeasible

• Three principal sources of poor system performance:

• Software bugs, errors

• Hardware or facility failures

• Poor input data quality (most common source of

business system failure)

Page 20: 12.1 © 2007 by Prentice Hall Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems

12.20 © 2007 by Prentice Hall

Quality of Life: Equity, Access, and BoundariesQuality of Life: Equity, Access, and Boundaries

The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems

• Negative social consequences of systems

• Balancing power: Although computing power decentralizing, key decision-making remains centralized

• Rapidity of change: Businesses may not have enough time to respond to global competition

• Maintaining boundaries: Computing, Internet use lengthens work-day, infringes on family, personal time

• Dependence and vulnerability: Public and private organizations ever more dependent on computer systems

Page 21: 12.1 © 2007 by Prentice Hall Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems

12.21 © 2007 by Prentice Hall

Computer crime and abuse

Computer crime: Commission of illegal acts through use of

compute or against a computer system – computer may be

object or instrument of crime

Computer abuse: Unethical acts, not illegal

The popularity of the Internet and e-mail has turned one form of computer abuse—spamming—into a serious problem for both individuals and businesses. Spam is junk e-mail sent by an organization or individual to a mass audience of Internet users who have expressed no interest in the product or service being marketed.

The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems

Page 22: 12.1 © 2007 by Prentice Hall Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems

12.22 © 2007 by Prentice Hall

Page 23: 12.1 © 2007 by Prentice Hall Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems

12.23 © 2007 by Prentice Hall

Spam costs for businesses are very high (an estimated $50 billion per year) because of the computing and network resources consumed by billions of unwanted e-mail messages and the time required to deal with them.

Page 24: 12.1 © 2007 by Prentice Hall Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems

12.24 © 2007 by Prentice Hall

Employment:

Reengineering work resulting in lost jobs

It is much less frequently noted that redesigning business processes could potentially cause millions of mid-level managers and clerical workers to lose their jobs. One economist has raised the possibility that we will create a society run by a small “high tech elite of corporate professionals . . . in a nation of the permanently unemployed” (Rifkin, 1993).

Page 25: 12.1 © 2007 by Prentice Hall Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems

12.25 © 2007 by Prentice Hall

Equity and access – the digital divide: Does everyone have an equal opportunity to participate in the digital age? Will the social, economic, and cultural gaps that exist in the Bangladesh and other societies be reduced by information systems technology? Or will the cleavages be increased, permitting the better off to become even more better off relative to others?

Page 26: 12.1 © 2007 by Prentice Hall Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems

12.26 © 2007 by Prentice Hall

the digital divide could lead to a society of information haves, computer literate and skilled, versus a large group of information have-nots, computer illiterate and unskilled.

Page 27: 12.1 © 2007 by Prentice Hall Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems

12.27 © 2007 by Prentice Hall

• Health risks:

• Repetitive stress injury (RSI)

• Largest source is computer keyboards

• Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS)

• Computer vision syndrome (CVS)

• Technostress

• Role of radiation, screen emissions, low-level electromagnetic fields

The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems

Page 28: 12.1 © 2007 by Prentice Hall Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems

12.28 © 2007 by Prentice Hall

The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems

Although some people enjoy the convenience of working at home, the do anything anywhere computing environment can blur the traditional boundaries between work and family time.

Page 29: 12.1 © 2007 by Prentice Hall Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems

12.29 © 2007 by Prentice Hall

RSI

Repetitive stress injury (RSI) is the leading occupational disease today. The single largest cause of RSI is computer keyboard work. The most common kind of computer-related RSI is carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), in which pressure on the median nerve through the wrist’s bony structure, called acarpal tunnel, produces pain. The pressure is caused by constant repetition of keystrokes: In a single shift, a word processor may perform 23,000 keystrokes.

Page 30: 12.1 © 2007 by Prentice Hall Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems

12.30 © 2007 by Prentice Hall

CVS

Computer vision syndrome (CVS) refers to any eyestrain condition related to computer display screen use. Its symptoms, which are usually temporary, include headaches, blurred vision, and dry and irritated eyes.

Page 31: 12.1 © 2007 by Prentice Hall Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems

12.31 © 2007 by Prentice Hall

Technostress

The newest computer-related malady is technostress, which is stress induced by computer use. Its symptoms include aggravation, hostility toward humans, impatience, and fatigue. According to experts, humans working continuously with computers come to expect other humans and human institutions to behave like computers, providing instant responses, attentiveness, and an absence of emotion.