ch4 ethical and social issue in information systems

8/10/2019 Ch4 Ethical and Social Issue in Information Systems

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Ethical and Social Issues in

Information Systems

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LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Identify the ethical, social, and political issuesthat are raised by information systems.

Identify the principles for conduct that can be

used to guide ethical decisions.Evaluate the impact of contemporaryinformation systems and the Internet on theprotection of individual privacy andintellectual property.

Assess how information systems haveaffected everyday life.

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Understanding Ethical and Social IssuesRelated to Systems

Past five years: One of the most ethically challengedperiods in U.S. history Lapses in management ethical and business judgment

in a broad spectrum of industries Enron, WorldCom, Parmalat, etc. Sub-prime loans and the failure of risk analysis:

CitiBank and Societe Generale Information systems instrumental in many recent frauds

Stiffer sentencing guidelines, obstruction chargesagainst firms, mean individual managers must takegreater responsibility regarding ethical and legalconduct.

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Do you believe ..??

You are 22 years old, drive a Mazda, like hip-hopmusic, shop at Macy's at least once a montharound the 15th, wear a size 10 dress, live in a

small two-bedroom apartment, have friendsor relatives who live in Texas, like eating atRed Lobster, go on a skiing trip to Coloradoevery Spring Break, missed one semester ofschool last year due to medical problems, andspend lots of time at the ivillage.com Web sitechatting with other females your age

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Some facts On average, each American is listed in about 60 government and 80

private sector databases. On a typical day, each person's name is passed between computers

ten times. Massive databases maintained by commercial companies and

governments at all levels now allow profiling.

The Journal this year uncovered an Internet surveillance centerinstalled by a French firm in Libya and reported that software madeby Britain's Gamma International UK Ltd., had been used in Egypt tointercept dissidents' Skype conversations.

In October, a U.S. company that makes Internet-filtering gearacknowledged to the Journal that its devices were being used in

Syria. Among the most controversial technologies on display at the

conference were essentially computer-hacking tools to enablegovernment agents to break into people's computers andcellphones, log their keystrokes and access their data

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Facts. follow Suggested chip for the new U.S. Passport design would be

capable of holding as much information as the first personalcomputers. The information on the chip is not protected byencryption and is reported to be readable from up to 30 feetaway.

New handheld Web appliances will allow businesses to trackyour physical whereabouts and offer you discounts andspecial offers depending on your geographic location

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Understanding Ethical and SocialIssues Related to Systems

EthicsPrinciples of right and wrong that individuals, acting as

free moral agents, use to make choices to guide theirbehavior

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 obligations New kinds of crime

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A model for thinking about ethical, social, and politicalissues Society as a calm pond

IT as a rock dropped in pond, creating ripples of newsituations not covered by old rules Social and political institutions cannot respond

overnight to these ripples it may take years to

develop etiquette, expectations, and laws. Requires understanding of ethics to make choices inlegally gray areas

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

Theintroduction ofnewinformationtechnology hasa ripple effect,raising newethical, social,and political

issues thatmust be dealtwith on theindividual,social, and

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Five moral dimensions of information

age Information rights and obligations Property rights and obligations Accountability and control System quality

Quality of life

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Moral dimensions of Information Age

Information rights and obligations:what information rights do individuals and

organizations posses with respect to them selves.What can they protect, and what obligations dothose individual and organizations have concerningthis information.

Property rights and obligations:

How will traditional intellectual property rights beprotected in the digital society

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Moral dimensions of Information Age Accountability and Control :

Who can and will be held accountable and liablefor the harm done to individual andorganizations.

System Quality :What standards of data and system quality

should we demand to protect individual rightsand safety of society.Quality of life :

What values should be preserved in knowledgebased society.

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Four key technology trends that raiseethical 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 Greater ability to find detailed personal information on individuals

Profiling and non-obvious relationship awareness (NORA) Networking and Internet advances

Enables moving and accessing large quantities of personal data

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Non-obvious Relationship Awareness(NORA)

NORAtechnologycan takeinformationabout peoplefromdisparatesources andfind obscure,

non-obviousrelationships.

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When you're using the Internet, computers oncampus, or your employer's computer, youshould be aware of the following

Responsibility : Accepting the potential costs, duties,and obligations for decisions.

Accountability : Mechanisms for identifyingresponsible parties.

Liability : Permits individuals (and firms) to recoverdamages done to them.

Due process : Laws are well known and understood,with an ability to appeal to higher authorities.

Ethics in an Information SocietyJust because you can, doesn't mean you should

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1. Identify and clearly describe the facts

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

3. Identify the stakeholders

4. Identify the options that you can reasonably

take5. Identify the potential consequences of your

options.

Ethical analysis: A five-stepprocess

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Golden RuleDo unto others as you would have them do unto you

Immanuel Kants Categorical Imperative If an action is not right for everyone to take, it is not

right for anyone

Descartes' rule of change

If an action cannot be taken repeatedly, it is not right totake at all

Candidate Ethical Principles

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Utilitarian Principle Take the action that achieves the higher or greater

value and maximizes utility.

Risk Aversion Principle Take the action that produces the least harm or

least potential cost

Ethical no free lunch rule Assume that virtually all tangible and intangible

objects are owned by someone unless there is aspecific declaration otherwise

Candidate Ethical Principles (cont.)

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Professional codes of conduct Circulated by associations of professionals

E.g. AMA, ABA, AITP, ACM

Promises by professions to regulate themselves in thegeneral interest of society

Real-world ethical dilemmas One set of interests pitted against another

E.g., Right of company to maximize productivity ofworkers vs. workers right to use Internet for shortpersonal tasks

Ethics in an Information Society

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Information rights and obligations Privacy: Claim of individuals to be left alone, free

from surveillance or interference from other

individuals, organizations, or the state. Ability to control information about yourself

In U.S., privacy protected by: First Amendment (freedom of speech)

Fourth Amendment (unreasonable search andseizure)

Additional federal statues

The Moral Dimensions of InformationSystems

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European Directive on Data Protection: Requires companies to inform people when

they collect information about them anddisclose how it will be stored and used.

Requires informed permission of customer(not true in the U.S.)

EU member nations cannot transfer personaldata to countries without similar privacyprotection (e.g. U.S.)


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Internet Challenges to Privacy: Cookies

Tiny files downloaded by Web site to visitors hard drive Identify visitors browser and track visits to site

Allow Web sites to develop profiles on visitors

Web bugs Tiny graphics embedded in e-mail messages and Web pages Designed to monitor who is reading a message and transmitting

that information to another computer on the Internet Spyware

Secretly installed on users computer May transmit users keystrokes or display unwanted ads


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How Cookies Identify Web Visitors

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U.S. allows businesses to gather transaction informationand use this for other marketing purposes

Online industry promotes self-regulation over privacy

legislation. Self regulation has proven highly variable Statements of information use are quite different Some firms offer opt-out selection boxes

Online seals of privacy principles Most Web sites do not have any privacy policies Many online privacy policies do not protect customer

privacy, but rather protect the firm from lawsuits


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Technical solutions: The Platform for Privacy Preferences(P3P)

Allows Web sites to communicate privacy policies to

visitors Web browser userUser specifies privacy levels desired in browser settingsWhen a user requests a Web page, that Web site's P3Ppolicy files are sent to the browser, which compares thefiles with the user's privacy preferences and delivers analert if there is a conflict between the two.


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The Moral Dimensions of Information

SystemsThe P3P Standard

Figure 4-4

P3 P enables Web sites to translate their privacy policies into a standard format that can be read by the users Webbrowser software. The users Web browser software evaluates the Web sites privacy policy to determine whether it iscompatible with the users privacy preferences.

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Property Rights: Intellectual Property Intellectual property: Intangible property of any kind

created by individuals or corporations Three ways that intellectual property is protected

Trade secret : Intellectual work or product belonging tobusiness, not in the public domain

Copyright : Legal 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


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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

Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) Makes it illegal to circumvent technology-based

protections of copyrighted materials


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System Quality: Data Quality and SystemErrors 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 )


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Quality of Life: Negative social consequences ofsystems 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 lengthensthe work-day, infringes on family, personal time

Dependence and vulnerability : Public and private organizationsever more dependent on computer systems


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Computer crime and abuse Computer crime : Commission of illegal acts through use of

compute or against a computer system computer may beobject or instrument of crime

Computer abuse : Unethical acts, not illegal Spam : High costs for businesses in dealing with spam

Employment: Reengineering work resulting in lost jobs

Equity and access the digital divide : Certainethnic and income groups in the United States lesslikely to have computers or Internet access


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Read the Interactive Session: Management, and thendiscuss the following questions:

What is the ethical dilemma facing Wal-Mart in this case? DoWal- Marts associates also face an ethical dilemma? If so, whatis it?

What ethical principles apply to this case? How do they apply?

What are the potential effects of computerized scheduling onemployee morale? What are the consequences of these effectsfor Wal-Mart?

Flexible Scheduling at Wal-Mart: Good or Bad forEmployees?

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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-levelelectromagnetic fields


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ch4 ethical and social issue in information systems

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