ETHICS IN THE INFORMATION AGE

What is ethics? Refers to the principles of right and wrong that individuals acting as free moral agents use to make choices to guide their behaviors ( Laudon et al ,2010) Ethics is also called 'moral philosophy'. This branch of thought seeks to understand fundamental values, both personal and professional, and how to effectively facilitate actions that reflect those values.

Why is ethics important? The importance of ethics to business is because the values that you use to build and manage your company need to be rooted in ethical decisions and strategies. Recently, there has been a lot of media attention given to ethics in decision making; particularly in the workplace. Consumers and society as a whole want to see more corporate accountability. Additionally, we want business to more actively think about not only how a company treats employees, but also how a company's code of ethics extends to all of its stakeholders, such as customers, suppliers, and community. From the time a business begins its operations to the time it delivers a service or product, there are a lot of choices to be reviewed, problems to be solved and decisions to be made. The manner in which those choices, problems and decisions are handled speaks volumes about the business' ethics. As a small business owner or manager, it is your responsibility to ensure that your organization follows ethical practices and behaviors.

Ethics continued.... Ethics is about the individual choice and individuals are ultimately responsible for the consequences of their action Question to answer is “ When faced with alternative courses of action, what is the correct moral choice”

Ethics continued... Before making a final decision consider the following: Responsiblity i.e. It means that you accept the potential costs, duties and obligations for the decisions you make Accountability i.e. It refers to mechanisms that are in place to determine who took the responsible action

If a system is unable to determine who took what action, then it is incapable of ethical analysis or action Liability i.e. Consider the body of law in place that permits individuals to recover damages done to them by other actors, systems or organizations Due process i.e. a process in which laws are known and understood and there is an ability to appeal to higher authorities to ensure that the laws are applied correctly

You have an obligation to yourself, your organization and the society to do what is morally right You will be held accountable for the consequences of your action

Ethics continued..... IS raise new ethical questions for both individuals and societies because they create opportunities for intense social change and thus threaten existing distributions of power, money, rights and obligations they can be used to achieve social progress but on the negative they can be used to commit crimes and threaten cherished values

So, what is the ethical and socially responsible course of action? there is need to establish accountability for the consequences of IS, set standards to safeguard system quality that protects the safety of the individual and society Preserve values and institutions considered essential to the quality of life in an information society

MORAL DIMENSIONS OF THE INFORMATION AGE Information rights and obligations- “what information rights do individuals and organizations possess with respect to themselves?” “ What obligations do individuals and organizations have concerning this information”

Info rights and obligations continued... The key issue discussed here is “privacy” which is the claim of individuals to be left alone free from surveillance or interference from other individuals or organizations including the state IT threaten individual claims to privacy by making the invasion of privacy cheap, profitable and effective

The claim to privacy is protected in the Zimbabwean context through various statutes which include a variety of data protection laws such as: Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act Chapter 10:27  This Act was enacted to provide members of the public with a right of access to records and information held by public bodies; to make public bodies accountable by giving the public a right to request correction of misrepresented personal information; to prevent the unauthorised collection, use or disclosure of personal information by public bodies; to protect personal privacy; to provide for the regulation of the mass media; to establish a Media and Information Commission and to provide for matters connected therewith or incidental to the foregoing. 

Interception of Communications Act Chapter 11:20 An Act enacted to provide for the lawful interception and monitoring of certain communications in the course of their transmission through a telecommunication, postal or any other related service or system in Zimbabwe; to provide for the establishment of a monitoring centre; and to provide for any other matters connected with or incidental to the foregoing. Censorship and Entertainments Control Act Chapter 10:04 An Act enacted to regulate and control the public exhibition of films, the importation, production, dissemination and possession of undesirable or prohibited video and film material, publications, pictures, Statues and records and the giving of public entertainments; to regulate theatres and like places of public entertainment in the interests of safety; and to provide for matters incidental to the foregoing.

Despite these laws being in place, a number of challenges are encountered when using internet technology Web sites can capture information about individuals using cookie technology, web bugs and spyware Though a vast majority of online customers claim they are concerned about online privacy, less than half read the privacy statements on web sites

Firms like AOL, Yahoo, Google etc have online policies and there are new technologies available to protect user privacy during interactions with web sites such as P3P (research more on this , identifying its advantages and drawbacks)

Property rights and obligations “ how will traditional intellectual property rights be protected in a digital society in which tracing and accounting for ownership are difficult and ignoring such property rights is so easy?”

Property rights continued IT has made it difficult to protect intellectual property because computerised information can be so easily copied or distributed on networks However information may be protected using one of the following ways: trade secrets, copyrights and patents Can these be enforced in today’s world??????????

Accountability and control “Who can and will be held accountable and liable for the harm done to individual and collective information and property rights?” New ITs are challenging existing liability law and social practices for holding individuals and institutions accountable

Accountability continued... If a person is injured by a machine controlled in part by software, who should be held accountable and therefore liable? If you outsource your information processing can you hold the external vendor liable for injuries done to your customers? These are some of the questions that still remain unanswered, what can be done?????

System Quality “ What standards of data and system quality should we demand to protect individual rights and the safety of the society?” At what point should managers say “stop testing! We have done all we can to perfect this software!”

System quality continued..... Zero defects in software code cannot be achieved totally hence there is a technological barrier to perfect software and users must be aware of the potential for catastrophic failure “ when will the software industry arrive at testing standards for producing software of acceptable but not perfect performance?????”

Quality of life “what values should be preserved in an information and knowledge based society?” “ Which institutions should we protect from violation?” “Which cultural values and practices are supported by the new information technology?”

Quality of life continued..... Computers and information technologies can destroy valuable elements of our culture and society even while they bring us benefits Examples include increase in computer crime and abuse, too much leisure time spent on the computer threatens family relationships, jobs loss, health risks such as repetitive strain injury, techno-stress and computer vision syndrome

conclusion The computer has become part of our lives personally, socially and politically It is unlikely that the issues and our choices will become easier as IT continues to transform our world The growth of the internet and the information economy suggest that all ethical and social issues will be heightened further as we move into the first digital century