Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems Week 04 Chapter 4: Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems

Assess how information systems have affected everyday life. Management Information Systems Chapter 4 Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems LEARNING OBJECTIVES Analyze the relationships among ethical, social, and political issues that are raised by information systems. Identify the main moral dimensions of an information society and specific principles for conduct that can be used to guide ethical decisions. Evaluate the impact of contemporary information systems and the Internet on the protection of individual privacy and intellectual property. Assess how information systems have affected everyday life.

Management Information Systems Chapter 4 Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems Does Location Tracking Threaten Privacy? Problem: New opportunities from new technology and need for greater security. Solutions: Redesigning business processes and products to support location monitoring increases sales and security. Deploying GPS and RFID tracking devices with a location tracking database enables location monitoring. Demonstrates IT’s role in creating new opportunities for improved business performance Illustrates how technology can be a double-edged sword by providing benefits such as increased sales and security while compromising privacy.

Information systems were instrumental in many of frauds. Management Information Systems Chapter 4 Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems Understanding Ethical and Social Issues Related to Systems Ethics : principles of right and wrong that individuals, acting as free moral agents, use to make choices to guide their behaviors. Information systems were instrumental in many of frauds. In many cases, the perpetrators of the crimes artfully used financial reporting information systems to bury their decisions from public scrutiny in the vain hope they would never be caught.

Recent examples of failed ethical judgment by managers: Management Information Systems Chapter 4 Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems Understanding Ethical and Social Issues Related to Systems Recent 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 US 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.

Recent examples of failed ethical judgment by managers (cont.): Management Information Systems Chapter 4 Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems Understanding Ethical and Social Issues Related to Systems Recent examples of failed ethical judgment by managers (cont.): Brocade Communications: CEO convicted for backdating stock options and concealing millions of dollars of compensation expenses from shareholders. Parmalat : Ten executives in Italy’s eighth-largest industrial group convicted for misstating more than $5 billion in revenues, earnings, and assets over several years. Bristol-Myers Squibb : Pharmaceutical firm agreed to pay a fine of $150 million for misstating its revenues by $ 1.5 billions, and inflating its stock value.

Management Information Systems Chapter 4 Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems Understanding Ethical and Social Issues Related to Systems IT can be used to achieve social progress, but it can also be used to commit crimes and threaten cherished social values. Ethical issues have been given new urgency by the rise of the Internet and e-commerce: the appropriate use of customer information, the protection of personal privacy and the protection of intellectual property.

Establishing accountability for the consequences of IS Management Information Systems Chapter 4 Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems Ethical Issues Raised by Informations Systems Establishing accountability for the consequences of IS Setting standards to safeguard system quality that protects the safety of the individual and society Preserving values and institutions considered essential to the quality of life in an information society.

A model for thinking about ethical, social, and political issues Management Information Systems Chapter 4 Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems Understanding Ethical and Social Issues Related to Systems A model for thinking about ethical, social, and political issues Five moral dimensions of the information age Information rights and obligations Property rights and obligations Accountability and control System quality Quality of life Key technology trends that raise ethical issues

Management Information Systems Chapter 4 Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems Understanding Ethical and Social Issues Related to Systems The Relationship Between Ethical, Social, and Political Issues in an Information Society Figure 4-1 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.

Management Information Systems Chapter 4 Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems Technology Trends that Raise Ethical Issues 1. Trend: Computing power doubles every 18 months Impact: More organizations depend on computer systems for critical operations. 2. Trend: Data storage costs rapidly Impact: Organizations can easily maintain detailed databased on individuals. 3. Trend: Data analysis advances Companies can analyze vast quantities of data gathered on individuals to develop detailed profiles of individual behavior. 4. Trend: Networking advances & the Internet Copying data from one location to another and accessing personal data from remote locations are much easier.

Management Information Systems Chapter 4 Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems Five moral dimensions of the information age 1. Information rights and obligations The rights that individuals & organizations have with respect to information that pertains to themselves. 2. Property rights and obligations The rights that individuals & organizations have with respect to property in a digital society. 3. Accountability and control The mechanisms for assessing responsibility for decisions made and actions taken. 4. System quality Standards of data & system quality that should protect individual rights & the safety of society. 5. Quality of life Values that should be preserved in an information & knowledge-based society?

Management Information Systems Chapter 4 Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems Understanding Ethical and Social Issues Related to Systems Data for Sale Read the Interactive Session: Management, and then discuss the following questions: Do data brokers pose an ethical dilemma? Explain your answer. What are the problems caused by the proliferation of data brokers? What management, organization, and technology factors are responsible for these problems? How effective are existing solutions to these problems? Should the U.S. federal government regulate private data brokers? Why or why not? What are the advantages and disadvantages?

Basic concepts: responsibility, accountability, liability Management Information Systems Chapter 4 Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems Ethics in an Information Society Basic concepts: responsibility, accountability, liability Ethical analysis Candidate ethical principles Professional codes of conduct Some real-world ethical dilemmas

Basic concepts: Management Information Systems Chapter 4 Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems Ethics in an Information Society Basic concepts: Responsibility: a key element of ethical action, means you accept the potential costs, duties & obligations for the decisions you make. Accountability: a feature of systems & social institutions, means that mechanisms are in place to determine who took responsible action, who is responsible. Liability: a feature of political systems in which body of laws is in place that permits individuals to recover the damages done to them by other actors, systems or organizations.

Identify & describe clearly the facts. Management Information Systems Chapter 4 Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems Ethics in an Information Society Ethical Analysis: Identify & describe clearly the facts. Define the conflict or dilemma & identify the higher-order values involved. Identify the stakeholders Identify the options that you can reasonably take Identify the potential consequences of your options

Candidate Ethical Principles: Management Information Systems Chapter 4 Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems Ethics in an Information Society Candidate Ethical Principles: Golden Rule: “Do unto other as you would have them do unto you” Immanuel Kant’s 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 to take at all” Utilitarian Principle: “Take the action that achieves the higher or greater value”

Candidate Ethical Principles (cont.) Management Information Systems Chapter 4 Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems Ethics in an Information Society Candidate Ethical Principles (cont.) Risk Aversion Principle: “Take the action that produces the least harm or the least potential cost” Ethical ‘no free lunch rule’ : “Assume that virtually all tangible and intangible objects are owned by someone else unless there is a specific declaration otherwise. If something someone else has created is useful to you, it has value, and you should assume the creator wants compensation for this work.”

Information rights: Privacy and freedom in the Internet Age Management Information Systems Chapter 4 Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems Information rights: Privacy and freedom in the Internet Age The European directive on data protection Internet challenges to privacy Technical solutions Property rights: Intellectual property Trade secrets Copyright Patents Challenges to intellectual property rights

How Cookies Identify Web Visitors Management Information Systems Chapter 4 Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems How Cookies Identify Web Visitors Cookies are written by a Web site on a visitor’s hard drive. When the visitor returns to that Web site, the Web server requests the ID number from the cookie and uses it to access the data stored by that server on that visitor. The Web site can then use these data to display personalized information. Figure 4-3

Accountability, liability, and control Management Information Systems Chapter 4 Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems Accountability, liability, and control Computer-related liability problems System quality: Data quality and system errors Quality of life: Equity, access, and boundaries Balancing power: Center versus periphery Rapidity of change: Reduced response time to competition Maintaining boundaries: Family, work, and leisure Dependence and vulnerability

Quality of life: Equity, access, and boundaries (cont’d) Management Information Systems Chapter 4 Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems Quality of life: Equity, access, and boundaries (cont’d) Computer crime and abuse Employment: Trickle-down technology and reengineering job loss Equity and access: Increasing racial and social class cleavages Health risks: RSI, CVS, and Technostress

The Spamming Problem Management Information Systems Figure 4-5 Chapter 4 Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems The Spamming Problem Figure 4-5 This figure shows the major types of products and services hawked through spam e-mail messages and the industries that receive the most spam.

The Internet: Friend or Foe to Children? Management Information Systems Chapter 4 Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems The Internet: Friend or Foe to Children? Read the Interactive Session: Organizations, and then discuss the following questions: Does use of the Internet by children and teenagers pose an ethical dilemma? Why or why not? Should parents restrict use of the Internet by children or teenagers? Why or why not?

What ethical, social and political issues are raised by IS ? Management Information Systems Chapter 4 Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems Review Summary What ethical, social and political issues are raised by IS ? The main ethical, social, and political issues raised by IS center around information right and obligations, property rights & obligations, accountability & control, system quality, and quality of life.

Management Information Systems Chapter 4 Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems Review Summary What specific principles for conduct can be used to guide ethical decisions ? Six ethical principles for judging conduct include : a. Golden Rule b. Immanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative c. Descartes’ rule of change d. Utilitarian Principle e. Risk Aversion Principle f. Ethical “no free lunch” Those principles should be used in conjunction with an ethical analysis.

Management Information Systems Chapter 4 Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems Review Summary Why do contemporary IS technology and the Internet pose challenges to the protection of individual privacy and intellectual property ? Traditional copyright laws are insufficient to protect against software piracy because digital material can be copied so easily and transmitted to many different locations simultaneously over the Internet.

How have IS affected everyday life ? Management Information Systems Chapter 4 Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems Review Summary How have IS affected everyday life ? Computer errors can cause serious harm to individuals & organizations. Poor data quality is also responsible for disruptions and losses for businesses. Jobs can be lost when computers replace workers or task become unnecessary in reengineered business processes. Widespread use of computer increases opportunities for computer crime and computer abuse. Computers can also create health problems, such as RSI, computer vision & technostress.