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2 Technology in Action Technology in Focus: Information Technology Ethics Information Technology Ethics Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

3 Ethics Defined Study of morals and moral choices Match established ideas of right and wrong Fairness Equity Guidelines for decision making Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

4 Ethics Defined (cont.) Systems of ethical conduct – –Relativism – –Situational ethics – –Religious traditions Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

5 Ethics Defined (cont.) Societal ethics – –A general set of unwritten guidelines Rule utilitarianism – –Espouses establishing moral guidelines through rules (moral code) Unethical behavior – –Not conforming to a set of approved standards of social or professional behavior – –Not necessarily illegal – –Not all illegal behavior is unethical Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

6 Ethics Defined (cont.) Amoral behavior – –No sense of right and wrong – –No interest in the moral consequences of actions Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

7 Personal Ethics Checklist of personal decisions Can be well defined Can be applied inconsistently Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Personal Ethics (cont.) How do personal ethics develop? – –Family and cultural bias – –Religious affiliation – –Life experiences Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 8

9 Define Your Personal Ethics Describe yourself List your beliefs Identify external influences Consider “why” Prepare a statement of values Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

10 Personal Ethics Benefits of ethical living – –Obeying laws – –Less stress and anger – –Increased happiness Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

11 Personal Ethics and Your Worldview Do your ethics match those of your workplace? – –Whistle-blowers Turn businesses in to regulatory agencies for committing illegal acts Also can expose unethical (but still legal) acts by their employers by exposing unethical behavior through various media outlets Are your ethics away from work a concern for your employer? Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

12 Technology and Ethics Technology is all around us Technology moves quickly Rules governing technology move more slowly Use of technology is left up to personal ethics Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

13 Using Computers to Support Ethical Conduct Charitable organizations use the Internet for fund-raising Companies must provide mechanisms to report unethical behavior anonymously Intranets and are used to inform employees of ethics policies Your personal ethics must guide your decisions concerning technology Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

14 Social Justice: Whistle-Blowing with Web 2.0 Are there things the public does not have a right to see? What access should corporate whistle- blowers have to distributing materials? – –Web 2.0 – –Wikileaks Does society have a responsibility to use technology to help achieve social justice? Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

15 Intellectual Property: International Pirates Copyright laws protect intellectual property Challenges in enforcing these standards in other countries In 2009, 79 percent of China’s computers ran on pirated software U.S. lawmakers identified five countries not doing enough to prevent piracy: Canada, China, Mexico, Russia, and Spain Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Privacy: Does Social Media Erode Personal Privacy? Privacy is a basic human right Social media sites are inherently about sharing information with others Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 16

17 E-Commerce: Geolocation: Marketing Tool or Invasion of Privacy? Where are you? Geolocation: The technology that helps answer the question Does the “fun” and “convenience” of tweets and check-ins cause loss of some of your privacy? Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

18 Electronic Communication: Does Free Speech Have a Price? 2006: Google launches self-censored search engine services in China 2010: Google, no longer willing to censor results, moves site to Hong Kong Microsoft search engine Bing stays in China Global Network Initiative Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

19 Computer Abuse: Cyberbullying: Who Should Protect Children from Each Other? Cyberbullying Types –Bombarding victims with harassing IMs or texts –Stealing a password and using the victim’s account to embarrass the victim –Spreading rumors or lies on social networking sites Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

20 Computer Abuse: Cyberbullying: Who Should Protect Children from Each Other? (cont.) Types (cont.) –Posting embarrassing photos or videos on the Web –Infecting the victim’s computer with malware Hard to detect Prevention No federal law prohibiting cyberbullying; sixteen states have laws Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

21 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Printed in the United States of America. Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall Technology in Focus 21