Ethics

Technology  Technology is not an immutable force – people make decisions about what technologies and products to develop and how to use them.  People make decisions about access to and use of personal information.  People make laws and set rules and standards.

Computer Ethics  Computer ethics could include issues such as  universal access,  environmental impact,  impact on employment,  who to sell computers to, and  use of computers by the military.  One’s opinion about them usually has more to do with one’s political and social views than with one’s knowledge or experience as a computer professional.

Computer Ethics Computer ethics is often defined more narrowly, as a category of professional ethics. Typically, most of the people affected by the devices, systems and services of professionals do not understand how they work and cannot easily judge their quality and safety.

Ethical Rules  Rules to follow in our interactions with other people and in our actions that affect other people.  Most ethical theories attempt to achieve the same goal: to enhance human dignity, peace, happiness, and well-being.  If ethical rules are good ones, they work for people – they make our lives better. Behaving ethically is often practical.

Why are the ethics of CS different? Decisions are being made that profoundly affect other people. Other people won’t understand or have any say in those decisions. The ethical issues that face computing professionals are different (ie: the previous slides). The most major topic of ethical issue in our society is that of information ownership. Who owns our personal information, professional information and societal information?

Ethics in Computer Science  Questions to ponder  How does the field of computer science change the landscape of ethics?  What sort of ethical issues are raised by advances in computer science?  What are the guidelines that computer scientists should follow?  What issues do you see?

Privacy of information Identity Theft Corporate Databases Government Databases Government commandeering corporate databases or information Public Cameras

Intellectual Property Fair use is a copyright principle based on the belief that the public is entitled to freely use portions of copyrighted materials for purposes of commentary and criticism. Absent this freedom, copyright owners could stifle any negative comments about their work.

Changes in fair use With the computer it is now easier to copy large amounts of data. With the internet it is now easier to access large amounts of data. Many people feel that users have overstepped fair use and there is no way to prosecute everyone.

Response of the copyright holders Digital Rights Management –an umbrella term for any of several technologies used by publishers or copyright owners to control access to and usage of digital data or hardware, and to restrictions associated with a specific instance of a digital work or device. Wikipedia.com

The debate is on… Making bits that can’t be copied is like making water that isn’t wet - –attributed to Bruce Schneier but found on an op ed piece by Barry Shell (

The debate is on… The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a United States copyright law which criminalizes production and dissemination of technology that can circumvent measures taken to protect copyright, not merely infringement of copyright itself, and heightens the penalties for copyright infringement on the Internet. Wikipedia.com

Ethical Guidelines for Computing  Understand what success means.  Include users in the design and testing stages to provide for safe and useful systems.  Do a thorough, careful job when planning and scheduling a project and when writing bids or contracts.  Design for real users.  Don’t assume that existing software is safe.  Be open and honest about capabilities, safety and limitations of software.  Require a convincing case for safety.

Ethical Case Studies Using the ACM Code of Ethics, study the case study given.