Ethics Wednesday, 10th Week

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.

Ethical Guidelines for Computing Professionals  Looking at problems and characteristics of professional ethics as distinct from general ethics.  Role of professional is to be an expert in a field that most customers know little about.  Professionals can cause great harm through dishonesty, carelessness or incompetence.  Victims often have little ability to protect themselves.

Professional Ethics  professional has an ethical responsibility not to just avoid intentional evil, but to exercise a high degree of care and follow good professional practices to reduce likelihood of problems.  Code of Professional Conduct is a general statement of ethical values reminding people in the field what is expected of them.

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 to determine: –The ethical solution, –The principles of the ACM Code of Ethics that back up that solution, and –Use at least 4 principles from the ACM Code of Ethics.