Ethics and Privacy

Utilitarian approach: an ethical action is the one that provides the most good or does the least harm. Rights approach: ethical action is the one that best protects and respects the moral rights of the affected parties. Fairness approach: ethical actions treat all humans equally, or if unequally, then fairly, based on some defensible standard. Common good approach: highlights the interlocking relationships that underlie all societies.

1. Recognize an ethical issue 2. Get the facts 3. Evaluate alternative actions 4. Make a decision and test it 5. Act and reflect on the outcome of your decision

Fundamental tenets of ethics  Responsibility: Accepting the potential costs, duties, and obligations for decisions  Accountability: Mechanisms for identifying responsible parties  Liability: Permits individuals (and firms) to recover damages done to them  Due process: Laws are well known and understood, with an ability to appeal to higher authorities

 All employees have a responsibility to encourage ethical uses of information and information technology. Many of the business decisions you will face at work will have an ethical dimension. Consider the following decisions that you might have to make: Should organizations monitor employees’ Web surfing and ? Should organizations sell customer information to other companies? Should organizations audit employees’ computers for unauthorized software or illegally downloaded music or video fi les?

 The diversity and ever-expanding use of IT applications have created a variety of ethical issues. These issues fall into four general categories: privacy, accuracy, property, and accessibility. 1. Privacy issues involve collecting, storing, and disseminating information about individuals. 2. Accuracy issues involve the authenticity, fidelity, and correctness of information that is collected and processed. 3. Property issues involve the ownership and value of information. 4. Accessibility issues revolve around who should have access to information and whether a fee should be paid for this access.

Personal Information in Databases Modern institutions store information about individuals in many databases. Perhaps the most visible locations of such records are credit-reporting agencies. Other institutions that store personal information include banks and fi nancial institutions; cable TV, telephone, and utilities companies; employers; mortgage companies; hospitals; schools and universities; retail establishments; government agencies (Internal Revenue Service, your state, your municipality); and many others. There are several concerns about the information you provide to these record keepers. Some of the major concerns are: Do you know where the records are? Are the records accurate? Can you change inaccurate data? How long will it take to make a change? Under what circumstances will personal data be released? How are the data used? To whom are the data given or sold? How secure are the data against access by unauthorized people?

 Five moral dimensions of the information age 1. Information rights and obligations 2. Property rights and obligations 3. Accountability and control 4. System quality 5. Quality of life Understanding Ethical and Social Issues Related to Systems © Prentice Hall

 1) Rights and obligations of information: What are the rights of individuals and corporations about information about themselves? What are the legal means to protect it? And what are the obligations are for that information. “These rights include: Privacy is the right of individuals to be left in peace. Technology and information systems threaten the privacy of individuals to make cheap, efficient and effective invasion. Due process requires the existence of a set of rules or laws that clearly define how we treat information about individuals and that appeal mechanisms available. Understanding Ethical and Social Issues Related to Systems © Prentice Hall

 2) Property rights: how to move the classical concepts of patent and intellectual property in digital technology? What are these rights and how to protect? Information technology has hindered the protection of property because it is very easy to copy or distribute computer information networks. Intellectual property is subject to various protections under three patents:  Trade secrets: Any intellectual work product used for business purposes may be classified as secret.  Copyright: It is a concession granted by law to protect creators of intellectual property against copying by others for any purpose for a period of 28 years.  Patents: A patent gives the holder, for 17 years, an exclusive monopoly on the ideas on which an invention. Understanding Ethical and Social Issues Related to Systems © Prentice Hall

 3) Responsibility and control: Who is responsible and who controls the use and abuse of information from the People. The new information technologies are challenging existing laws regarding liability and social practices, to force individuals and institutions accountable for their actions. Understanding Ethical and Social Issues Related to Systems © Prentice Hall

 4) Quality systems: What data standards, information processing programs should be required to ensure the protection of individual rights and society? It can hold individuals and organizations for avoidable and foreseeable consequences if their obligation is to see and correct. Understanding Ethical and Social Issues Related to Systems © Prentice Hall

 5) Quality of life: What values should be preserved and protected in a society based on information and knowledge? What institutions should protect and which should be protected? The negative social costs of introducing information technologies and systems are growing along with the power of technology. Computers and information technologies can destroy valuable elements of culture and society, while providing benefits.  These five dimensions represent very good guideline considerations, ethical questions and answers should be a company when introducing a new technology. Understanding Ethical and Social Issues Related to Systems © Prentice Hall

1. Doubling of computer power ▪ More organizations depend on computer systems for critical operations 2. Rapidly declining data storage costs ▪ Organizations can easily maintain detailed databases on individuals 3. Networking advances and the Internet ▪ Copying data from one location to another and accessing personal data from remote locations is much easier © Prentice Hall Key technology trends that raise ethical issues

 Key technology trends that raise ethical issues (cont.) 4. Advances in data analysis techniques ▪ Companies can analyze vast quantities of data gathered on individuals for: ▪ Profiling  Combining data from multiple sources to create dossiers of detailed information on individuals ▪ Nonobvious relationship awareness (NORA)  Combining data from multiple sources to find obscure hidden connections that might help identify criminals or terrorists Key technology trends that raise ethical issues (cont.) © Prentice Hall

First, be careful what information you post on social networking sites. Second, a company, ReputationDefender, says it can remove derogatory information from the Web.

Privacy Codes and Policies  Opt-out model of informed consent permits the company to collect personal information until the customer specifically requests that the data not be collected.  Opt-in model of informed consent means that organizations are prohibited from collecting any personal information unless the customer specifically authorizes it. (Preferred by privacy advocates.)  International Aspects of Privacy. Privacy issues that international organizations and governments face when information spans countries and jurisdictions. © Gunnar/Age Fotostock America, Inc.

Anyone can post derogatory information about you anonymously. (See this Washington Post article.)article You can also hurt yourself, as this article shows.article

See "The State of Surveillance" article in BusinessWeekThe State of Surveillance See the surveillance slideshowsurveillance slideshow See additional surveillance slidesslides And you think you have privacy? (video)video

What is unethical is not necessarily illegal. Ethics scenarios

Answer the questions İn Problem-Solving Activities(e-book page 90) Answer the quesitons of case 3.2 The Dot Clones (e-book page 80) or hard copy