1. COMPUTER AND IT ETHICS: PERCEPTION OF COMPUTER SCIENCE MAJORS Linda Weiser Friedman Zicklin School of Business, Baruch College and the Graduate Center of CUNY email: Linda_Friedman@baruch.cuny.edu Hershey H. Friedman Business Program, Department of Economics Brooklyn College, CUNY email: x.friedman@att.net

2. CAN ETHICS BE TAUGHT? Sorry, we don’t really answer this question Sorry, we don’t really answer this question We do study the perceptions of future IT professionals as to the standards of ethics in their chosen field Does a standard course in ethics affect these perceptions?

3. THE STUDY A self-administered questionnaire was given to 115 students taking an advanced computer course and majoring in Computer Science. The sample: 64.3% male; 69.5% younger than 26-years old. 79 said they had not taken a course in ethics, 23 had taken an ethics course, and 9 were not sure. The ethics course all except three had taken was a course taught by the Philosophy department.

4. The Survey Four 5-point rating scales – –“How ethical are computer professionals?” – –“How ethical are college professors?” – –“How ethical are you?” – – Rate the ethics of 15 IT-related behaviors One open-ended question –the most unethical practices in the computer industry –asked respondents to name the most unethical practices in the computer industry

5. THE RESULTS

6. How Ethical are Computer Professionals? FREQ% extremely ethical (1) ethical (2) Somewhat ethical (3) Slightly ethical (4) Not at all ethical (5) Mean Standard Deviation 9 44 40 13 9 2.73 1.03 n=115 7.8 38.3 34.8 11.3 7.8

7. How Ethical Are College Professors? FREQ% extremely ethical (1) ethical (2) Somewhat ethical (3) Slightly ethical (4) Not at all ethical (5) Mean Standard Deviation 7 62 38 5 3 2.43 0.79 n=115 6.1 53.9 33.0 4.3 2.6

8. How Ethical Are You? FREQ% extremely ethical (1) ethical (2) Somewhat ethical (3) Slightly ethical (4) Not at all ethical (5) Mean Standard Deviation 19 54 30 8 3 2.32 0.93 n=114 16.5 47.4 26.3 7.0 2.6

9. Ethics of Various Behaviors Factor Mean s.d. (n=111-115) Stealing someone’s identity Spreading malicious virus Creating a malicious Hacking into database without permission Sending spam Getting into payroll records to see how much others earn Promising customers more than the technology can deliver Copying copyrighted software Piggybacking onto someone else’s Internet service Selling shareware Load program on more computers than it is licensed for Doing personal work on company time Copying music CD Giving friends access to your computer account Giving old version of software to others 4.75 0.62 4.64 0.71 4.46 0.93 4.33 1.01 4.19 0.88 4.08 0.88 3.59 0.90 3.39 1.22 3.37 1.07 3.29 1.20 3.13 1.11 2.95 0.90 2.80 1.38 2.49 1.01 2.46 0.90

10. Rating the Ethics of Various Behaviors: Does an Ethics Course Make a Difference? d.f.p Wilks Λ = 0.86, F = 0.84 15, 77 0.63

11. Open-Ended Question For this question, subjects were asked what, in their opinion, were the most unethical practices in the computer industry. The “top” responses: creating and spreading viruses, worms, etc. (24 mentions); identity theft and fraud (24 mentions); hacking (10 mentions); spamming (9 mentions); overpricing / overcharging for software (7 mentions); downloading copy-written software, movies, etc. (4 mentions); spyware distribution (4 mentions).

12. Discussion Questions?