1. CIS 200 Professional and ethical issues in computing Edited by Rawan T
CIS 200 Professional and ethical issues in computing Edited by Rawan T. Khasawneh

2. Computer ethics
Cyberethics
Internet ethics
Information ethics
Cybertechnology

3. CyberEthics
Information Ethics
Computer Ethics
Internet Ethics

4. What Is Cyberethics?
Cyberethics is the study of moral, legal, and social issues involving cybertechnology.
As a field of applied ethics, it:
examines the impact that cybertechnology has for our social, legal, and moral systems.
evaluates the social policies and laws that we frame in response to issues generated by the development and use of cybertechnology.

5. What Is Cybertechnology?
Cybertechnology refers to a wide range of computing and communications devices
– from standalone computers, to "connected" or networked computing and communications technologies, to the Internet itself.
Cybertechnologies include:
digital electronic devices;
networked computers (including servers, desktops, laptops, etc.);
stand-alone computers.

6. Cybertechnology (Continued)
Networked devices can be connected directly to the Internet.
They also can be connected to other devices through one or more privately owned computer networks.
Privately owned networks include both:
Local Area Networks (LANs),
Wide Area Networks (WANs).

7. Why the term cyberethics?
Cyberethics is a more accurate label than computer ethics, which can suggest the study of ethical issues limited either to:
computing machines,
computing professionals.
Cyberethics is also more accurate than Internet ethics, which is limited only to ethical issues affecting (only) networked computers and devices.

8. The Evolution of Cybertechnology and Cyberethics: Four Phases

9. 1940s Before World War II After World War II 1980s
We start noting the meaning of ‘computer’
Before World War II
A person who calculated numbers
After World War II
Calculating Machine
1980s
More than a machine!
New kind of medium for communications!

10. Computer technology emerged in the late 1940s, when some analysts confidently predicted that no more than six computers would ever need to be built.
Informal noting of related ethical and social issues

11. Unconnected Computers
Phase #1 (1950s and 1960s)
Huge Mainframe
Stand-alone machines
Unconnected Computers

12. Phase #1 (1950s and 1960s) AI “Giant Brain!’’
Can machine think? If so,
Should we invent thinking machine?
Intelligent entities! Our sense of self!

13. Phase #1 (1950s and 1960s) Privacy threats and the fear of Big Brother
National database!! Electronic records !!
How citizens’ personal information will be used?!
It might be used to monitor and control the actions of ordinary citizens 
ARPANET !

14. Phase #2 (1970s and 1980s) Connected Computers Computers Networks
LANs & WANs
Privately Owned
Information Exchange

15. Phase #2 (1970s and 1980s) Personal Privacy Intellectual property
Much more WORRIES about:
The amount of collected personal information
Ways of usage
Private sector and the commercial DB
Information Exchange
Intellectual property
Software programs proprietary duplication

16. Phase #2 (1970s and 1980s) Computer crime
Remote computer terminal usage
Computer systems in large organizations can be disrupted

17. Phase #3 (1990-present) Internet Availability World Wide Web
Web-based Technologies

18. Phase #3 (1990-present) Free Speech
Can Internet users post any message they wish on:
Publicly accessible websites?!
Their own personal web pages?!
Will they be protected by free speech or freedom of expression?

19. Phase #3 (1990-present) Anonymity Jurisdiction
Should Internet users be permitted to:
Post anonymous messages on web pages?
Be allowed to navigate the web anonymously or under the cover of a pseudonym?
Jurisdiction
No clear national or geographical boundaries!
Where Internet crime will be prosecuted?

20. Phase #3 (1990-present) Trust E-commerce
Doing online business (personal and financial information)
Public vs. private aspects of personal information that has become increasingly available on the Internet
Social networking sites
Interactive web-based forums

21. Phase #4 (present to near future)
Computing devices will soon be a part of our clothing
and even our bodies
Pervasive/Ubiquitous
Computing
Ambient Intelligence
Wireless technology
RFID
Biotechnology

22. Phase #4 (present to near future)
Web 2.0
less visible as
distinct entities
miniaturized and integrated
into ordinary objects

23. The Evolution of Cybertechnology and Cyberethics (Continued)
In Phase 4, computers are becoming less visible as distinct entities, as they:
continue to be miniaturized and integrated into ordinary objects,
blend unobtrusively into our surroundings.
Cybertechnology is also becoming less distinguishable from other technologies as boundaries that have previously separated them begin to blur because of convergence.

24. The Evolution of Cybertechnology and Cyberethics (Continued)
Additional ethical/social concerns associated with Phase IV include controversies that are made possible by the following kinds of technologies:
autonomous machines and sophisticated robots (used in warfare, transportation, care for the elderly, etc.);
nanocomputing and nano-scale devices;
artificial agents (including “soft bots”) that act on behalf of humans and corporations;
AI-induced bionic chip implants (that can cause us to question what it means to be human vs. cyborg).

25. Table 1-1: Summary of Four Phases of Cyberethics
Time Period
Technological Features
Associated Issues 1
1950s-1960s
Stand-alone machines (large mainframe computers)
Artificial intelligence (AI), database privacy ("Big Brother") 2
1970s-1980s
Minicomputers and PCs interconnected via privately owned networks
Issues from Phase 1 plus concerns involving intellectual property and software piracy, computer crime, privacy and the exchange of records. 3
1990s-Present
Internet and World Wide Web
Issues from Phases 1 and 2 plus concerns about free speech, anonymity, legal jurisdiction, virtual communities, etc. 4
Present to
Near Future
Convergence of information and communication technologies with nanotechnology research and bioinformatics research, etc.
Issues from Phases 1-3 plus concerns about artificial agents ("bots") with decision-making capabilities, AI-induced bionic chip implants, nanocomputing, pervasive computing, etc.

26. Are Any Cyberethics Issues Unique Ethical Issues?
Traditionalists
Uniqueness Proponents

27. Their opinions Traditionalists: Uniqueness proponents: Nothing is new
Crime is crime and murder is murder
Uniqueness proponents:
Computers have brought in new issues
Cybertechnology has created (at least some) new and unique ethical issues that couldn’t have existed before computers

28. What is wrong with their views?
Traditionalists:
Underestimate scope and scale issues
i.e. Cyberbullies can bully multiple victims simultaneously (scale) and globally (because of the scope or reach of the Internet). Cyberbullies can also operate without ever having to leave the comfort of their homes.
Uniqueness proponents:
Overstate the effect of the technology on ethics. i.e. Maner opinion: computers are uniquely fast, uniquely malleable, etc. So, there may indeed be some unique aspects of computer technology.

29. What is right with their views?
Traditionalists:
No new ethical issues have been introduced by computers.
Uniqueness proponents:
Cybertechnology has complicated our analysis of traditional ethical issues.

30. The Uniqueness Debate (Continued)
Proponents of the uniqueness thesis tend to confuse unique features of computer technology with unique ethical issues.
Their argument is based on a logical fallacy:
Premise. Cybertechnology has some unique technological features.
Premise. Cybertechnology generates some ethical issues.
Conclusion. (At least some of the) Ethical issues generated by cybertechnology must be unique.

31. The Uniqueness Debate (Continued)
So, in analyzing the issues involved in this debate, it is useful to distinguish between any:
unique technological features;
(alleged) unique ethical issues.

32. Alternative Strategy for Analyzing the Uniqueness Issue
Moor (2000) argues that computer technology generates “new possibilities for human action” because computers are logically malleable.
Logical malleability in computers means that they can be molded in ways that allow for many different kinds of uses.
Some of the unanticipated uses of com- puters have introduced policy vacuums.

33. Policy Vacuums and Conceptual Muddles
Policy vacuums are “voids” or gaps in our laws and policies.
One solution might seem simply to fill the voids with new or revised policies.
Some policy vacuums cannot easily be filled because of conceptual muddles.
In these cases, conceptual muddles first need to be elucidated before clear policies can be formulated and justified.

34. A Policy Vacuum in Duplicating Software
Consider again Scenario 1-5 (in the textbook) involving the duplication of software.
In the early 1980s, there were still no clear laws regarding the duplication of software programs, which had been made easy because of the avaioability of personal computers.
Because there were no clear rules for copying programs, a policy vacuum arose.
Before the policy vacuum could be filled, a conceptual muddle had to be elucidated: What, exactly, is software?

35. Three distinct perspectives of applied ethics (as applied to cyberethics):
Professional Ethics:
the purpose of cyberethics is to identify and analyze issues of ethical responsibility for computer/information technology (IT)professionals.
Philosophical Ethics;
cyberethics is a field of philosophical analysis and inquiry that goes beyond professional ethics.
Sociological/Descriptive Ethics.
Descriptive (and sociological) investigations report about “What is the case.“