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Ethics and information systems: Resolving the quandaries

Published: 29 August 2002 Publication History

Abstract

The information systems (I/S) community is becoming concerned with questions of ethical behavior in many realms. But those who attempt to resolve the quandaries may find themselves confused by differing approaches and theoretical assumptions that are often proffered. This paper provides a meta-framework that identifies the areas of convergence and divergence in these approaches and assumptions. An illustrative example (America Online's plans to share subscriber information with telemarketers) is examined through several sets of lenses. Special attention is paid to the linkages between the theories, with fertile areas for future research identified.

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      cover image ACM SIGMIS Database: the DATABASE for Advances in Information Systems
      ACM SIGMIS Database: the DATABASE for Advances in Information Systems  Volume 33, Issue 3
      Summer 2002
      63 pages
      ISSN:0095-0033
      EISSN:1532-0936
      DOI:10.1145/569905
      Issue’s Table of Contents
      Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the Owner/Author.

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      Published: 29 August 2002
      Published in SIGMIS Volume 33, Issue 3

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      1. computers and society
      2. ethics

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