‫الجزء الخامس من عدد من االجزاء‬-

‫احمد العطاب‬.‫د‬

Najran University
College of Science and Arts - Sharoura
Dr. Ahmed Alattab
‫‪Social Informatic‬‬
‫األخالق والقضايا االجتماعية المتعلقة بتكنولوجيا المعلومات واالتصاالت‬

‫‪2‬‬
Identify a range of ethical, legal, and policy issues that
impact the design and use of ICTs

Adomi, Esharenana E., ed. Frameworks for ICT Policy:

Government, Social and Legal Issues: Government,
Social and Legal Issues. IGI Global, 2010. (Chapter 9)

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 ICT Ethical Concerns
 The explosive growth of ICT and the use of its enabling
technologies have had major impacts on society and
thus raise serious ethical questions for individuals and
organizations.

 ICT has raised new ethical concerns:

 Personal privacy

 Protection of intellectual property

 User responsibility

 Acceptable access and use of information

 Software licenses and piracy

 ICT Ethical Concerns

 ICT has raised new ethical concerns:

 the invasion of individual and corporate privacy,

 intellectual property rights,

 individual and societal rights

 values preservation and accountability for the

consequences arising from the use of ICT

A good ICT policy design must be able to

adequately consider these, and many other
associated issues.
 ICT Policy Design Concerns

 A wide range of new laws, regulations, rules and

practices are therefore needed if society is to
manage these workplace and other changes and
development brought about by ICT. Thus the
society need to consider the following ethical and
social challenges related to ICT use:

 Recognition for personal and corporate ethics

associated with ICT.

 Striking a balance between ethical, economic and

technological (Rogerson, 2008) as well as political

 ICT Policy Design Concerns
 Intellectual property rights issue (trademarks, patents,
copyright and trade secrets (Subject: Information Systems
Ethics (470CIS-2)).

 Non violation of privacy and associated rights amidst

electronic information data mining.

 The opportunity to commit crime with ICT (computer

crime).
 Legal issues and limitations.
 Consequence of using ICT.

 Professional responsibilities (Kallman and Grillo,

1996).
 ICT Policy Design Concerns

 Every organization, society or nation must

recognize and address the aforementioned
issues thrown up by the enormous and
rapid change in ICT. To this end, ethics
and social issues are closely linked.
 ICT Policy Design Concerns
 More of society’s activities and
opportunities enter cyberspace:
 business opportunities,
 educational opportunities,
 medical services,
 employment,
 leisure time activities.
 banking activities etc…

 To this end it becomes imperative therefore

to develop policies that will include all
parties.
 Globalization Effects on ICT Policy Design

 Traditional barriers between regions,

states countries and continents no longer
exist, because of the interconnection
brought about by the Internet technology.

 For example: if an information is posted

on the Web in a culture/setting, which
does not consider such an information
offensive but is accessed by someone in
a culture/setting, where such information
is considered offensive and outlawed;

 Questions arising from this situations:

 Globalization Effects on ICT Policy Design
 Questions arising from this situations:
 what kind of conflicts might arise and how
should they be tackled, and by whom?
 What policies would be fair to all
concerned?
 Will this bring about better understanding
between peoples and cultures, new shared
values and goals, new national and
international laws and policies?
 Will individual cultures become “diluted”
homogenized, blurred?

These are amongst the many social and ethical

issues related to ICT.
Reactions to these issues differ at all levels of
the information society: individuals,
organizations and government.
 The Issue of privacy

 Privacy refers to the right to be left alone. (Subject:

Information Systems Ethics (470CIS-2)

 Privacy is a situation of an individual to be free

from any form of interference or surveillance.

 With the advent of ICT, there is little or no control

over an individual’s personal information.

 Example:
Every time an individual visits a site on the World
Wide Web, personal information is been collected
about that individual.
 The Issue of privacy
 Information technology makes it possible for ‫تتيح تقنية المعلومات للمؤسسة جمع‬
‫البيانات والمعلومات وتخزينها وتبادلها‬
.‫واستردادها عن أي فرد‬
organization to collect, store, exchange and

retrieve data and information about any individual.

 With ICT personal claims to privacy is threatened. ‫مع تهديدات تكنولوجيا المعلومات‬
.‫واالتصاالت الشخصية للخصوصية‬

 The unauthorized use of such information has

‫أدى االستخدام غير المصرح به لهذه‬
‫المعلومات إلى إلحاق ضرر جسيم‬
seriously damaged the privacy of individuals. .‫بخصوصية األفراد‬

 To worsen the case much of the Net and Web are

‫ فإن الكثير من اإلنترنت‬، ‫لتفاقم الحالة‬
.‫والويب أهداف سهلة للقراصنة‬
easy targets by hackers.

 Every ethical consideration must be addressed

from socio cultural and individual standpoints.

 The Issue of privacy
 Meanwhile every social and ethical
consideration must take into account the
following:
 Individual right to liberty: every action must
be based on every individual’s right to
liberty without much restrictions and
unnecessary inhibitions. Every society and
culture must be recognized and respected.
 Equal rights and opportunities of every
individual must be respected. Every action
should take this into consideration.
 Action to be taken must be right and
beneficial to the organization and society:
take the action that benefits the generality
of all concerned.
 Respect for human dignity: take the action
that produces least harm
 Respect for human basic rights.
 The Issue of privacy
 Meanwhile every social and ethical
consideration must take into account the
following:

 These guidelines can serve as the basics for

ethical conduct by users of information
technology.

 Can also be the basic infrastructure/guidelines

for ICT policy design to protect the privacy.

The non-consideration of these ethical

responsibilities by individuals and organizations
for their actions is primarily responsible for the
damaging effects of ICT.
 Information Rights: Claim to Privacy
 Confidential information on individuals
contained in existing files and databases by
financial institutions, government agencies and
private organizations have been misused,
resulting in the invasion of privacy.

 The unauthorized access and use of such

confidential information has seriously hurt and
damaged the privacy of individuals. Invasion of
individual’s privacy occurs when there is an
intrusion into a person’s private “information
bank” with intent to expose, or encroach upon
individual’s privacy.

 The claim to privacy has to be protected by

laws and ICT policies.
 Information Rights: Claim to Privacy
 The claim to privacy is protected in existing
statute books and laws of various countries,
though differences exist from countries to
countries.

 There are also protection laws about individuals

in financial services, health information
management, education and insurance.
 Example:
Europe has applied its data protection principles
both to government and the private sector. This
directive requires companies to inform individual
when they collect information about them and how
such information is to be stored and used.
 This suggests that the consent of the individual
must be given before any information can be
accessed.
 Information Rights: Claim to Privacy
 Accordingly anyone “processing personal data
must comply with eight enforceable principles of
good practices, data must be;
1. Fairly and lawfully processed.
2. Processed for limited purposes.
3. Adequate, relevant and not excessive.
4. Accurate
5. Not kept longer than necessary.
6. Processed in accordance with the data
subject’s right.
7. Secure
8. Not transferred to countries without
adequate protection
 Information Rights: Claim to Privacy
 These guidelines show at what
capacity and how and when claiming
privacy can take place under a very
specific lows and ICT policies.

 An information policy aims to provide

legal and institutional frameworks
within which formal information
exchange can take place. An
information policy regulates the use,
storage and communication of
information.
 Intellectual Property

 Intellectual property is creative works of

individuals or organizations that have
economic value.

 These works are protected by law. This law

prevents others from copying, duplicating
and distributing such work of human
ingenuity without authorization.

 This is aimed at securing economic rewards

for their efforts.

 Patents, copyright, trademarks and trade

secrets are all forms of intellectual property.
 Intellectual Property

 Patent law protects technological invasion. It

requires that an inventor or creator of any given
work is recognized by law and is given
exclusive right and monopoly for the underlying
concepts, ideas behind such work for a given
period of time.

 Copyright law protects the copying, distribution

or duplicating, in whole or in parts of any
intellectual property without permission.

 Trademarks protects brand words, symbols and

slogans of goods and services. Trade secrets
protect confidential information of any given
 Intellectual Property
 The growth of the Internet and associated
technologies is a serious problem for the
protection of intellectual property.

 The Internet facilitates the transmission of

data/information freely around the world, even
copyrighted information.

 Unauthorized persons can copy duplicate and

share music and movies in the Net, through
various devices.

 Digitized versions of books can be easily

made available to millions of people to
download through the Internet without
permission.
 Intellectual Property
 There is therefore the need for the development of
new intellectual property rights protection
strategies in this era of rapid development of ICT,
capable of protecting software, eBooks, music and
motion picture.

 A wide range of new laws are needed if society is

to manage these issues associated with the digital
environment.
 In-class Activity
 Read the following example from google “YouTube”, and
summarize what are the Policies they used to protect
Intellectual Property?

https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/4597810?hl=en

You are given only 7 minutes

Read the following example from Udemy (Udemy is a global

destination for teaching and learning online), and summarize
what are the Policies they used to protect Intellectual
Property?

https://www.udemy.com/terms/copyright/

You are given only 7 minutes

 Intellectual Property

 In an attempt to protect intellectual property

rights; most nations of the world signed the
agreement on Trade Related Aspects of
Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) in 1994.
TRIPS is administered by World Trade
Organization (WTO) to strengthen legal
protection of intellectual property rights
around the world. The TRIPS agreement is a
harmonized standard in intellectual property
rights (IPR) protection.
 Ethical Policy Framework

 Organization and governments must develop policies that take into

account related ethical and social issues.

 Rogerson (1998, p.1) provides the following steps to help

organizations to establish an ethics policy to address the ethical
issues arising in the use of ICT.

1) Decide the organization’s policy, in broad terms, in relation to

ICT.

2) Form a statement of principles.

 Ethical Policy Framework ‫إطار السياسة األخالقية‬

1) Decide the organization’s policy, in broad terms, in relation to

ICT.

This should:

 Take account of the overall objectives of the organization, drawing

from such existing sources as the organizational plan or mission
statement;

 Use the organization’s established values, possibly set out in its

code of practice, for guidance in determining how to resolve ethical
issues;

 Get the scope of policy in terms of matters to be covered;

 Ethical Policy Framework

2) Form a statement of principles that

would probably include:
 Respect for privacy and confidentiality;
 Avoid ICT misuse;
 Avoid ambiguity regarding ICT status,
use and capability;
 Be committed to transparency of actions
and decisions related to ICT;
 Adhere to relevant laws and observe
the spirit of such laws;
 Support and promote the definition of
standards in, for example, development,
documentation and training;
 Ethical Policy Framework

2) Form a statement of principles that would

probably include:

 Identify the key areas where ethical issues may

arise for the organization, such as:

 ownership of software and data;
 integrity of data;
 preservation of privacy;
 prevention of fraud and computer misuse;
 the creation and retention of
documentation;
 the effect of change on people both
employees and others;
 Ethical Policy Framework

2) Form a statement of principles that

would probably include:
 Consider the application of policy and
determine in detail the approach to each
area of sensitivity that has been identified.
 Communicate practical guidance to all
employees, covering:
 The clear definition and assignment
of responsibilities;
 Awareness training on ethical
sensitivities;
 The legal position regarding
intellectual property, data protection
and privacy;
 Ethical Policy Framework

2) Form a statement of principles that

would probably include:

 Communicate practical guidance to all

employees, covering:
 The explicit consideration of social
cost and benefit of ICT
application;
 The testing of systems (including
risk assessment where public
health, safety and welfare, or
environmental concerns arise);
 Documentation standards; and
 Security and data protection
 Ethical Policy Framework

 The development of such ethical

policy should require active
participation of individuals,
organizations, government,
professional bodies and
associations, NGOs (Non-
governmental organizations) and
ultimately the world community.
 Conclusion

 ICT and the Internet will fundamentally,

irreversibly and comprehensively affect our
ethics and social systems. Clearly therefore,
the critical role of government, organizations
professional bodies and individuals at this
time is heightened rather than diminished.
 Conclusion
 It is therefore proposed that organizations,
government and professional bodies
should put in place a robust information
policy that takes into account ethical and
social issues arising from the use of ICT.
 The policy is expected to address such
issues such as:
 privacy,
 software licenses and agreement,
 acceptable use of information in electronic
environment,
 user responsibility,
 permission rights,
 acceptable ICT use,
 security and authorized use and users,
among others….
 Conclusion

 Advances and use of ICT has made the

protection of intellectual property
difficult. There is therefore the need for
ethical consideration by people who
manufacture and use ICT. Organization
should develop ethics policy
statements to guide individuals in
making appropriate use of ICT.
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