Management Information Systems

MANAGING THE DIGITAL FIRM, 12TH EDITION

Chapter 4
ETHICAL AND SOCIAL ISSUES IN
INFORMATION SYSTEMS
 Management Information Systems
CHAPTER 4: ETHICAL AND SOCIAL ISSUES IN
INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Understanding Ethical and Social Issues Related to Systems

• Information systems and ethics

– Information systems raise new ethical
questions because they create
opportunities for:
•Intense social change, threatening
existing distributions of power, money,
rights, and obligations
•New kinds of crime

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 Management Information Systems
CHAPTER 4: ETHICAL AND SOCIAL ISSUES IN
INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Understanding Ethical and Social Issues Related to Systems

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 Management Information Systems
CHAPTER 4: ETHICAL AND SOCIAL ISSUES IN
INFORMATION SYSTEMS

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ETHICAL, SOCIAL,

AND POLITICAL ISSUES IN AN INFORMATION
SOCIETY
The introduction of new information technology has a
ripple effect, raising new ethical, social, and political
issues that must be dealt with on the individual, social,
and political levels. These issues have five moral
dimensions: information rights and obligations,
property rights and obligations, system quality, quality
of life, and accountability and control.

FIGURE 4-1

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 Management Information Systems
CHAPTER 4: ETHICAL AND SOCIAL ISSUES IN
INFORMATION SYSTEMS

• 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

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 Management Information Systems
CHAPTER 4: ETHICAL AND SOCIAL ISSUES IN
INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Key technology trends that raise ethical issues

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

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 Management Information Systems
CHAPTER 4: ETHICAL AND SOCIAL ISSUES IN
INFORMATION SYSTEMS
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

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 Management Information Systems
CHAPTER 4: ETHICAL AND SOCIAL ISSUES IN
INFORMATION SYSTEMS
The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems

• Privacy:
– Claim of individuals to be left alone, free from
surveillance or interference from other individuals,
organizations, or state. Claim to be able to control
information about yourself
• Fair information practices:
– Set of principles governing the collection and use of
information
– Based on privacy laws
– Based on mutuality of interest between record holder
and individual

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 Management Information Systems
CHAPTER 4: ETHICAL AND SOCIAL ISSUES IN
INFORMATION SYSTEMS
The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems

• Internet Challenges to Privacy:

– Cookies
• Tiny files downloaded by Web site to visitor’s hard drive to help
identify visitor’s browser and track visits to site
• Allow Web sites to develop profiles on visitors
– Web beacons/bugs
• Tiny graphics embedded in e-mail and Web pages to monitor who
is reading message
– Spyware
• Surreptitiously installed on user’s computer
• May transmit user’s keystrokes or display unwanted ads
• Google’s collection of private data; behavioral
targeting
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 Management Information Systems
CHAPTER 4: ETHICAL AND SOCIAL ISSUES IN
INFORMATION SYSTEMS
The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems

HOW COOKIES IDENTIFY WEB VISITORS

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 Management Information Systems
CHAPTER 4: ETHICAL AND SOCIAL ISSUES IN
INFORMATION SYSTEMS
The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems

• Property rights: Intellectual property

– Intellectual property: Intangible property of any kind
created by individuals or corporations
– Three main ways that protect intellectual property
1. Trade secret: Intellectual work or product belonging
to business, not in the public domain
2. Copyright: Statutory grant protecting intellectual
property from being copied for the life of the author,
plus 70 years. 95 years for corporate owned works.
3. Patents: Grants creator of invention an exclusive
monopoly on ideas behind invention for 20 years

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 Management Information Systems
CHAPTER 4: ETHICAL AND SOCIAL ISSUES IN
INFORMATION SYSTEMS
The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems

• Accountability, Liability, Control

– Computer-related liability problems
• If software fails, who is responsible?
– If seen as part of machine that injures or harms,
software producer and operator may be liable
– If seen as similar to book, difficult to hold
author/publisher responsible
– What should liability be if software seen as service?
Would this be similar to telephone systems not
being liable for transmitted messages?

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 Management Information Systems
CHAPTER 4: ETHICAL AND SOCIAL ISSUES IN
INFORMATION SYSTEMS
The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems

• System Quality: Data Quality and System Errors

– What is an acceptable, technologically feasible level of
system quality?
• Flawless software is economically unfeasible
– Three principal sources of poor system performance:
• Software bugs, errors
• Hardware or facility failures
• Poor input data quality (most common source of
business system failure)

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 Management Information Systems
CHAPTER 4: ETHICAL AND SOCIAL ISSUES IN
INFORMATION SYSTEMS
The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems

• Quality of life: Equity, access, and boundaries

– Negative social consequences of systems
• Balancing power: Although computing power decentralizing, key
decision-making remains centralized
• Rapidity of change: Businesses may not have enough time to
respond to global competition
• Maintaining boundaries: Computing, Internet use lengthens
work-day, infringes on family, personal time
• Dependence and vulnerability: Public and private organizations
ever more dependent on computer systems
• Computer crime and abuse
• Equity and access
• Health risk

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