Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems

Ethical and Social Issues in Information
Systems
Understanding Ethical and Social Issues Related to Systems
 Ethics refers to the principles of right and wrong that
individuals acting as free moral agents use to make choices to

guide their behaviors
Ethical issues in IS have been given new urgency by the rise

of the internet and electronic commerce
Internet and digital firm technologies make it easier than

ever to assemble, integrate and distribute information
unleashing new concerns about the appropriate use of
customer information, the protection of personal privacy and
of intellectual property
Five Moral Dimensions of the Information Age
1) Information rights and obligations

 What information rights do individuals and organizations
possess with respect to themselves
2) Property rights and obligations

 How will traditional intellectual property rights be protected
in a digital society in which tracing and accounting for
ownership are difficult and ignoring such property rights is so
easy
3) Accountability and control

4) System quality
 What standards of data and system quality should we demand
to protect individual rights and the safety of society?
5) Quality of life
 What values should be preserved in an information and
knowledge based society

Key Technology Trends that raise Ethical issues
 IT has heightened ethical concerns, taxed existing social

arrangements and made some laws obsolete or severely
crippled
1) The doubling of computing power every 18 months has made
it possible for most organizations to use IS for their core
production processes due to which the dependence on
systems and vulnerability to system errors and poor data
quality have increased
2) Advances in data storage techniques and rapidly declining

storage costs have made the routine violation of individual
privacy both cheap and effective
3) Advances in data analysis techniques for large pools
of data are another technological trend that heightens
ethical concerns because companies and government
agencies are able to find out much detailed personal
information about individuals
4) Networking advances and the Internet

Ethical Analysis
 When confronted with a situation that seems to present ethical
issues, how should you analyze it? The following five step
process should help:
1) Identify and describe clearly the facts

 Find out who did what to whom, and where, when and how
2) Define the conflict or dilemma and identify the high order

values involved
3) Identify the stakeholders

4) Identify the options that you can reasonably take
5) Identify the potential consequences of your options
Why do contemporary information systems technology and the

Internet pose challenges to the protection of individual privacy and
intellectual property?
1)Information Rights: Privacy and Freedom in the Internet Age
 Privacy is the claim of individuals to be left alone, free from surveillance

or interference from other individuals or organizations including the State
 Information Technology and Information systems threaten individual

claims to privacy by making the invasion of privacy cheap, profitable and
effective
Internet Challenges to Privacy
 IT has posed new challenges for the protection of individual

privacy
 Information sent over this vast network of networks may pass

through many different computer systems before it reaches its
final destination and each of these systems is capable of
monitoring, capturing and storing communications that pass
through it
 Web sites can learn the identities of their visitors if the visitors
voluntarily register at the site to purchase a product or service
or to obtain a free service such as information.
 Web sites can also capture information about visitors without their
knowledge using cookie technology
 Cookies are tiny files deposited on a computer hard drive when a

user visits certain Web sites
 Other subtle tools for surveillance of internet users include Web

bugs and spyware
 Web bugs are tiny graphic files embedded in email messages and
Web pages that are designed to monitor who is reading the email
message or Web page and transmit that information to another
computer
 Spyware secretly install itself on an Internet user’s computer to

monitor user Web surfing activity
2) Property Rights: Intellectual Property
 Is considered to be intangible property created by individuals or
corporations
 IT has made it difficult to protect intellectual property because

computerized information can be so easily copied or distributed
on networks
 Is subject to a variety of protections under three different legal

traditions:
a) Trade Secrets
• Any intellectual work product- a formula, device, pattern or
compilation of data used for a business purpose can be
classified as a trade secret
 Software that contains novel or unique elements,
procedures or compilations can be included as a trade
secret
b) Copyright
 Is a statutory grant that protects creators of
intellectual property from having their work copied

by others for any purpose during the life of the author
plus an additional 70 years after the author’s death
c) Patents
 A patent grants the owner an exclusive monopoly on
the ideas behind an invention for 20 years
3) Accountability, Liability and Control

 Along with privacy and property laws, new
information technologies are challenging existing

liability law and social practices for holding
individuals and institutions accountable
4)System quality: Data quality and system errors
 What is an acceptable, technologically feasible level

of system quality
 Three principal sources of poor system performance

are 1) software bugs and errors 2) hardware or
facility failures caused by natural or other causes and
3) poor input data quality
5) Quality of Life
 Computers and IT potentially can destroy valuable

elements of our culture and society even while they
bring us benefits
Maintaining Boundaries: Family, Work and Leisure
 The advent of IS coupled with the growth of

knowledge work occupations means that more and
more people will be working when traditionally they
would have been communicating with family or
friends

Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Ethical and Social Issues in Information

individuals acting as free moral agents use to make choices to

Ethical issues in IS have been given new urgency by the rise

Internet and digital firm technologies make it easier than

1) Information rights and obligations

2) Property rights and obligations

3) Accountability and control

to protect individual rights and the safety of society?

knowledge based society

 IT has heightened ethical concerns, taxed existing social

2) Advances in data storage techniques and rapidly declining

4) Networking advances and the Internet

1) Identify and describe clearly the facts

2) Define the conflict or dilemma and identify the high order

3) Identify the stakeholders

5) Identify the potential consequences of your options

Why do contemporary information systems technology and the

1)Information Rights: Privacy and Freedom in the Internet Age

 Privacy is the claim of individuals to be left alone, free from surveillance

 Information Technology and Information systems threaten individual

 IT has posed new challenges for the protection of individual

 Information sent over this vast network of networks may pass

 Cookies are tiny files deposited on a computer hard drive when a

 Other subtle tools for surveillance of internet users include Web

 Spyware secretly install itself on an Internet user’s computer to

 IT has made it difficult to protect intellectual property because

 Is subject to a variety of protections under three different legal

intellectual property from having their work copied

the ideas behind an invention for 20 years

3) Accountability, Liability and Control

information technologies are challenging existing

 What is an acceptable, technologically feasible level

 Three principal sources of poor system performance

 Computers and IT potentially can destroy valuable

Maintaining Boundaries: Family, Work and Leisure

 The advent of IS coupled with the growth of

You might also like