Ethical & Social Issues

Opportunities of many benefitsSource of abuses

• Direct & indirect care of the aged community– Australian government– Improve quality of life• Feel more in touch

– Internet

• Grocery • Bill payment

• The “smart house” initiative– Passive infrared detectors– Door entry systems– Emergency pendants– Bed and chair sensors

• Privacy issues– Being monitored 24/7– Awareness, consent, ownership, and access of

data• Culture competent– Interface (English only???)

• Feel comfortable with computers– Knowledge and skills

4.1 Understanding ethical and social issues related to systems

4.2 Ethics in a information society4.3 The moral dimensions of information

systems

4.1 Understanding Ethical & Social Issues

Failed Ethical Judgment by managersWalmart Paying bribes to Mexican Authority for building

permit (2012)

Pfizer, Eli Lilly, AstraZeneca

Falsified information of clinical trials (2009)

Siemens Worldwide bribery and concealed accounting reports (2009)

Fat Cats Big bonus while business collapsing,

were not masterminded by information systems,Information systems were instrumental

• Ethics– Principles of right or wrong– Individuals use

free moral agents

• to make choices• to guide their behaviors

• Info systems raise new ethical questions for– Individuals• Improve efficiency• Cause many to lose jobs

– Societies• Empowered citizen to better manage public issues• Enable criminals to commit crime much easier

– Computerized telemarketing scams

Ethical, Social, and Political issues

Email

Five Moral Dimensions of the info age

• Table 4.2

• ProfilingAdvance of data analysis

– Combine data from multiple sources • Credit cards purchases• Telephone calls• Magazine subscriptions• Video rentals ……

– Create electronic files of detailed info on individual

NonObvious Relationship Awareness

Watch Lists

4.2 Ethics in an Info Society

• Basic conceptsFeatures & guidelines of ethical choices

– Responsibility• Individual• Accept the potential costs, duties, and obligations for

the decisions you made.

– Accountability• System & social institute• Mechanisms to determine who took responsible action,

who is responsible.

– Liability• Law• Permit individuals to recover the damage done to them

by other actors

– Due process• Law-governed societies• An ability to appeal to higher authorities to ensure that

the laws are applied correctly– Ex: Anti-trust disputes.

• Ethical Analysis1. Identify and describe clearly the fact.• Who did what to whom, and when, where, and how.

2. Define the conflict or dilemma and identify the higher-order values involved.• Freedom of speech, privacy, …

3. Identify the stakeholders• Who has interests in the outcomes

4. Identify the options that you can reasonably take.• None of the options may satisfy all the interests

involved.

5. Identify the potential consequences of your options.• Options may work in one instance but not in other

similar instance.

• Candidate ethical principlesGuidelines used for making decisions & judgments

– Golden rule• Do unto others as you would have them do unto you

– Categorical imperative• If an action is not right for everyone to take, it is not

right for anyone.Ex: Fossil fuel consumption vs. clean energy

• Descartes’ rule of change– If an action can not be taken repeatedly, it is not

right to take at all.– The slippery-slope rule• An action might bring about a small change now

– Acceptable

• If it is repeated– It would bring unacceptable changes in the long run.

ex: Cyber bullies, zero tolerance

– Utilitarian principle• Take the action that achieves the higher or greater

value• Ex. Allow employees to use instant messages or not.

– Risk aversion principle• Take the action that produces the least harm or the

least potential cost.• Ex. Ban employee to install programs into office

computers.

– No free lunch rule• Assume that virtually all tangible or intangible objects

are owned by someone else • unless there is a specific declaration otherwise.

• Professional codes of conduct– Professional• Groups of people take on special rights and obligations

because of their special claims to knowledge, wisdom, and respect

– American Medical Association– Codes of ethics• Promises by professions to regulate themselves in the

general interest of society

• Some real-world ethical dilemmas– Voice recognition software• Reduce the size of workforce.

– Monitor employee’s Internet activities• Prevent from wasting company resources on

nonbusiness activities.• Ex. Gmail

– Pet project from google’s employee.

4.3 Moral Dimensions of IS

• Information Rights• Property Rights• Accountability, liability, and control• System quality• Quality of life

• Information Rights: Privacy and Freedom– Privacy• The claim of individuals to be left alone

– Free from surveillance or interference from other individuals or organizations, including the state.

• Privacy issue in handling personal info– Credit reporting– Education– Financial records– Health care

Information technology and systemsmakes invasion of privacy cheap, profitable, and

effective

• Fair Information Practices (FIP)– Notice/awareness (core principle)• Disclose information practices before collecting data

– Choice/consent (core principle)• Allow consumers to choose how their info will be used

– Access/participation• Consumers should be able to review and contest the

accuracy and completeness of the data collected

– Security• Protect consumers’ info from unauthorized use.

– Enforcement• Mechanism to enforce FIP.

• Internet challenges to privacy– Monitoring and tracking website visitors• Occur in the background without the visitors’

knowledge• Software available to “watch” online shoppers’

behavior• Help organizations better target their offerings

• Identify website’s visitors– Visitors voluntarily register• Make purchases• Obtain free services

– Cookies• Tiny file resides on computer’s hard drive

– Spyware• Secretly install itself on an Internet user’s computer

– Piggybacking on larger applications

• Send banner ads• Unsolicitated material• Report user’s movements on the internet• Log user’s keystrokes

– Gmail• Scan user’s email to place keywords related ads

• Options of informed consent– Opt-out• Permit the collection of personal info • Until the consumer specifically requests that the data

not be collected• Default to U.S.

– Opt-in• Prohibited from collecting any personal info• Unless the consumer specifically take action to approve• Default to E.U.

• Technical solutions– Platform for Privacy Preference (P3P)

Protect user’s privacy during interaction with websites

• Standard for communicating – Website’s privacy policy– Policy to the users’ preference– Other standard

» FTC’s new FIP» European Directive on Data Protection

• Information Rights• Property Rights• Accountability, liability, and control• System quality• Quality of life

• Property Rights: Intellectual Property– Intellectual Property (IP)• Intangible property created by individuals or

organizations.– Trade secrets– Copyright– patent

– Trade secrets• Any intellectual work product

– A formula– Device– Pattern– Compilation of data

Provided it is not based on info in the public domain• Protect the actual idea in the work product

– Nondisclosure agreement between employees and customers– Prevent the secret falling into the public domain

• Microsoft sued Google over Kai-Fu Lee

– Copyright• Protect IP from being copied by others

– Life of the author + 70 years after death– Corporation: 95 years after creation

• Encourage creativity & authorship• Protect the manifestation in a work

– Underlying ideas behind a work are not protected

– Apple sued Microsoft • on the expression of overlapping idea

The expression can be express only in a single way, therefore is not protected

– Patents• Grants the owner an exclusive monopoly on the ideas

behind an invention for 20 years• Determined by patent office and relies on court rulings

– Inventor receives full reward– Make widespread use of invention

• Challenges to IP rights– Ease of replication– Ease of transmission– Ease of alteration

Internet service provider (ISP) are required to take down sites of copyright infringers

• Information Rights• Property Rights• Accountability, liability, and control• System quality• Quality of life

• Accountability, liability, and controlWho should be responsible for the consequence done by

information technology?

– Software is part of a machine• Producer of the software is liable for damage

– Software act like a bookStoring and displaying info

• Not liable for its content

Software is more a service than a book

• Information Rights• Property Rights• Accountability, liability, and control• System quality• Quality of life

• System quality: data quality and system errorAccountability for unintentional consequences of system

use

– Perfect system quality is not economically feasible• No one can afford the product

– Avoidable and foreseeable errors• Publisher is liable

– Sources of poor systems performance• Software bugs and errors• Hardware or facility failure• Poor input data quality

– The most common source of business system failure

• Information Rights• Property Rights• Accountability, liability, and control• System quality• Quality of life

• Quality of life: equity, access, and boundariesSocial consequences of systems use

– Balancing power: center versus periphery• Centralized mainframe computers

– Centralized power» Corporations» Governments

• Decentralized computing– Empowerment of workers– Decision making to lower organization level

– Rapidity of change: reduced response time to competition• Information systems help create

– Much more efficient market– Reduce the normal social buffers for business to adjust to

competition

• Business was wiped out quickly• Jobs were wipe out with business

– Due to insufficient time for response to competition

– Maintaining boundaries: family, work, and leisureSeparation work from family has been weakened

• Ubiquitous computing• Telecommuting• “do anything anywhere” computing environment

The work umbrella now extends far beyond the eight-hour day

Leisure time spent on the computer takes people away from their family

– Dependence and vulnerability• If information systems fails, it will cripple

– Businesses– Governments– Schools– Private association– Churches

• Redundancy

• Computer crime and abuseTechnology create new opportunity to commit crime

– Computer crime• Commission of illegal acts thru the use of a computer

or against a computer system– Destroy a computer file– Stealing computer’s list– Illegal gaining access

– Computer abuse• Commission of acts involving computer

– Consider unethical– May not be illegal

• Spam– Junk emails– Accounts for 70% of Internet email traffic worldwide– Email addresses may be harvested by software robots

» Message board» Chat room» website

• Employment: trickle-down technology and reengineering job loss– Reengineering • is typically hailed in business world• Potentially cause jobs loss

– Jobs loss• Relieve bright, well educated workers to fast-growth

industries• Drive unskilled, blue-collar, older workers into jobless

• Equity & access: Increasing racial and social class cleavages

Equal opportunities to participate in the digital age

– Digital divide• Ethnic and social class line• Income group

• Health risks: RSI, CVS, and Technostress– Repetitive stress injury• Mouse clicking• Keyboard

– Carpal tunnel syndrome

– RSI is avoidable• Ergonomically designed equipments

– Computer vision syndrome• Headache• Blurred vision• Dry and irritated eyes

– Technostress• Working continuously with computers

– Expect other humans to behave like computers» Instant responses» Attentiveness» Absence of emotion

• Aggravation• Hostility toward human • Impatient• fatigue

Interactive session

(Minicase)

– Technology • Life on the grid: iPhone becomes iTrack• P. 170

– Organization• Monitoring in the workplace• P. 179