Ética de la Computación y Ética de la Computación y de la Informaciónde la Información

Harvey Alférez, MS ICThttp://fit.um.edu.mx/harvey/

Technology itself is incapable of possessing moral or ethical qualities, since "technology" is merely tool making

Thus, "ethics of technology" refers instead to whether it is always, never, or contextually right or wrong to invent and implement a technological innovation

¿Un científico tiene la obligación ¿Un científico tiene la obligación ética de producir una arma nuclear ética de producir una arma nuclear en favor del progreso de la ciencia?en favor del progreso de la ciencia?

¿Es ético entregarle un software a ¿Es ético entregarle un software a nuestro cliente del cual sabemos nuestro cliente del cual sabemos que tiene “huecos” de seguridad?que tiene “huecos” de seguridad?

¿Es ético utilizar los computadores ¿Es ético utilizar los computadores de la UM para descargar música y de la UM para descargar música y

películas piratas?películas piratas?

●We live in an age characterized by advancing technology●Technology is how we sustain life and make it comfortable●Technology is the core of many business

Introduction

Introduction (Cont.)¿Por qué la tecnología es una

espada de doble filo?

Introduction (Cont.)

¿Por qué la tecnología es una espada de doble

filo?

“At best, technology supports and improves human life, and at its worst it alienates, isolates, distorts, and destroys.” Futurist John Naisbitt

Introduction (Cont.)

“Man, when perfected, is the best of the animals, but when separated

from law and justice, he is the worst of all” Aristotle

Video 1

What is Ethics?

Each society forms a set of rules that establishes the boundaries of generally accepted behavior

These rules express how people should behave

Ethics is the set of beliefs about right and wrong behavior

Ethical behavior conforms to generally accepted social norms, many of which are almost universal

Introduction (Cont.)

When tens of thousands of football fans packed into a Florida stadium for Super Bowl XXXV, they weren't merely watching the game: They were also being watched.

http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/2001/02/41571#ixzz0oyNiYruG

Introduction (Cont.)According to the president of Viisage Technology, the developer of the face-recognition software, his company was able to match 19 faces from the Super Bowl crowd to faces in the database of people with criminal records!

No arrests were made because none of those 19 people were wanted by the police at the time, even though they all had criminal records.

¿Este fue un uso ético de la tecnología?

Undesirable Side Effects of Technology

1. Environmental pollution: global warming is an inevitable topic of concern today, due to technology2. Depletion of natural resources: the rapid advance of technology continually threatens the supply of natural resources3. Technological unemployment: Machines take the place of humans

Ethics and Technology

● Our goal should certainly be to avoid immoral practices with respect to technology and to move toward a moral management posture with respect to this potent business resources

● Our goal: to do what is right, what is fair, and to avoid harm

Ethics and Technology

“Por último, hermanos, consideren bien todo lo verdadero, todo lo respetable, todo lo justo, todo lo puro, todo lo amable, todo lo digno de admiración, en fin, todo lo que sea excelente o merezca elogio.”

Filipenses 4:8

Common Ethical Issues● Human cloning: possible consequences (practical and ethical)

● Spreading the benefits of technology: restricted to the developed world. The developing nations enjoy few of the benefits of technology. ● The challenge: to move technologies into these countries in socially responsible ways

¿Qué podemos hacer como Departamento de Tecnologías

de la Información de la UM para compartir las tecnologías que creamos con instituciones

en paises necesitados?

Unethical Activities by Employees Related to Technology

In a major study of workers, the following percentages of workers surveyed said they had engaged in this unethical activity during the previous year:

- Create a potentially dangerous situation by using new technology while driving – 19%- Wrongly blamed an error the employee made on a technological glitch – 14%- Copied the company's software for home use – 13%

Unethical Activities by Employees Related to Technology (Cont.)

- Used office equipment to shop on the Internet for personal reasons – 13%- Used office equipment to network/search for another job – 11%- Accessed private computer files without permission – 6%- Used new technologies to intrude on coworker' privacy – 6%- Visited porn Web sites using office equipment - 5%

Common Ethical Issues for IT Users

Software Piracy: a common violation occurs when employees copy software from their work computers for use at home

– Case study 1

"Ni el software ni la música son tangibles, entonces al piratearlos

no estoy faltando a la ética"

Common Ethical Issues for IT Users (Cont.)

"Ni el software ni la música son tangibles, entonces al piratearlos no estoy infringiendo

la ley"

¿Acaso no se está utilizando el tiempo y los recursos que un grupo de personas invirtió para

crear un producto? ¿Acaso las personas que crearon estos bienes intangibles no tuvieron que

pagar renta, servicios, etc. mientras los construían?

Common Ethical Issues for IT Users (Cont.)

Common Ethical Issues for IT Users (Cont.)

"No estoy dispuesto a pagar tanta cantidad de dinero por esta

música o software. Por eso pirateo."

Common Ethical Issues for IT Users (Cont.)

"No estoy dispuesto a pagar tanta cantidad de dinero por esta música o software. Por eso

pirateo."

Siempre hay otras opciones: software más económico, software libre, ¡valoremos las ideas!

Common Ethical Issues for IT Users (Cont.)

"Al copiar música de otros no le estoy haciendo daño a nadie"

Common Ethical Issues for IT Users (Cont.)

"Al copiar música de otros no le estoy haciendo daño a nadie"

Ex. Piratería de música cristiana... ¿Crees que no están siendo afectados al piratear sus productos?

Common Ethical Issues for IT Users (Cont.)

"Descargué música gratuitamente de Internet

únicamente para ver si me gusta o no"

Common Ethical Issues for IT Users (Cont.)

"Descargué música gratuitamente de Internet únicamente para ver si me gusta o no"

Después de varios meses...

Common Ethical Issues for IT Users (Cont.)

"Hay grandes grupos y movimientos que defienden la

piratería. Esto apoya la idea de que la piratería no es mala"

Common Ethical Issues for IT Users (Cont.)

"Hay grandes grupos y movimientos que defienden la piratería. Esto apoya la idea de

que la piratería no es mala"

Aborto, homosexualidad, evolucionismo, etc.

Common Ethical Issues for IT Users (Cont.)

¿Puedes imaginar al pueblo de Israel por el desierto sin leyes?

¿Puedes imaginar un mundo sin normas de tránsito?

¿Puedes imaginar a universidades y empresas sin

reglas de disciplina?

Las leyes se han hecho para nuestro bienestar

Common Ethical Issues for IT Users (Cont.)

Inappropriate Use of Computing Resources:

“Half of Fortune 500 companies have dealt with at least one incident related to computer porn in the workplace over the past 12 months, according to a survey released today. Corporations are taking the problem seriously, and fired the offenders in 44% of the cases and disciplined those responsible in 41% of the instances”.

(China Martens, Survey: Computer porn remains issue at U.S. companies, Computer-world, June 21, 2005)

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=102664

Common Ethical Issues for IT Users (Cont.)

Inappropriate Use of Computing Resources:

¿Qué problemas hay en el área de uso inapropiado de recursos

computacionales?

¿Qué podemos hacer?

Common Ethical Issues for IT Users (Cont.)

Inappropriate Sharing of Information: We store vast amount of information that can be

classified as private or confidential Private data describes individual employees – for

example, salary, performance rating, health record Sharing this information with unauthorized party,

even inadvertently, has violated someone’s privacy :(

Common Ethical Issues for IT Users (Cont.)

¿Qué problemas hay en el área de intercambio inadecuado de

información?

¿Qué podemos hacer?

Inappropriate Sharing of Information:

Common Ethical Issues for IT Users (Cont.)

Invasion of Privacy Via Electronic Commerce:

● DoubleClick, Inc., a NY-based Internet advertising company that planned to share customer information with an off-line marketing firm

● Toysmart.com.Inc. went out of business and offered its online customer list for sale, thus violating privacy agreements or understandings previously made with customers

Common Ethical Issues for IT Users (Cont.)

Invasion of Privacy Via Electronic Commerce:

● ¿Qué límites debería haber en cómo los negocios electrónicos usan la información que recolectan de sus clientes?

● ¿Qué responsabilidad tienen las compañías en divulgar publicamente estas prácticas?

Common Ethical Issues for IT Users (Cont.)

Invasion of Privacy Via Electronic Commerce:

A 2001 survey on Internet privacy conducted by The Wall Street Journal and Harris Interactive revealed that 24% of consumers surveyed are “very concerned” and 49% are “somewhat concerned” about threats to their personal privacy on the Internet

About a half of those surveyed indicated that concerns about privacy caused them to stop using a Web site or to forgo an online purchase

Common Ethical Issues for IT Users (Cont.)

Invasion of Privacy Via Electronic Commerce:

Some of the technological means by which companies invade consumers' privacy include the use of cookies and spam

● Surveys show that some consumers don't know what cookies are

● Others are aware of them but don't take time to block them

According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, only 10% of users set their browsers to block cookies. Part of this is due to the fact that 56% of Internet users didn't know what a cookie was.

Common Ethical Issues for IT Users (Cont.)

Invasion of Privacy Via Electronic Commerce:

Probably the most serious invasion of privacy issue with respect to electronic commerce is the collection and use of personal information

http://cnn.com/video/?/video/tech/2010/05/24/nr.facebook.privacy.cnn

http://cnn.com/video/?/video/tech/2010/05/16/armstrong.privacy.facebook.cnn

http://cnn.com/video/?/video/tech/2010/05/14/am.elam.facebook.security.cnn

Common Ethical Issues for IT Users (Cont.)

Invasion of Privacy Via Electronic Commerce:

¿Qué podemos hacer para mejorar la privacidad de

nuestros profesores y alumnos en el área de comercio

electrónico?

Ways in Which the Internet's Threat to Privacy is the Greatest?

- Identity theft:

Video: Dos

Ways in Which the Internet's Threat to Privacy is the Greatest? (Cont.)

- Unintentionally revealing information on the Internet

- Lost/stolen personal information

- Fake web sites

- Broadcasting information over the Internet

- Victim of Spying

Business Initiatives

● Ethical Leadership: Business needs to: Recognize the potential ethical issues involved in information and technology

Business Initiatives (Cont.)

● Chief Privacy Officer (CPO): Keep our Institution out of trouble, whether in a court of law or the court of public opinion:

- Developing Internet policies- Creating methods of handling and resolving consumer complaints- Assessing the risk of privacy invasion

Business Initiatives (Cont.)

Defining and Limiting the Appropriate Use of IT Resources Companies must develop, communicate and enforce

written guidelines (policies) that encourage employees to respect corporate IT resources

See: http://www.uq.edu.au/hupp/index.html?page=25320

Challenges

Increasing complexity increases vulnerability: The computing environment has become very

complex• Networks, computers, OS, applications, Web

sites, switches, routers and gateways are interconnected and driven by hundreds of millions of lines of code

Challenges (Cont.)

Help desks are under intense pressure to provide fast responses to user’s questions

• Sometimes forgets to verify user’s identities, or to check authorization to perform a requested action.

Challenges (Cont.)

Software with vulnerabilitiesMalicious hackers are getting better and

faster at exploiting flaws

Ethical Decisions Regarding IT Security

¿Si la Universidad de Montemorelos es víctima de un delito informático, se debería incriminar a los implicados a toda costa, o se debería mantener un bajo perfil para evitar la publicidad negativa?

¿Cuánto esfuerzo y dinero debe invertir el Departamento de Tecnologías de la Información para proteger a la UM de delitos informáticos?

Ethical Decisions Regarding IT Security (Cont.)

Si producimos software con defectos que permiten a hackers atacar los datos del cliente y las computadoras, ¿qué medidas debemos tomar?

¿Qué debe hacerse si las medidas de seguridad informática recomendadas hacen la vida más difícil para los estudiantes y profesores?

¿El Departamento de Tecnologías de la ¿El Departamento de Tecnologías de la Información debería vigilar mediante Información debería vigilar mediante

herramientas las actividades realizadas herramientas las actividades realizadas por los empleados y alumnos en sus por los empleados y alumnos en sus

computadores?computadores?

The Workplace and Computer Technology

● Surveillance involves companies electronically watching, monitoring, or checking up on their employees

● The major ethical issue is the question of invasion of privacy

The Workplace and Computer Technology (Cont.)

Survillance creates stress

Stress, in turn, may have a detrimental impact on performance or productivity

Monitoring E-Mail and Internet Usage

● In 1996, only 35% of companies engaged in e-mail monitoring. By 2001, 47% of large companies monitored e-mail use on the job!

● Companies can get software that monitors Internet usage for less than $10 per employee

Monitoring E-Mail and Internet Usage (Cont.)

Un hombre va al doctor para hacerse un chequeo. El doctor obtiene los resultados y los envía por e-mail: El hombre tiene una enfermedad potencialmente mortal.

Mientras tanto, la empresa en donde trabaja el hombre supervisa su e-mail simplemente para garantizar que se utiliza sólo para el trabajo. El director de tecnología lee el

correo electrónico y le cuenta a sus compañeros de trabajo acerca del diagnóstico del hombre. RH se

involucra. El jefe se alarma pues ve que se avecina una demanda muy costosa. La compañía de seguros se entera del problema del hombre y considera cortar la

cobertura. Grandes problemas para el hombre. Grandes problemas de la empresa

Ten Commandments of Computer Ethics

1. Thou shalt not use a computer to harm other people2. Thou shalt not interfere with other people's computer work3. Thou shalt not snoop around in other people's computer files4. Thou shalt not use a computer to steal5. Thou shalt not use a computer to bear false witness6. Thou shalt not copy or use proprietary software for which you have not paid

Ten Commandments of Computer Ethics (Cont.)

7. Thou shalt not use other people's computer resources without authorization or proper compensation8. Thou shalt not appropriate other people's intellectual output9. Thou shalt think about the social consequences of the program you are designing10. Thou shalt always use a computer in ways that ensure consideration and respect for your fellow humans

Ethical Risks at Montemorelos University

Risks Probability Impact Action

Impact:

1. Catastrophic2. Critical3. Marginal4. Despreciable

"La mayor necesidad del mundo es la de:"La mayor necesidad del mundo es la de:Hombres que no se vendan ni se compren. Hombres que no se vendan ni se compren.

Hombres que sean honrados y sinceros en lo Hombres que sean honrados y sinceros en lo más íntimo de sus almas. Hombres que no más íntimo de sus almas. Hombres que no

teman dar al pecado el nombre que les teman dar al pecado el nombre que les corresponde. Hombres cuya conciencia sea corresponde. Hombres cuya conciencia sea

tan leal al deber como la brújula al polo. tan leal al deber como la brújula al polo. Hombres que se mantengan de parte de la Hombres que se mantengan de parte de la justicia aunque se desplomen los cielos". justicia aunque se desplomen los cielos".

Elena G. de White Elena G. de White