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Ministry of Education وزارة اﻟﺘﻌﻠﯿﻢ
Taibah University ﺟـﺎﻣـﻌـﺔ طـﯿـﺒـﺔ
College of Computer Science & Engineering ﻛﻠﯿﺔ ﻋﻠﻮم و ھﻨﺪﺳﺔ اﻟﺤﺎﺳﺐ اﻵﻟﻲ
Department of Information Systems ﻗﺴﻢ ﻧﻈﻢ اﻟﻤﻌﻠﻮﻣﺎت
IS482 – Computing Ethics & Society
Assignment # 1 (Unit-1 and Unit-2)
Due Date:
• Each assignment is approximately due one week from the time we finish the classroom lectures and
discussion of its relevant units/chapters (indicated in the header above).
• The exact due date for the assignment will be announced in class.
Important Notes:
• Reflect on the process you used in each scenario to come up with your answers. How did you decide if
particular actions or decisions were right or wrong? Were your reasons consistent from one case to the
next? Did you use the same methodology in more than one scenario? If someone disagreed with you on the
answer to one of these questions, how would you try to convince that person that your position makes more
sense?
• Ethics is the rational, systematic analysis of conduct that can cause benefit or harm to other people.
Because ethics is based in reason, people are required to explain why they hold the opinions they do. This
gives us the opportunity to compare ethical evaluations. When two people reach different conclusions, we
can weigh the facts and the reasoning process behind their conclusions to determine the stronger line of
thinking.
• It’s important to note that ethics is focused on the voluntary, moral choices people make because they have
decided they ought to take one course of action rather than an alternative. Ethics is not concerned about
involuntary choices or choices outside the moral realm.
Plagiarism:
• Any copying from any resource (e.g. the net, book, article, etc.) without quotations will result in major
deduction (and may result in getting ZERO for the entire assignment).
Homework/Assignment Page 1
Kingdome of Saudi Arabia اﻟﻤﻤﻠﻜﺔ اﻟﻌﺮﺑﯿﺔ اﻟﺴﻌﻮدﯾﺔ
Ministry of Education وزارة اﻟﺘﻌﻠﯿﻢ
Taibah University ﺟـﺎﻣـﻌـﺔ طـﯿـﺒـﺔ
College of Computer Science & Engineering ﻛﻠﯿﺔ ﻋﻠﻮم و ھﻨﺪﺳﺔ اﻟﺤﺎﺳﺐ اﻵﻟﻲ
Department of Information Systems ﻗﺴﻢ ﻧﻈﻢ اﻟﻤﻌﻠﻮﻣﺎت
IS482 – Computing Ethics & Society
Assignment # 1 (Unit-1 and Unit-2)
Scenario #1:
Alexis, a gifted high school student, wants to become a doctor. Because she comes from a poor family, she will need
a scholarship in order to attend college. Some of her classes require students to do extra research projects in order to
get an A. Her high school has a few older PCs, but there are always long lines of students waiting to use them
during the school day. After school, she usually works at a part-time job to help support her family.
One evening Alexis visits the library of a private college a few miles from her family’s apartment, and she finds
plenty of unused PCs connected to the Internet. She secretly looks over the shoulder of another student to learn a
valid login/password combination. Alexis returns to the library several times a week, and by using its PCs and
printers she efficiently completes the extra research projects, graduates from high school with straight A’s, and gets a
full- ride scholarship to attend a prestigious university.
Questions on Scenario #1:
1. Did Alexis do anything wrong?
2. Who benefited from Alexis’s course of action?
3. Who was hurt by Alexis’s course of action?
4. Did Alexis have an unfair advantage over her high school classmates?
5. Would any of your answers change if it turns out Alexis did not win a college scholarship after all and is now
working at the Burger Barn?
6. Are there better ways Alexis could have accomplished her objective?
7. What additional information, if any, would help you answer the previous questions?
Scenario #2:
An organization dedicated to reducing spam tries to get Internet service providers (ISPs) in an East Asian country to
stop the spammers by protecting their mail servers. When this effort is unsuccessful, the anti-spam organization puts
the addresses of these ISPs on its “black list.” Many ISPs in the United States consult the black list and refuse to
accept email from the blacklisted ISPs. This action has two results. First, the amount of spam received by the typical
email user in the United States drops by 25 percent. Second, tens of thousands of innocent computer users in the
East Asian country are unable to send email to friends and business associates in the United States.
Questions on Scenario #2:
1. Did the anti-spam organization do anything wrong?
2. Did the ISPs that refused to accept email from the black listed ISPs do anything wrong?
3. Who benefited from the organization’s action?
4. Who was hurt by the organization’s action?
5. Could the organization have achieved its goals through a better course of action?
6. What additional information, if any, would help you answer the previous questions?
Homework/Assignment Page 2
