IEEE Code of Ethics

 Act in the public interest

 Act in the interest of clients and employers
 Produce quality products
 Maintain independent judgment
 Manage ethically
 Protect the integrity of the profession
 Support colleagues
 Pursue lifelong learning
Possible Violations:
 intellectual property
 privacy
 confidentiality
 professional quality
 fairness or discrimination
 liability
 software risks
 conflicts of interest
 unauthorized access to computer systems

 General moral imperatives: “As an ACM member I will…”

1. Contribute to society and human well-being.
2. Avoid harm to others.
3. Be honest and trustworthy.
 4. Be fair and take action not to discriminate.
5. Honour property rights including copyrights and patents.
6. Give proper credit for intellectual property.
7. Respect the privacy of others.
8. Honour confidentiality.
 Specific professional responsibilities: “As an ACM computing professional I
will”:
1. Attempt to achieve the highest quality, effectiveness, and dignity in both
the process and products of professional work.
2. Acquire and maintain professional capability.
3. Know and respect existing laws pertaining to professional work.
4. Accept and provide appropriate professional review.
5. Give comprehensive and detailed evaluations of computer systems and
their impacts, including analysis of possible risks.
6. Honour contracts, agreements, and assigned responsibilities.
7. Improve public understanding of computing and its consequences.
8. Access computing and communication resources only when authorized to
do so.
 Organization leadership imperatives: “As an ACM member and an
organizational leader, I will:”
1. Articulate(clear) social responsibilities of members of an organizational unit
and encourage full acceptance of those responsibilities.
2. Manage personnel and resources to design and build information systems
that enhance the quality of working life.
3. Acknowledge and support authorized uses of an organization’s computing
and communication resources.
 4. Ensure that users and those who will be affected by a design have their
needs clearly articulated during the assessment and design of
requirements; later the system must be validated to meet requirements.
5. Articulate and support policies that protect the dignity of users and others
affected by a computing system.
Create opportunities for members of the organization to learn the principles and
limitations of computer systems.

Cybertechnology refers to the computing and communications devices from

standalone computers to networked computing and communications
technologies and to the Internet in itself.

Cyberethics is the study of moral, legal, and social issues involving cyber
technology.
It examines the impact of cyber technology on our social, legal, and moral
systems. It evaluates social policies and laws created in response to cyber
technology-related issues.

Uniqueness Issues
 Two points of view:
Traditionalists argue that nothing is new – crime is crime, and murder is murder.
Traditionalists point out that no new ethical issues have been introduced by
computers.
Uniqueness Proponents argue that cyber technology has introduced new and
unique ethical issues that could not have existed before computers. Uniqueness
proponents are correct in that cyber technology has complicated our analysis of
traditional ethical issues

Cyberethics as a Branch of Applied Ethics

 Professional Ethics
Cyber ethics is the field that identifies and analyzes issues of ethical responsibility
for computer professionals
Don Gotterbarn (1991) argued that all genuine computer ethics issues are
professional ethics issues.
He notes that computer ethics issues aren’t about technology – e.g., we don’t
have automobile ethics, airplane ethics, etc.
Criticism
Cyberethics issues affect not only computer professionals; they affect everyone.
Before the widespread use of the Internet, Gotterbarn’s professional-ethics
model may have been sufficient.
 Philosophical Ethics
Cyber ethics is a field of philosophical analysis and inquiry that goes beyond
professional ethics (Gotterbarn).
Moor (1985), defines computer ethics as the analysis of the nature and social
impact of computer technology and the corresponding formulation and
justification of policies for the ethical use of such technology.
Moor argues that new transportation technologies did not affect our social
policies and norms in the same ways that computer technology has.
Cars and planes changed how we travel. But they did not have the same impact
on our legal and moral systems as cyber technology.
Philip Brey describes the “standard methodology” used in applied ethics research:
1) Identify a particular controversial practice as a moral problem.
2) Describe and analyze the problem by clarifying concepts and examining the
factual data of that problem.
3) Apply moral theories and principles to reach a position about the particular
moral issue.
 Descriptive Ethics
Descriptive investigations report about “what is the case”
Normative inquiries evaluate "what should be the case."
Normative means relating to an ideal standard or model, or what is considered
the normal or correct way of doing something.
Huff & Finholt claim that by understanding of descriptive aspect of the social
effects of technology, the normative ethical issues become clearer.
Is Cyber Technology Neutral?
Corlann Gee Bush argues that gun, like all technologies, is biased in certain
directions.
She points out that features inherent in gun technology itself cause guns to be
biased in a direction toward violence.

Information systems and ethics

Information systems raise new ethical questions because they create
opportunities for strong social change, threatening existing distributions of
power, money, rights, obligations, and new kinds of crime.
 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

 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
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 a record of detailed
information on individuals
 Non-Obvious Relationship Awareness (NORA)
NORA technology can take information about people from disparate sources
and find unclear, nonobvious relationships. Combining data from multiple
sources to find obscure (difficult to understand) hidden connections that
might help identify criminals.
• Ethical analysis: A five-step process
1. Identify and clearly describe the facts
2. Define the conflict or dilemma
3. Identify the stakeholders
4. Identify the options that you can reasonably take
5. Identify the potential consequences of your options

• Six Candidate Ethical Principles

1. Golden Rule
• Do unto others as you would have them do unto you
2. Immanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative
• If an action is not right for everyone to take, it is not right for
anyone
3. Descartes’ Rule of Change
• If an action cannot be taken repeatedly, it is not right to take at all
4. Utilitarian Principle
• Take the action that achieves the higher or greater value
5. Risk Aversion Principle
 • Take the action that produces the least harm or least potential
cost
6. Ethical “no free lunch” Rule
• Assume that virtually all tangible and intangible objects are
owned by someone unless there is a specific declaration.

• Internet Challenges to Privacy:

– Cookies
• Tiny files downloaded by a Web site to the visitor’s hard drive to help
identify the visitor’s browser and track visits to the site
Allow Websites to develop profiles of visitors
– Web beacons/bugs
• Tiny graphics embedded in e-mail and Web pages to monitor who is
reading the message
– Spyware
• Secretly installed on user’s computer
May transmit user’s keystrokes or display unwanted ads

HOW COOKIES IDENTIFY WEB VISITORS

1. The web server detects and collects details about the user's operating
system, browser, and internet address.
2. The server sends a small text file (cookie) having user identification
information to the user's browser, which is stored on the computer's hard
drive.
3. When the user revisits the website, the server requests and retrieves the
previously deposited cookie from the user's computer.
4. The web server reads the cookie, recognizes the visitor based on the
stored data, and accesses relevant user information.
 THE P3P STANDARD
1. A user with P3P Web browsing software requests a Web page.
2. The Web server responds with the Web page and a condensed version of
the Web site's privacy policy, along with a link to the full P3P policy. If the
website is not P3P compliant, no privacy data is provided.
3. The user's browsing software compares the website's response with the
user's privacy preferences. If the site doesn't align with the user's privacy
settings and P3P policy, the software warns the user or blocks cookies from
the site. If there's a match, the Web page loads normally.

Social Media
Use of web-based technologies allowing the creation and exchange of user-
generated content. A blend of technology and social.
Social media is a term used to refer to technologies and practices that are
used to share opinions promote discussion and build relationships.
 Cheap – anyone with access to the internet
 Accessible – the tools are easy to use
 Enabling – allows almost anyone to do things that previously were
only allowed to well-resourced organizations

Types of Social Networkers

 Alpha Socialisers – (a minority) people who used sites in intense short
bursts to flirt, meet new people, and be entertained.
 Attention Seekers – (some) people who craved attention and comments
from others, often by posting photos and customizing their profiles.
 Followers – (many) people who joined sites to keep up with what their
peers were doing.
 Faithfuls – (many) people who typically used social networking sites to
reawaken old friendships, often from school or university.
 Functionals – (a minority) people who tended to be single-minded in using
sites for a particular purpose.

Privacy Concerns
Social networking sites provide privacy options but users are generally
unaware or tend to ignore such concerns
Stalkers, terrorists, ill-doers, con-artists could benefit from such issues