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Assignment 1

Mohammad Raza

Regis University

MSDS 640
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Abstract/ Overview:

In this world of openly available data where exist many free tools to scrape and gather

data, where guidelines are muffled and the difference between ethical and unethical gets blurred,

a code of ethics needs to be established. As is the case with any human endeavor, if there is a

goal with a plan, but those plans are not followed with the rules and regulations assigned to

them, the endeavor can only last so long. Getting to the finish line requires strength of character

in following principles to traverse the journey and many decisions need to be made for the

betterment of humanity, but knowing how to make those decisions and what to refer them to is

the ultimate challenge. With this idea in mind, one company – the Association for Computing

Machinery (ACM) - set out to do exactly that.

ACM is the world’s largest computing society and brings researchers, educators, and

professionals together to inspire dialogue, share ideas, resources, and address the computing

world’s challenges, and therefore is the right body to do so because the actions of computing

professionals have the potential to change the world. ACM came up with a list of 7 ethical

principles that must be adhered to by all computing professionals to ensure proper usage of data

information gathering tools. These principles cover everything from contributing to society as a

whole, to respecting the work required for new ideas, and to treat everything with honor and

confidentiality. A brief explanation of these are given further.

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General Ethics Principles:

1) Contributing to society and human well-being (ethical and social justice)

a. As a computing professional, it is a fundamental responsibility to ensure all work

leads to a mutually beneficial outcome where society and human kind benefits.

b. Computer professionals must ensure everyone matters and the voices of those

who are in minority do not go unheard. Things like safety, privacy, security,

health, etc, all need to be at the forefront so that everyone gets their rights,

especially in cases of conflict.

c. Self-reflection and thinking about consequences to one’s actions is also very

important, and must also be kept remembered as crucial to adhering to the ACM

code of ethics.

2) Avoiding harm (ethical and social justice)

a. As a computing professional, avoiding harm can mean things like protecting

someone’s information and not letting it get leaked out to those with malicious

intent. This can be vital in times of turmoil where people in power want to

subjugate those with lesser authority to harm, as was the case in Egypt during the

revolution against then dictator Muammar Gaddafi. As the revolution began,

Gaddafi and his forces began monitoring social media and other communicative

tools used by the people to spy on and prosecute those who spoke negatively

about the government and supported the revolutionaries. The computer

professionals working for Gaddafi at the time, though overpowered and

threatened, could’ve chosen to abide by the ACM code of ethics published in

1992, but they chose to hand over sensitive information, which lead to more harm.
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In that time, a company called Open Whisper Systems made a software called

“Signal”, which was then the best encrypted social media communication tool of

its time. What made Signal great for communication by the revolutionaries was

the fact that it was very closed ended and the messages couldn’t be deciphered by

intermediating parties. This one company upheld the ACM code of ethics and

proved to be the downfall of the Gaddafi regime.

3) Honest and trustworthy (ethical and privacy)

a. Honesty is an essential component of trustworthiness. This aspect of a computing

professional’s career can transition between their personal and professional lives.

People don’t like being lied to, and this is especially true for customers. One way

a company can take advantage of this is by inserting stipulations into the Terms

and Conditions portion of applications when setting up a device or an account. As

is the case with high school exam scores in a country like Pakistan. In the past,

bribes were openly accepted and papers were moved around so that the students

with money would get higher scores. Since things are being digitized, it is

becoming more difficult to do this, yet, the process has now shifted from exam

papers being moved, to scores being put into the system, and since people are

quick to accept what’s on the computer without questioning it, students with

money are gaining leverage. As a computing professional, taking a stand against

falsified claims like these is what separates the ethical from the unethical.

4) Be fair and fight discrimination (ethical and social justice)

a. Like the law, being fair is outlined as a requirement in the ACM Code of Ethics.

According to the code, a computing professional must uphold the values of

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equality, tolerance, respect for others, and justice. They should foster fair

participation of everyone involved and stand up against discrimination where they

see it. As outlined in the IBM article on Big Data and Ethics, government

gathered data was misused by big organizations to discriminate based on things

like age, race, gender, etc. Even housing today faces discrimination because the

policies set up were not clear, and this allows companies to discriminate using

loopholes.

5) Respect the work required to produce new ideas, creative works, artifacts, and inventions

(ethical and social justice)

a. Originality is great, but one cannot go far if the wheel has to be reinvented every

time anything needs to be done, therefore, it is important to use our resources and

stand on the shoulders of giants to peer through the clouds. When doing so,

computer professionals just need to remember to give credit to those giants (and

any non-giants they may come across). In social media, it is very easy to repost

someone’s content as yours, though companies are becoming stricter in enforcing

their rules. The same goes for using websites like stackoverflow.com since it is

easy to get a solution and pass it off as your own.

6) Respect Privacy (privacy)

a. Privacy, a form of personal security that relates to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

Being such a basic human need, one would understand it would be guarded

heavily, but the exact opposite is the case. Ideally, a customer’s information

should only be used by computer professionals for work when it is needed, and

then kept private, but big corporations are finding ways to invade privacy without
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making it blatantly illegal, like adding a small section into the Terms and

Conditions, which rarely anyone reads. Facebook did a social experiment where

they presented skewed news to over 700, 000 people to see how emotion travels

on social media. They conducted this research for about a week or so and when

they were confronted about it, they said people had opted in to it when they

accepted the terms and conditions. As a computer professional, this kind of action

is unacceptable.

7) Honor confidentiality (privacy and ethical)

a. As referenced in the previous principles, everything must be done with the highest

of integrity and honor. When working with systems in insurance or health care

related industries, computer professionals are bound to come across sensitive data

that needs to stay confidential. This is also becoming increasingly difficult

because of the amount of personal information readily available on the internet.

As mentioned on the National Library of Medicine’s website, confidentiality has

many ways to be mistreated and for information to be leaked, so as a computer

professional, it is important to have a process for honoring confidentiality.

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References

https://www.acm.org/code-of-ethics

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/feb/25/twitter-facebook-uprisings-arab-libya

https://ethics.acm.org/code-of-ethics/previous-versions/1992-acm-code/

https://www.wired.com/story/ditch-all-those-other-messaging-apps-heres-why-you-should-use-

signal/

https://www.ibmbigdatahub.com/blog/discrimination-drives-need-ethics-big-data

https://www.justia.com/real-estate/docs/housing-discrimination/

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/30/technology/facebook-tinkers-with-users-emotions-in-

news-feed-experiment-stirring-outcry.html

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6077627/