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Ethical and Social Impacts of Information

Technology
IT trends and ethics
Principles of technology ethics
Major issues related to information privacy
Internet cookies
Software tools
Challenges to intellectual property rights

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Ethical and Social Impact of Information
Technology
Moral dimensions of information
systems
Information rights and cookies
Intellectual property rights
Accountability
System quality
Quality of life
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Key IT Trends That Raise Ethics Issues
Increasing computing power
IT-enabling core business processes increases
our dependence on systems and vulnerability to
system failures
Social rules and laws not adjusted to this
dependence
Declining data storage costs
Indiscriminate storage of data by organizations
may lead to privacy violations
Large amounts of data also leads to questions
about effective control and management of the
data
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Key IT Trends That Raise Ethics Issues
Advances in data analysis
Data mining and other data analysis techniques
allow companies to know more detailed personal
information about individuals
Profiling leads to concerns about privacy
protection
Advances in networking
Reduced costs of moving and accessing large
quantity of customer information may lead to
large-scale privacy violation concerns
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Principles of Technology Ethics
Proportionality the good achieved by the
technology must outweigh the harm or risk
Informed Consent those affected by the
technology should understand and accept the risks
Justice the benefits and burdens of the technology
should be distributed fairly
Minimized Risk even if judged acceptable by the
other three guidelines, the technology must be
implemented so as to avoid all unnecessary risk
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Major Privacy Issues
Accessing individuals private e-mail
conversations and computer records, and
collecting and sharing information about
individuals gained from their visits to Internet
websites and newsgroups

Always knowing where a person is, especially
as mobile and paging services become more
closely associated with people rather than
places
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Major Privacy Issues
Using customer information gained from
many sources to market additional business
services

Collecting telephone numbers, e-mail
addresses, credit card numbers, and other
personal information to build individual
customer profiles
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Societal Solutions
Many of the detrimental effects of information
technology are caused by individuals or
organizations that are not accepting the ethical
responsibility for their actions.
Technology developments and trends will continue
to challenge our ability to control un-ethical behavior
by individuals and organizations
Organizational policies and individual behavior are
more important than technology to controlling un-
ethical use of IS
Like other powerful technologies, information
technology possesses the potential for great harm
or great good for all human kind.
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How Cookie Works
When a user chooses to view a Web-site through a
Web browser, a request is sent from the client to the
Web server running the Web-site
The Web server sends the Web page and a small
data file, called cookie, to the client
The cookie has a unique user ID and the information
given by the web server and is stored on the users
computer
Whenever the user goes back to this Web-site, the
Web server retrieves the cookie and uses it to
identify the user
The Web server can use the cookie data to
personalize the Web-site being displayed on the
users computer
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Some Cookie Facts
Contrary to popular belief, cookies
cannot "read" information off your hard drive
cannot "divulge" credit card information unknowingly
cannot "reveal" personal information about you
Browsers and cookies
Browsers don't have to accept cookies
If they do, then it is the browser that decides if/when to send cookie
information as part of its web communication
Browsers only send back "exact copies" of the cookie that they originally
received from a Web server without adding additional information
Web servers can only make a polite request that they receive it on future
communication. Browsers are free to ignore it
Browsers only send cookie information back to the specific Web server
where it originated. Your browser will not (and cannot) send cookie
information to, say, Site A that it originally received from Site B.
Source: John Charlesworth at http://www.weav.bc.ca/weavnews/article.htm?42
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Software Tools to Protect Privacy
Spyware/adware (badware)
Comet cursor, Flyswat, Radiate
Anti-spyware
Webroot Software Inc.'s Spy Sweeper
LavaSoft's Ad-Aware
Tenebril Inc.'s SpyCatcher
Spybot Search & Destroy
Computer Associates Inc.'s eTrust PestPatrol
Pop-up blockers
Zero popup, STOPzilla, AdSmasher
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Internet Challenges to Intellectual Property
Rights
Digital media is easy to replicate, easy to
transmit, easy to alter, and easy to steal
Internet and the proliferation of networks
makes it easy to distribute digital content
Information can be illegally copied and
distributed through networks even without the
willing participation of the networks