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SOCIAL and ETHICAL ISSUES
Throughout the course students must
analyse the social, cultural and ethical considerations of IT according to the
interpretations below:
Social considerations refer to
the economic, political, legal, environmental, historical, ergonomic, health and
psychological impacts of IT on human life. Social considerations need to be
analysed from both local and global cultural perspectives, recognising
that attitudes and opinions are diverse within and between different cultures.
Ethical considerations refer to
the responsibility and accountability of those involved in the design,
implementation and use of IT.
ETHICAL ISSUES
hEthics is the study of what it means to do the right thing.h (Baase)
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Privacy
Confidentiality |
Computer technology
has changed the collection and distribution of personal information.
Is it ethical to use
data mining technology (inputting large amounts of information about
individuals and looking for patterns) to see if there a correlation
between purchasing habits and postcodes to target advertising to
customers?
You are the data
entry clerk at work. Is it ethical to take a copy of the database home
when it contains all the personal details of employees?
Is it ethical for
your boss to monitor your keystrokes, e-mail?
Should the
government be able to link databases eg tax file number + social
security to find social security cheats?
Is it ethical to
have a surveillance camera in a shop and store photos of customers in
order to prevent crimes?
Is it ethical for
the receptionist in the doctorfs rooms to search the patient database
and find out personal information to give to a friend?
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Intellectual
Property |
Is it ethical to
copy your friend's Microsoft Office CD and load it on your home PC? Is
it OK because everyone does it and because prices are too high?
Your school can't
afford enough copies of a program for the whole class. You load the
software onto the server so everyone can access it just for this term.
Is this ethical?
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Responsibility
Accountability
Liability for
unreliability
Blame |
Is it ethical to
load porn onto a Web site without concern for minors?
Should responsible
computer professional warn users of risks involved in critical software?
What is your
responsibility towards your customer?
Who is responsible
if a bug results in loss of lives?
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Internet Ethics |
Is it ethical to
write viruses, dabble in credit card extortion, spend your weekend
cyberstalking, spam newsgroups?
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Unauthorised access |
Is it ethical to use
the Internet at your place of work to do your banking? Travel bookings?
On-line gambling? Porn surfing?
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Reliability |
If something goes
wrong due to a software errorAwho
is responsible?
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Responsibility
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Is A.I. an ethical
goal?
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