Chapter 4 Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems

Prepared By
SAMMER QADER
Chapter 4
Ethical and Social Issues in
Information Systems
University of Technology
Computer Science Department

Contents:
1. Objective
2. Introduction
3. MODEL FOR THINKING ABOUT ETHICAL, SOCIAL, AND
POLITICAL ISSUES?
4. The Relationship Between Ethical, Social, and Political Issues
5. FIVE MORAL DIMENSIONS OF THE INFORMATION AGE
6. Impacts of key technology trends
7. ETHICS IN AN INFORMATION SOCIETY
8. Analyzing ethical issues
9. Applying ethical principles
10. Conclusion
11. References
2

1. OBJECTIVES
• What ethical, social, and political issues are raised by ?
• What specific principles for conduct can be used to
guide ethical decisions?
• Why do contemporary technology and the Internet pose
challenges to the protection of individual privacy and
intellectual property?
• How have affected everyday life?
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2. Introduction:
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 Ethics refers to the principles of right and wrong that
individuals, acting as free moral agents, use to make choices
to guide their behaviors
 Information systems raise new ethical questions for both
individuals and societies because they create opportunities for
intense social change, and thus threaten existing distributions of
power, money, rights, and obligations .
 Both social and political institutions require time before
developing new behaviors, rules, and laws.
 Ethical, social, and political issues are closely linked. Introduction
of new technology has a ripple effect in the current equilibrium,
creating new ethical, social, and political issues that must be dealt
with on individual, social, and political levels.
3. MODEL FOR THINKING ABOUT ETHICAL, SOCIAL, AND POLITICAL ISSUES?

4. The Relationship Between Ethical, Social, and Political Issues
in an Information Society
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The introduction of new
information technology has a
ripple effect, raising new
Ethical, social, and political
issues that must be dealt
with on the individual, social,
and political levels. These
issues have five moral
dimensions: information
rights and obligations,
property rights and
obligations, system quality,
quality of life, and
accountability and control.
Figure (1-1)

5. FIVE MORAL DIMENSIONS OF THE INFORMATION AGE
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1. Information rights and obligations. What information rights do individuals
and organizations possess with respect to themselves? What can they protect?
Eg. (Privacy &Web sites Privacy , Spyware , Cookies ) see figure 4.3
2. Property rights and obligations. How will traditional intellectual property rights be
protected in a digital society in which tracing and accounting for ownership are difficult
and ignoring such property rights is so easy? Eg .(trade secret, copyright, and patent law)
3. Accountability and control. Who can and will be held accountable and liable for the
harm done to individual and collective information and property rights?
4. System quality. What standards of data and system quality should we demand to protect
individual rights and the safety of society? Eg .(Computer crime , Spam junk e-mail Figure 4.4
5. Quality of life. What values should be preserved in an information- and knowledge-
based society? Which institutions should we protect from violation? Which cultural values
and practices are supported by the new information technology?
• Repetitive stress injury (RSI)
• Computer vision syndrome (CVS)
any eyestrain condition related to computer display screen use
• Techno stress

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Figure 4.3HOW COOKIES IDENTIFY WEB VISITORS

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6. Impacts of key technology trends
Four key technological trends responsible for these ethical stresses
and they are summarized in Table 4.2.

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 The doubling of computing power every 18 months
has made it possible for most organizations to use information systems
for their core production processes. As a result, our dependence on
systems and our vulnerability to system errors and poor data quality
have increased..
 Advances in data storage techniques
have enabled for the multiplying databases on individuals maintained
by private and public organizations - making the violation of individual
privacy both cheap and effective.
 Advances in data analysis techniques
enable companies and government agencies use profiling to determine
detailed information about individual's habits and tastes and create
dossiers of detailed information.

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A new data analysis technology called
Nonobvious relationship awareness (NORA)
can take information about people from many disparate sources, such
as employment applications, telephone records, customer listings, and
“wanted” lists, and correlate relationships to find obscure hidden
connections that might help identify criminals or terrorists
(see Figure 4.2)
 Also Networking advances Copying data from one location to
another and accessing personal data from remote locations are much
easier now .& Mobile device growth Impact Individual cell phones may
be tracked without user consent or knowledge.

7. ETHICS IN AN INFORMATION SOCIETY
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Liability:
Refers to the existence of laws that permit individuals to recover the
damages done to them by other actors, systems, or organizations
Due process: Requires that laws are known and understood by all,
and that individuals can appeal to higher authorities to ensure laws
were properly applied
Responsibility: Accepting the potential costs, duties, and obligations
of one's decisions accountability
Accountability: A feature of systems and social institutions,
accountability means that mechanisms are in place to determine
who took responsible action and who is responsible for an action
What are the main features of ethical choice?

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A five-step process is suggested:
------------------------------------------------
(1)Identifying the facts
(2) Defining the conflict or problems and identify
the higher-order values involved
(3) Identifying the stakeholders
(4) Identifying options that can be taken
(5) Identifying potential consequences of action
8. Analyzing ethical issues

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9. Applying ethical principles
• Groups of professionals, such as the AMA, American
Medical Association take on special rights and obligations
because of their claims to knowledge and wisdom.
Professional codes of conduct are promulgated by
associations of professionals to take responsibility for the
partial regulation of their professions.
• Ethical dilemmas are created when one set of interests is
pitted against another, for example when the rights of a
company to prevent its workforce from wasting company
resources are pitted against the rights of employees to
privacy.

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What ethical, social, and political issues are raised by information
systems? Information technology is introducing changes for which
laws and rules of acceptable conduct have not yet been developed.
Increasing computing power, storage, and networking
capabilities—including the Internet—expand the reach of
individual and organizational actions and magnify their impacts.
10 . Conclusion

6. References:
•laudon-management-information-systems-13th-global-edition-
c2014-1
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