What ethical, social, and political issues are raised by information systems

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.

Also the Ethics are Principles of right and wrong that individuals, acting as free moral agents, use to make choices to guide their behaviors. Information systems and ethics that  Information systems raise new ethical questions because they create opportunities for, Intense social change, threatening existing distributions of power, money, rights, and obligations Like New kinds of crime

There are some examples, students can identify issues surrounding the five moral dimensions of the information age Like:

Information rights and obligations

Property rights and obligations

Accountability and control

System quality

List and describe the key technological trends that heighten ethical concerns.

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 dossiers of detailed information on individuals

– Nonobvious relationship awareness (NORA)

Combining data from multiple sources to find obscure hidden connections that might help identify criminals or

terrorists

Differentiate between responsibility, accountability, and liability Responsibility:

• Accepting the potential costs, duties, and obligations for decisions

– Accountability:

• Mechanisms for identifying responsible parties

                           Liability:-

• Permits individuals (and firms) to recover damages done to them

– Due process:

• Laws are well known and understood, with an ability to appeal to higher authorities

2. What specific principles for conduct can be used to guide ethical decisions?

List and describe the five steps in an ethical analysis.

There are afive-step process of Ethical analysis:

1. Identify and clearly describe the facts

2. Define the conflict or dilemma and identify the higher-order values involved

3. Identify the stakeholders

4. Identify the options that you can reasonably take

5. Identify the potential consequences of your Options.

Identify and describe six ethical principles.

There are Six Candidate Ethical Principles Like                                                         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 otherwise

All these principles should be used in aggregation with an ethical analysis to guide decision making.  The ethical analysis include :

*Identify the stakeholders.

*Identify the options that you can reasonably take.

* Identify the potential consequences of your options.

3. Why do contemporary information systems technology and the Internet pose challenges to the protection of individual privacy and Intellectual property?

Define privacy and fair information practices.

Privacy is the claim of individuals to be left alone, free from Surveillance or interference from other individuals or organizations, including the state. Claims of privacy are also involved at the workplace. Fair information practices are a set of principles governing the collection and use of information about individuals. FIP principles are based on the notion of a mutuality of interest between the record holder and the individual.

Explain how the Internet challenges the protection of individual privacy and intellectual property.

Contemporary information systems technology, including Internet technologies, challenges traditional regimens for protecting individual privacy and intellectual property. Data storage and data analysis technology enables companies to easily gather personal data about individuals from many different sources and analyze these data to create detailed electronic profiles about individuals and their behaviors. Data flowing over the Internet can be monitored at many points. The activities of Web site visitors can be closely tracked using cookies, Web beacons, and other Web monitoring tools. Not all Web sites have strong privacy protection policies, and they do not always allow for informed consent regarding the use of personal information.

Explain how informed consent, legislation, industry self- regulation, and technology tools help protect the individual privacy of Internet users.

The online industry prefers self-regulation rather than having state and federal governments passing legislation that tightens privacy protection. In February 2009, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) began the process of extending its fair information practices doctrine to behavioral targeting. The FTC held hearings to discuss its program for voluntary industry principles for regulating behavioral targeting. The online advertising trade group Network Advertising Initiative, published its own self-regulatory principles that largely agreed with the FTC. Nevertheless, the government, privacy groups, and the online ad industry are still at loggerheads over two issues. Privacy advocates want both an opt-in policy at all sites and a national Do Not Track list. The industry opposes these moves and continues to insist on an opt-out capability being the only way to avoid tracking. Nevertheless,

there is an emerging consensus among all parties that greater transparency and user control is required to deal with behavioral tracking.

List and define three different regimes that protect intellectual property rights?

 Trade secrets

 Copyright

 Patent law

Traditional copyright laws are insufficient to protect against software piracy because digital material can be copied so easily. Internet technology also makes intellectual property even more difficult to protect because digital material can be copied easily and transmitted to many different locations simultaneously over the Net. Web pages can be constructed easily using pieces of content from other Web sites without permission.

4. How have information systems affected everyday life?

Explain why it is so difficult to hold software services liable for failure or injury.

In general, insofar as computer software is part of a machine, and the machine injures someone physically or economically, the producer of the software and the operator can be held liable for damages. Insofar as the software acts like a book, storing and displaying information, courts have been reluctant to hold authors, publishers, and booksellers liable for contents (the exception being instances of fraud or defamation), and hence courts have been wary of holding software authors for book-like software.  In general, it is very difficult (if not impossible) to hold software producers liable for their software products that are considered to be like books, regardless of the physical or economic harm that results. Historically, print publishers, books, and periodicals have not been held liable because of fears that liability claims would interfere with First Amendment rights guaranteeing freedom of expression.

Software is very different from books. Software users may develop expectations of infallibility about software; software is less easily inspected than a book, and it is more

.

List and describe the principal causes of system quality problems?

•Software bugs and errors

•Hardware or facility failures caused by natural or other causes

•Poor input data quality

Zero defects in software code of any complexity cannot be achieved and the seriousness of remaining bugs cannot be estimated. Hence, there is a technological barrier to perfect software, and users must be aware of the potential for catastrophic failure. The software industry has not yet arrived at testing standards for producing software of acceptable but not perfect performance. Although software bugs and facility catastrophes are likely to be widely reported in the press, by far the most common source of business system failure is data quality. Few companies routinely measure the quality of their data, but individual organizations report data error rates ranging from 0.5 to 30 percent.

Name and describe four quality-of-life impacts of computers and information systems.

1. Jobs can be lost when computers replace workers or tasks become unnecessary in reengineered business processes.

2. Ability to own and use a computer may be exacerbating socioeconomic disparities among different racial groups and social classes.

3. Widespread use of computers increases opportunities for computer crime and computer abuse.

4. Computers can create health problems, such as repetitive stress injury, computer vision syndrome, and technostress.

Define and describe technostres and RSI and explain their relationship to information technology.

Technostress is defined as stress induced by computer use; symptoms include aggravation, hostility toward humans, impatience, and fatigue. Repetitive stress injury (RSI) is avoidable. Three management actions that could reduce RSI injuries include:

-Designing workstations for a neutral wrist position, using proper monitor stands, and footrests all contribute to proper posture and reduced RSI.

-Using ergonomically designed devices such as keyboards and mice are also options.

-Promoting and supporting frequent rest breaks and rotation of employees to different jobs.

Discussion Question:

1.Should producers of software-based services, such as ATMs, be held liable for economic injuries suffered when their systems fail?

If a system fails, it is foreseeable that the producers of the software-based services could potentially be held liable for economic injuries. This could even extend to systems that have been managed poorly and implemented unsuccessfully. They, too, have the potential to impact the company's bottom line and subject producers of software-based services to liability. While the general rule is that they cannot be held liable for matters beyond their knowledge or control, this defense many not be available in some software guideline compliance programs. Thus, producers of software-based services need to be aware of and involved in the software compliance program. In addition, software vendors may face liability if they fail to advise licensees of latent problems in their software.

Software compliance is also an issue to be considered in due diligence conducted by any company involved, directly or indirectly, in investing or making loans to businesses with computer systems. Financial advisors, in particular, may be held liable even if they are unaware that a company is not in compliance when making financial recommendations. In connection with mergers or acquisitions of companies using date-sensitive software (as almost all are), software compliance is also a factor in due diligence. Basically, software compliance raises technical, contractual, and managerial issues. For a complete solution, the strategies for responding to them must be handled on a coordinated basis.

2.  Should companies be responsible for unemployment caused by their information systems?  Why or why not?

The answer to this question will vary from one student to another, and the discussion will revolve on ethics issues in information systems include privacy and individual rights Information rights and obligations , Accountability and control, Property rights and obligations.

What are the ethical issues of information systems?

How ethical social and political issues are connected?

What are social issues in information technology?

What are social and ethical issues?