Transcript Ethics - Courses

Ethics
Defined
ethics (used with a sing. verb): The study of
the general nature of morals and of the
specific moral choices to be made by a
person; moral philosophy.
• ethics (used with a sing. or pl. verb): The
rules or standards governing the conduct of
a person or the members of a profession:
medical ethics.
•
American Heritage Dictionary
“An ethical issue is said to arise
whenever one party in pursuit of its goals
engages in behavior that materially
affects the ability of another party to
pursue its goals.”
Mason, Mason, and Culnan,
Ethics of Information Management, Sage
Ethical Guidelines
• The ability to cause harmful
consequences >> need for ethical
behavior.
• Power >> consequences.
• Agency: acting on behalf of others is
power.
• Control over scarce resources is power.
• Information is power. Confidentiality,
privacy.
• Info and info systems have economic
,social, political effects. Design is political.
Reasons for formal ethical codes
• To regulate members= behavior
– To inform them of expected behavior
– Reminder that ethical behavior overrides many
other considerations
– Reminder of personal responsibility
• To hold members accountable
– Bases for judging in cases of breach
– Help address situations where conflicting
views of what is right are possible
• To present profession to society
– State its ethical bases, reassure stakeholders,
and give them a basis for evaluating
professionals
Ethics and
needs and usability assessment
• User and task analysis
• Testing
• User information collected by system in
operation
• Design
principles
• Non-harming
• Honesty
User and task analysis
• What we ask & observe
– Privacy
– Trust
– Willingness to ‘look bad’
• How we use that information
– How we interpret it
– How we report it
– Whom we tell
– Managers and supervisors?
– Confidentiality and harming?
Testing
• Concerns
– Treatment of test subjects
• How testers treat them
• Effects on them of the test situation
– Use of the data
– Special populations
• Children
• Internal subjects
• Methods
– Informed consent
– Human subjects review
User information collected by
system in operation
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What is collected
How is it used
What does the user know
What control does the user have
– Over how info used
– Correcting info
Truste model privacy
statementhttp
• What personally identifiable info [NAME] collects.
• What personally identifiable information third
parties collect through the Web site.
• What organization collects the information.
• How [NAME] uses the information.
• With whom [NAME] may share user information.
• What choices are available to users regarding
collection, use and distribution of the information.
• What decurity procedures protect from loss,
misuse or alteration of information under [NAME]
control.
• How users can correct any inaccuracies
Design itself
• Technology and anger
• “Making people feel stupid”
• Inconvenience is more than an
inconvenience
• Trust and reliability
– A system that doesn’t do what the user
expects
Other areas of ethical dilemmas
• Intellectual property
• Altering results
– Being asked to
– Being tempted to
– When is it “altering”?