Transcript The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems

Management Information Systems
B(CS)-Fall 2009
Instructor: Amina Tariq
Chapter 4: Ethical & Social Issues
in Digital Firm
Today We Explore:
• What ethical, social, and political issues are
raised by information systems?
• Are there specific principles for conduct that
can be used to guide decisions about ethical
dilemmas?
• Why does contemporary information systems
technology pose challenges to the protection
of individual privacy and intellectual
property?
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Today We Explore:
• How have information systems affected
everyday life?
• How can organizations develop corporate
policies for ethical conduct?
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District of Columbia: Location Tracking System
Business Problem
Opportunities from new
technology
Needed for greater security
Management
Design Monitoring Policy
IS solution
Organization
Redesign Business Processes
and products according to the
Location monitoring
Technology
GPRS Tracking
RFID Tracking Devices
Location tracking database
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Location
Tracking
System
Business
Solution
Invade privacy?
Increase sales
Increase security
Technology..double edged sword
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Information System & Technology a two-edge weapon
Opportunity & Threat go together
While it is a source of many benefits whereas it carry high risks; create
new opportunities for breaking the law or exploiting sensitive information
to get benefits away from others.
Creating ethical dilemma…
Warning: “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should!”
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Understanding Ethical and Social
Issues Related to Systems
• The SECURITY and ETHICAL ISSUES raised by
the Information Age & INTERNET are the most
explosive to face our society in decades.
• SOCIALLY RESPONSIVE & ACCEPTABLES
policies & practices need time to evolve.
•It remains a big challenge more for Information
System dependent societies that less developed
ones.
The U.S & EU governments are just
beginning to pass laws against cybercrimes but it’s difficult to stay one step
ahead of the cyber-criminals
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Each American is listed in about 60
government and 80 private sector
databases.
On a typical day, each person’s name
is passed between computers 10
times.
A lot of personal information about
us has always been available, just
not as easily and as readily as
today.
Massive databases maintained by
commercial companies and
governments at all levels now allow
profiling like that above to be
accomplished easier and faster than
ever before.
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Understanding Ethical and Social
Issues Related to Systems
A model for thinking about ethical, social, &
political issues
ETHICS
•
Principles of right and wrong
•
Used by individuals acting as
free moral agents to make
choices to guide their behavior
•
•
•
•
Freedom of speech,
Personal responsibility,
Corporate responsibility
Right of access to information
As individual actors are confronted with new situations
often not covered by the old rules:
Social institutions cannot respond overnight to these
ripples...may take years to develop etiquette,
expectations, social responsibility, politically correct
attitudes or approved rules!
Political institutions also require time before developing
new laws and often require the demonstration of real
harm before they act.
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Relationship
Ethical, Social, and Political Issues
in an Information Society
Introduction of Information
Systems Technology has a
ripple effect, raising new
ethical, social, and political
issues that must be dealt with
on the individual, social, and
political institutional 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 4-1
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Relationship
Ethical, Social, and Political Issues
in an Information Society
Information rights & obligations:
a) What information rights do individuals & organisations possess w.r.t.
themselves?
b) What can they protect?
c) What obligations do individuals & organisations have concerning this
information?
Property rights and obligations:
How will traditional intellectual property rights be protected in a digital
society, in which tracing & accounting for ownership are difficult & ignoring
such property rights is so easy?
System quality:
What standards of data & system quality should we demand to protect
individual rights & the safety of society
Accountability & Control:
Who can & will be held
accountable & liable for the harm
done to individual & collective
information & property rights?
Quality of life:
a) What values should be preserved in a information & knowledge based
society?
b) Which institution should we protect from violation?
c) Which cultural values & practices are supported by the new information
technology?
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Key Technology Trends that raise ethical
issues
DoubleClick: a major Internet advertising broker, announced in early 2000 that it would use data
gathered from web sites in conjunction with data collected from sources other than the Internet to
ChoicePoint:
of the
data
brokers
more It
than
5,000 to
employees,
gathers
data from
identify
peopleisbyone
name
— largest
a process
known
as with
profiling.
intended
sell the data
to marketers
who
police,
criminal,
&
motor
vehicle
records:
credit
&
employment
histories,
current
&
previous
addresses;
would be able to target advertising campaigns more efficiently. Public outcry about privacy issues
professional
licenses,
& insurance
claims – assembling & maintaining e-dossiors on almost every
forced
DoubleClick
to cancel
its plans.
adult in US. Choicepoint sells these personal information to business & government agencies
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Key Technology Trends that raise ethical
issues
Profiling is possible through the
technique called data mining. Adding to
that the capabilities of NonObvious
Relationship Awareness (NORA) data
analysis technology, as being shown in, a
complete stranger might know just as
much about you as you do. It can and has
been done. So you should be concerned
and you should care.
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Ethics in an Information Society
BASIC CONCEPTS:
WHAT is the correct moral choice?
WHAT are the main features of ethical choices?
Ethical choices are decisions made by individuals who are responsible for the consequences of their chosen
courses of action!
•
•
•
•
•
Responsibility, Accountability, Candidate Ethical Principals are deeply rooted in cultures around the
Liability
world in their everyday business. But they are equally valid even in
cyberspace!
Golden
rule — do unto
others aspotential
you would
haveduties,
them and
do unto
you.
Responsibility:
Accepting
costs,
obligations
Ethical analysis
These
basic
concepts
form
the
underpinning
of
an
Ethical
Immanuel
Kant’s
Categorical Imperative — if an action is not right for
for your
decisions.
Identify
and
describe
clearly&the
facts.
Analysis
of Info
manage
them.
everyone
to take,
it isSystems
not
right forthose
anyone.
Accountability:
Determining
whowho
should
take responsibility
for
Separate
fact from fiction.
Candidate ethical principles
Descartes’
ruleand
of change
decisions
actions.— if an action cannot be taken repeatedly, it is
Define the conflict or dilemma and identify the higher-order values
not right
to take Legally
at all. placing responsibility with a person or group.
Liability:
involved.
—no
take
thehow
action
achieves
thealways
highertwo
or sides.
greater
Professional codes of conduct Utilitarian Principle
Remember,
matter
thinthat
you slice
it, there’s
value.
Due
Process:
ensuring the laws are applied fairly and correctly.
Identify
the
stakeholders.
Risk Aversion Principle — take the action Determine
that produces
least
harm
who’s the
really
involved.
Some real-world ethical
or
the least
Identify
thepotential
options cost.
that you can reasonably take
dilemmas
Ethical “no free
lunch” Rule
— assume
all tangible
and
Compromise;
it doesn’t
always that
have virtually
to be an “either-or”
outcome.
intangiblethe
objects
are owned
by someone
else unless
there is a specific
Identify
potential
consequences
of your
options.
Anticipate the outcome; it will help you devise better solutions.
declaration otherwise.
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Ethics in an Information Society
Professional Codes of Conduct
• Promises by professions to regulate themselves in the
general interest of society
• Promulgated by associations such as the American
Medical Association (AMA) and the American Bar
Association (ABA)
Real world Dilemmas
Information system being used by organizations to:
• Minimize drains on productivity by reducing jobs
• Prevent wastage of resources for non-business activities
by employee monitoring
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The Moral Dimensions of Information
Systems
Information rights: Privacy and freedom in the Internet Age
Privacy is the claim of individuals to be left alone, free from surveillance or interference
from other individuals or organisations, including the state
Fair Information Practices (FIP) – (Euro-Americana privacy law regime). is 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.
• The European directive on data protection – Companies to inform and disclose
people when they collect info. about them & how it ‘d be stored & used
The customer’s Informed Consent is a pre-requisite to legally use data about them
for business purposes.
• Internet challenges to privacy – Many websites make their privacy policies
obvious and others don’t..
How do these organizations gather the information?
By using cookies; part of every browser program - a tiny file deposited on the hard disk when
an individual visits certain site. It identifies the user & track his visits to the website.
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The Moral Dimensions of Information
Systems
How Cookies identify web visitors
Spyware detection software - helps you secure your identity theft attempts
Opt-in & Opt-out Models – Opt out permits collection of personal information until the user
revokes for so and Opt in prohibits from collection of personal information unless the user
specifically approves information collection & its use. (Europeans practice opt-in whereas
Americans practice opt-out)
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The Moral Dimensions of Information
Systems
Technical solutions
Some tools that can help you block
someone from tracing your Internet
activities.
PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) – a freeware
encryption software programs for e-mail.
Its limitations are that both the SENDER
and RECIPIENT must have the program
installed in order for it to work
Platform for Privacy Practices (P3P) embedded in Internet Explorer version 6.0
that allows the user to determine what
sites can collect information behind the
scenes through the user’s cookie files.
Because the P3P standards are “machinereadable” the user doesn’t have to search
each Web site for its privacy policy. The
user can let the computers do the
comparison and automatically block any
site not conforming to the user’s wishes.
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The Moral Dimensions of Information
Systems
Property rights: Intellectual property
The laws and policies in place to settle disputes about trade secrets, copyrights, and patents have to
be rewritten to apply to the Internet.
Intellectual property is a result of someone’s effort at creating a product of value based on their
experiences, knowledge, and education. We may say - intellectual property is brain power.
Trade secrets
Any intellectual work or product used
for a business purpose that can be
classified as belonging to that
business, provided it is not based on
information in the public domain.
Copyright ©
A statutory grant that
protects creators of
intellectual property
against copying by others
for any purpose for a
minimum of 70 years
Patents
A legal document that grants the owner an
exclusive monopoly on the ideas behind an
invention for 17 years; designed to ensure that
inventors of new machines or methods are
rewarded for their labor while making widespread
use of their inventions.
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Challenges to intellectual
property rights (no return of
your product)
Everything on the Web is
considered to be protected
under copyright and intellectual
property laws unless the
contents specifically stated to
be public domain.
Digital Millennium Copyright©
Act (DMCA) 1998 makes it a
federal offense to violate
Copyright© laws on the
Internet, punishable with a fine
up to $250,000
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The Moral Dimensions of Information
Systems
Accountability, liability, and control
One tenet of the Communications Decency Act and the Child Online Protection Act is that the Internet
Service Providers (ISP) should somehow be liable for content placed on the Internet through their users.
“If you receive an obscene phone call, is the telephone company responsible and liable for the problem?
“If you receive a threatening letter in the mail, is the Post Office department responsible for reading every piece
of mail on the chance that there might be a problem in one of the letters?”
All of the following factors require significant interrelated checks & balances, that the usage facilities &
benefits the consumer in socially productive & responsible manner:
Technology – Facility - Security – Privacy – Responsibility – Accountability – Liability - Control
Computer-related liability problems
As our dependence on the use of computer systems grows, legal courts have no choice but to develop
laws designed to deal with computer-related liability problems.
Traditionally, software producers have not been held physically or economically liable for any harm that
comes about through the use of their software products.
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The Moral Dimensions of Information
Systems
System quality: Data quality and system errors
If your record has been presented somewhere with wrong information - who’s fault is it?
While driving a fully loaded (e-transmission) car on a highway the computer chip controlling
brake system fails resulting in a rather nasty crash. Who’s at fault? <You>, <the car
company>, or <the company that made the computer chip>?
A virus carried by an e-mail or a download product, affecting your system – can fix a
responsibility on <ISP>, <a public domain portals>, <the software manufacturer> or
<the company that licenses the software>?
Three principal sources of poor system performance are described as:
1.
2.
3.
Software bugs and errors
Hardware or telecommunication facility failures caused by natural or other causes
Poor input data quality
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The Moral Dimensions of Information
Systems
Quality of life: Equity, access, and boundaries:
• Losing the face-to-face contact with other human beings
• Under-developed normal social skills in children who spend most of their time on computers
• Online love affairs & obnoxious or false identity relationship crimes
• Exposures and theft of digital images – confidential or personal - to hacker (groups & individuals)
Balancing power: Center versus periphery (out-streams)
• Centralized mainframe computers centralized power at corporate headquarters levels.
• Shift toward highly decentralized computing, decentralized of decision making to respective (Strategic –
Tactical & Operational) organizational level making business organizations a flatten structure
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The Moral Dimensions of Information
Systems
Rapidity of change: Reduced response time to competition
• Created much more efficient national and international markets.
• Competitive positioning: are we at risk of developing a “just-in-time society” with “just-in-time jobs” and
“just-in-time” workplaces, families, and vacations?
Maintaining boundaries: Family, work, and leisure
• One quality-of-life issue that affects more and more people personally is the ability to work from home.
• Life becomes too mechanized & swiveling man into family – workplace & leisure paradox adversely effecting
social patterns of life.
Dependence and vulnerability
Societies becoming incredibility dependent on information systems - putting ourselves in a highly vulnerable
position if these systems fail.
Information systems – becoming a commonplace requirement as having a television in our homes.
(Beware - no regulatory or standard-setting forces in place to regulate IS).
Computer Crime & Abuse
Computer Crime - Commission of an illegal act thru the use of computer or against the computer system.
Computer Abuse – Commission of acts involving a computer that may not be illegal but considered unethical.
(e.g. SPAM)
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The Moral Dimensions of Information
Systems
The Spamming Problem
Spam – a junk email sent by an organization or individual to a mass audience of Internet
users who have expressed no interest in the product or service being marketed
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The Moral Dimensions of Information
Systems
Employment: Trickle-down technology and reengineering job loss
• Job losses and career changes caused by technology - you’ll be a part of the evolution of technology for
the rest of your life.
• Be competitive in the job market by continual update of your technology skills and knowledge.
Equity and access: Increasing racial and social class cleavages
Unequal access to technology has triggered a Digital Divide amongst individuals, organisations, societies
& nations
Health risks: RSI, CVS, and Techno-stress
As managers, you should be acutely aware of the health issues caused by computer usage • Repetitive Stress Injury (RSI) - also called cumulative trauma disorder (CTD), occupational overuse
syndrome, or work related upper limb disorder (WRULD), is any of a loose group of conditions resulting
from overuse of a tool, such as a computer keyboard or musical instrument or other activity that requires
repeated movements.
• Computer Vision Syndrome (CVS) is a temporary condition resulting from focusing the eyes on a
computer display for protracted, uninterrupted periods of time that strain eyesight.
• Technostress is the psychological resistance of change that accompanies newly introduced machines to
work, home & leisure situations
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Suggested Readings
• Laudon & Laudon: Chapter 4
• Reading Article: Ethics &IS
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