COMPUTER ETHICS

BY:

AMPUMUZA DALTON
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+256751051810
Bishop Stuart University

ETHICS IN GENERAL
A guideline is needed to stop the current technology products from
being exploited for example replicating original CDs and selling them
as pirated software, this unethical behaviour can be controlled by the
code of conducts.

Unethical refers to any code of conducts that are not conforming to

approved standards of social or professional behaviour.

Computer ethics is a system of moral standards or values used as a

guideline for computer users.

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF COMPUTER ETHICS

The United States Institute of Computer Ethics has come out with the
Ten Commandments of Computer Ethics. These principles consider
the effective code of conducts for the proper use of information
technology.

The Ten commandments of computer ethics are :

1. You shall not use a computer to harm other people.

2. You shall not interfere with other people's computer work.
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3. You shall not snoop around in other people's computer files.
4. You shall not use a computer to steal.
5. You shall not use a computer to bear false witness.
6. You shall not copy or use proprietary software for which you
have not paid.
7. You shall not use other people's computer resources without
authorization or proper compensation.
8. You shall not appropriate other people's intellectual output.
9. You shall think about the social consequences of the program you
are writing or the system you are designing.
10. You shall always use a computer in ways that ensure
consideration and respect for your fellow humans.

GUIDELINES ON THE E-MAIL AND INTERNET USAGE

Some of the guidelines include:

 use only individual e-mail address to forward individual opinion
 keep the identity name and password a secret to avoid the
misuse of your e-mail without your knowledge
 e-mail must be active to promptly reply the necessary actions
needed for any matters
 ensure the total mail kept in the box is within the computer
storage capacity
 scan files regularly to avoid the transmission of virus from one
computer to another

 do not send e-mails that contain classified information which can
be used to tarnish other people or country
 choose a suitable time to search the Internet to save access time
and cost
 beware of prohibited sites which could affect one's moral,
organisation or nation
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  print only relevant documents that you think can be used in
future to save cost

UNETHICAL COMPUTER CODE OF CONDUCTS

With the advancement of ICT, it is easy for anyone to retrieve your

information from the Internet. You may not realize that when you fill a
form on the Internet, your information may be exposed and stolen.

Examples of unethical computer code of conducts include:

 modifying certain information on the Internet, affecting the

accuracy of the information
 selling information to other parties without the owner’s
permission
 using information without authorization
 involvement in stealing software
 invasion of privacy

Intellectual property refers to any product of human intellect that is

unique and has value in the market place. This covers ideas,
inventions, unique name, computer program codes and many more.

ETHICAL COMPUTER CODE OF CONDUCTS

Examples of ethical computer code of conducts include:

o sending warning about viruses to other computer users
o asking permission before sending any business advertisements to
others
o using information with authorization

THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ETHICS AND LAW

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DEFINITION OF ETHICS
In general, ethics is a moral philosophy where a person makes a
specific moral choice and sticks to it. On the other hand, ethics in
computing means moral guidelines to refer to when using the
computer and computer networks. This includes the Internet.

DEFINITION OF LAW

Law is a legal system comprising of rules and principles that govern

the
affairs of a community and controlled by a political authority. Law
differs from one country to another. In the era of technology,
computer law is needed to clarify goods or actions that fall under the
computer law. Computer law refers to all areas in law that requires an
understanding of computer technology such as hardware, software
and
Internet.

Examples of laws of computing

The Communication and Multimedia Act, the Computer Crime Act
1997 and the Telemedicine Act 1997.

WHY DO WE NEED ETHICS AND LAW IN COMPUTING?

· Respecting Ownership
· Respecting Privacy
· Respecting Property

RESPECTING OWNERSHIP

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We must respect ownership by not stealing other people’s work either
by duplicating or distributing it. Duplicating and distributing copies of
audio tapes, video tapes and computer programs without permission
and authorization from the individual or company that created the
program are immoral and illegal.

RESPECTING PRIVACY AND CONFIDENTIALITY

We should respect other people's privacy and confidentiality by

refraining ourselves from reading their mails or files without their
permission. If we do so, it is considered as violating an individual’s
rights to privacy and confidentiality.

RESPECTING PROPERTY

Property here means ownership. Since an individual data and

information are considered as property, therefore, an act of tampering
and changing electronic information is considered as vandalism and
disrespect for other people’s property.

SIMILARITIES BETWEEN ETHICS AND LAW

Both ethics and law are complimentary to each other and are made:
· to guide user from misusing computers
· to create a healthy computer society, so that computers are used to
contribute to a better life
· to prevent any crime

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ETHICS AND LAWS

ETHICS

Guideline As a guideline to computer users.

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Moral standards Ethical behaviour is judged by moral standards.

Free to follow Computer users are free to follow or ignore the code
of ethics.
No punishments No punishment for anyone who
violates ethics.
Universals Universal, can be applied anywhere, all over the
world.

Produce ethical computer Users To produce ethical computer users.

Immoral Not honoring computer ethics means ignoring the

moral elements (immoral).

LAW
Control As a rule to control computer users.

Judicial standards Law is judged by judicial standards.

Must follow Computer users must follow the regulations and law.

Penalties, imprisonments Penalties, imprisonments and other punishments for

those who break the law.

Depends on country Depends on country and state where the crime is

committed.
Prevent misusing of computers To prevent misuse of computers.
Crime Not honoring the law means committing a crime.

UNETHICAL VS. LAW BREAKING CONDUCTS

Unethical:

 using the office computer to do personal things

 reading your friend’s e-mail without his or her permission
 plagiarizing and using materials from the Internet for your class assignment without
giving credit to the original author.

Law breaking:

 sending a computer virus via e-mail

 hacking into your school’s database to change your examination results.
 selling pirated software in a night m

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INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

DEFINITION OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

Intellectual Property refers to works created by inventors, authors

and
artists. These works are unique and have value in the market place. In
our daily lives, we are surrounded by things that are protected by IP.
Your school bags, your shoes and even your socks are protected by
Intellectual Property rights. Nike, Bata or Adidas, for example, are all
protected by a group of legal rights.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW

Intellectual Property laws cover ideas, inventions, literary creations,

unique names, business models, industrial processes, computer
program codes and more.

INVENTIONS PROTECTED BY INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAWS

As businesses continue to expand globally, business owners must
realize the importance of getting professional advice on how to
establish and safeguard their intellectual property rights. These
include :
o Trademarks
o Service marks
o Trade/company names
o Domain names
o Geographical indications
o Copyrights
o Patents
Example : Protected by property law.
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INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY PROTECTION

There are four types of Intellectual Property protection. They are

patents for invention, trademarks for brand identity, designs for
product appearance and copyright for material.
o Patents for inventions
o Trademarks for brand identity
o Design for product appearance
o Copyright for material

Patents for inventions

Utility, design or plant patents that protect inventions and

improvements to existing inventions

Trademarks for brand identity

Words, names, symbols, devices and images that represent products,
goods or services.

Design for product appearance

Literary and artistic material, music, films, sound recordings and
broadcasts, including software and multimedia.

Copyright for material

The features of, in particular, the lines, contours, colours, shape,
texture or material of the product itself or its ornamentation.

PRIVACY IN COMPUTER USAGE

WHAT IS PRIVACY?
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Privacy in IT refers to data and information privacy. Data refers to a
collection of raw unprocessed facts, figures and symbols. Then,
computer is used to process data into information. In general, data
include texts, numbers, sounds, images and video.
Information privacy is described as the rights of individuals and
companies to deny or restrict the collection and use of information
about them.

WAYS COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY THREATEN OUR PRIVACY

Every time you click on an advertisement or register a software

product online, your information is entered into a database. Computer
technology can also threaten privacy through spam. Do you know
what spam is? Spam is unsolicited e-mail messages, advertisements or
newsgroup postings sent to many recipients at once.

How does computer technology threaten the privacy of our data?

It is done through:
o Cookies
o Electronic profile
o Spyware
Computer technology threatens our privacy through electronic
profiling. For example, when we fill out a form such as a magazine
subscription, purchasing products or contest entry form on the
Internet, this data is kept in the database. It will include age, address,
marital status and other personal details.

Cookies

· are used to identify users by web casting, e-commerce and other web
applications
· contain user information and are saved in the computer hard disk
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· are used by some websites to store passwords and track how
regularly we visit a website, that’s how we become potential targets
for web advertisers
· enable web sites to collect information about your online activities
and store them for future use, then the collected details will be sold to
any company that requests for it.

Electronic profile

· electronic profile is the combining of data in a database that can be

sold to the Internet by the company to the interested parties.
· this database is in a form such as magazine subscription or product
warranty cards that had been filled by online subscribers.
· the information in electronic profile includes personal details such as
your age, address and marital status.

Spyware

· refers to a program that collects user information without the user’s

knowledge.
· can enter computers, sneaking in like a virus.
· is a result of installing new programs.
· communicates information it collects to some outside source while
we are online.

WHY DO WE NEED PRIVACY?

We need privacy for anonymity. For example, the Internet creates an

elaborate trail of data detailing a person surfing on the Web because
all
information is stored inside cookies. We do not want our trail to be
detected.
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We also need privacy for confidentiality. For example, online
information generated in the course of a business transaction is
routinely used for a variety of other purposes without the individual’s
knowledge or consent.
We do not want our private lives and habits exposed to third parties.

CAN PRIVACY BE PROTECTED?

Privacy can be protected by:

(a) Privacy law

The privacy laws in Malaysia emphasizes on the following:

· Security Services to review the security policy
· Security Management to protect the resources
· Security Mechanism to implement the required security services
· Security Objects, the important entities within the system
Environment

(b) Utilities software

Example: anti-spam program, firewall, anti-spyware and antivirus.

AUTHENTICATIONS
Authentication is a process where users verify that they are who they
say they are. The user who attempts to perform functions in a system
is in fact the user who is authorized to do so.
For Example : When you use an ATM card, the machine will verify the
validation of the card then the machine will request for a pin number.
This is where the authentication process takes place.

METHODS OF AUTHENTICATION
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There are two commonly used authentication methods, which are
biometric device and callback system.

Biometric device is a device that translates personal characteristics

into a digital code that is compared with a digital code stored in the
database.

Callback system refers to the checking system that authenticates the

user.

BIOMETRIC DEVICES

Fingerprint Recognition
In order to prevent fake fingers from being used, many biometrics
fingerprint systems also measure blood flow, or check for correctly
arrayed ridges at the edges of the fingers.

Facial Recognition
Facial recognition analyses the characteristics of an individual's face
images captured through a digital video camera. Facial recognition is
widely used, touted as a fantastic system for recognizing potential
threats (whether terrorists, scam artists, or known criminals).

Hand Geometry Scanning

Hand scanning involves the measurement and analysis of the shape of
one's hand. Unlike fingerprints, the human hand isn't unique.
Individual hand features are not descriptive enough for identification.
It is possible to devise a method by combining various individual
features and measurements of fingers and hands for verification
purposes.

Iris Scanning
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Iris scanning analyses the features that exist in the coloured tissues
surrounding the pupil which has more than 200 points that can be
used for comparison, including rings, furrows and freckles.

The scans use a regular video camera and can be done from further
away than a retinal scan. It will work perfectly fine through glasses
and in fact has the ability to create an accurate enough measurement
that it can be used for identification purposes.

The accuracy of this method is excellent while the cost involved is

high.

Retinal Scanning
Retinal biometrics involves the scanning of retina and analyzing the
layer of blood vessels at the back of the eye.

Retinal scanning involves using a low-intensity light source and an

optical coupler and can read the patterns at a great level of accuracy.

Retina scanning requires the user to remove glasses, place their eye
close to the device, and focus on a certain point. Whether the accuracy
can outweigh the public discomfort is yet to be seen.

The accuracy in retinal scanning is very good and the cost involved is
fair.

Voice Recognition
Voice recognition system compares a person’s live speech with their
stored voice pattern.

Voice recognition biometrics requires user to speak into a

microphone. What he speaks can be his password or an access phrase.
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Verification time is approximately 5 seconds. To prevent recorded
voice
use, most voice recognition devices require the high and low
frequencies of the sound to match, which is difficult for many
recording instruments to recreate well. Also, some devices generate
random number of sequences for verification.

The accuracy in voice recognition is fair and the cost involved is very
reasonable.

Signature Verification System

Signature verification system uses special pen and tablet. After pre-
processing the signature, several features are extracted.

The authenticity of a writer is determined by comparing an input

signature to a stored reference set (template) consisting of three
signatures.

The similarity between an input signature and the reference set is

computed using string matching and the similarity value is compared
to a threshold. The accuracy in signature verification system is fair
and the cost involved is
excellent.

CALLBACK SYSTEM
The callback system is commonly used in the bank operation and
business transaction. For example, when you book for the taxi service,
the operator will ask you to hang up and she will call you back to
confirm for the service required.

WHY IS AUTHENTICATION IMPORTANT?

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Authentication is important in order to safeguard against the
unauthorized access and use.

VERIFICATIONS
Verification is the act of proving or disproving the correctness of a
system with respect to a certain formal specification.

METHODS OF VERIFICATION
There are two methods commonly used in verification, which are user
identification and processed object. User identification refers to the
process of validating the user. Processed object refers to something
the user has such as identification card, security token and cell phone.

USER IDENTIFICATION
The examples of validating process using the user identification are:
· Key in the user name to log-in to a system and the
system will verify whether the user is valid or invalid
user
· Show the exam slip to verify that you are the valid
candidate for the exam.
· show a passport before departure.

PROCESSED OBJECT
The examples of validating process using the processed
object are:
· the policeman will check on the driver’s license to
identify the valid driver
· employees have to swipe their security card to enter
the building
· buy blouses at the mall using a credit card

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CONTROVERSIAL CONTENT
A controversial content is information that causes disagreement in
opinions and may cause the disruption of peace because different
people or culture will have different views about the contents.

ISSUES ON CONTROVERSIAL CONTENTS

The issues on controversial contents are always focusing on
pornography and slander. Malaysia considers pornography and
slander as illegal.

Pornographic and slanderous activities can be in the forms of plots

and actions displayed on video games, controversial rhythm or lyrics
of music, controversial contents of books and controversial issues on
religion and philosophy.

Pornography Creative activity (writing or pictures or films etc.) of no

literary or artistic value other than to stimulate sexual desire.
Slander Oral communication of false statements injurious to a person's
reputation. A false and malicious statement or report about someone.

PORNOGRAPHY
What is pornography? Why is pornography considered “negative”
content? Both pictures are very cute pictures of innocent babies.
Neither can be considered pornographic by normal standards.

DEFINITION OF PORNOGRAPHY
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The definition of pornography is any form of media or material (like
books or photographs) that depicts erotic behaviour and is intended
to cause sexual excitement.
Pornography tends to exploit men, women and children in a
distasteful
manner.

SLANDER
Slander is another example of controversial content. Slander is a legal
term for false and malicious statement (meaning knowing that it is
false, or “reckless disregard” that it was false) about someone.

References:
1. http://hwpi.harvard.edu/files/provost/files/policy_on_access_to_electron...

2.

3. https://www.techopedia.com › definition › computer-ethics

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