Chapter 6

Ethics and Professionalism

of Emerging Technologies
 Outline
Technology and ethics

Digital privacy

Digital privacy principles

Accountability and Trust

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 Learning outcomes
After completed this chapter, Students will be able to:
 Distinguish the link between ethics and
Technology.
 Understand general, professional and
leadership ethical questions.
 Explain what digital privacy is, its components
and why it is important.
 Know the importance of accountability and
trust in emerging technologies.
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 Technology and Ethics
 The Internet boom has provided many benefits for
society
 However, the Internet also created new challenges
such as privacy, spam, theft, fraud and viruses.
 Moreover, even as the Internet serves as a medium for
communication across the globe, it threatens to cut off
people who lack access to it.
 Ethics of technology is the application of ethical
thinking to the practical concerns of technology.
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 Technology and Ethics
 Technology can serve to promote or restrict human
rights.
 Emerging technologies have the potential to make
significant positive and negative contributions to the
promotion and protection of human rights.
 Thus, the Information Society should foster the use
of emerging technologies to maximize the benefits
that they provide while minimizing the harms.

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 Technology and Ethics
 Code for professional ethics is based on five
main principles:
➢Integrity
➢Objectivity
➢Competence and due care
➢Confidentiality
➢Professional behavior
 However, the emergence of new technologies raises
some new challenges for the profession to address.
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 New ethical questions
 The increasing use of big data and AI can enable
consistent and accurate judgments or
decisions more quickly and efficiently.
 However, these strengths can potentially have a
darker side too, throwing up questions around
the ethical use of these fairly new technologies.
 For example, outputs can be based on biased data
(input), which could lead to discriminatory
(biased) outcomes.
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 New ethical questions
 Questions are being asked by people regarding the
interaction between computers and humans.
o How much dependence can we place on
data and models?
o What is the role of human judgment?
o How do we ensure that we understand the
decision-making process?
 Whatever the power of the machine, humans will still
need to be involved, so that people can be held
accountable, or explain the reasons behind a decision
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 New ethical questions
 The main problem of the ethics of technology is
that it tends to arrive too late.
 In many cases, ethical issues are only recognized
when the technology is already on the market
and problems arise during its widespread use.
 Ethics can then become a tool to clean up a
mess that might have been avoidable.
 It is probably not argumentative to say, it would
be required to have ethical input at the earlier
stages of technology design and development.
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 General Ethical Principles
❖Contribute to society and to human well-being
❖Avoid harm
❖Be honest and trustworthy
❖Be fair and take action not to discriminate people
❖Respect the work required to produce new ideas,
inventions, creative works, and computing
artifacts.
❖Respect privacy
❖Honor confidentiality

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 Professional Responsibilities
✓Strive to achieve high quality in both the processes
and products of professional work.
✓Maintain high standards of professional
competence, conduct, and ethical practice.
✓Know and respect existing rules pertaining to
professional work.
✓Accept and provide appropriate professional
review.
✓Give comprehensive evaluations of computer
systems and their impacts, including analysis of
possible risks.
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 Professional Responsibilities
❖Perform work only in areas of competence.
❖Foster public awareness and understanding of
computing, related technologies, and their
consequences.
❖Access computing and communication resources
only when authorized or when compelled by the
public good.
❖Design and implement systems that are robustly
and usably secure.
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 Professional Leadership Principles
o Make sure that public good is the central concern
during all professional computing work.
o Articulate, encourage acceptance of and evaluate
fulfillment of social responsibilities by members of
the organization or group.
o Manage personnel and resources to enhance the
quality of working life.
o Articulate, apply, and support policies and processes
that reflect the principles of the Code.

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 Professional Leadership Principles

 Create opportunities for members of the

organization to grow as professionals.
 Use care when modifying or retiring systems,
Interface changes, the removal of features, and
even software updates have an impact on the
productivity of users and the quality of their work.
 Recognize and take care systems that become
integrated into the infrastructure of society.

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 Digital Privacy
 Digital Privacy is the protection of personally
identifiable (user information) or business
identifiable information (business
information) that is collected from respondents
through information collection activities or from
other sources
 It is a collective definition that encompasses three
sub-related categories;
 Information privacy
 Communication privacy
 Individual privacy
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 Information Privacy
 Information privacy is the notion that
individuals should have the freedom or right to
determine how their digital information, mainly
that pertaining to personally identifiable
information, is collected and used.
 It is also known as data privacy or data
protection
 A information privacy breach happens when
personal information is accessed, disclosed or
lost without authorization
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 Communication Privacy
 It is the notion that individuals should have the
freedom or right to communicate information
digitally with the expectation that their
communications are secured.
 Messages and communications will only be
accessible to the sender's original intended
recipient.
 However, communications can be intercepted or
delivered to other recipients without the sender's
knowledge, in a multitude of ways.
 Communications can be intercepted directly
through various hacking methods.
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 Individual Privacy
 Individual privacy is the notion that:
 individuals have a right to exist freely on the
internet
 They can choose what types of information they
are exposed to.
 unwanted information should not interrupt
them.
 Below are examples of breach of individual privacy
 an internet user receiving unwanted ads and
emails/spam
 a computer virus that forces the user to take
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actions they otherwise wouldn't
 Digital Privacy Principles
Data Minimization:
 Collect the minimal amount of information/data
necessary from individuals and businesses consistent
to only what is required to fulfill a specific purpose
Transparency:
 Notice that the purpose of the collection and use of
information will be provided in a clear manner.
 Information collected will not be used for any other
purpose unless authorized or mandated by law.
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 Digital Privacy Principles
Accuracy:
 The collected Information will be maintained in a
sufficiently accurate, timely, and complete manner
to ensure that the interests of the individuals and
businesses are protected.
Security:
 Adequate physical and IT security measures will be
implemented to ensure that the collection, use, and
maintenance of information are properly
safeguarded
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 Accountability and Trust
 When emerging technology creates far-reaching
and rapid change, it can also bring new Risks.
 Understanding and mitigating the risks will
help users to build Confidence.
 Legal and regulatory frameworks have not
kept pace with digital transformation, and
organizations are seeking Guidance.

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 Accountability and Trust
 Emerging Technology can provide
 improved accuracy,
 better quality and
 cost efficiencies for businesses in every sector
 They can enhance trust in the organization’s
operations and financial processes, which is crucial for
sustainable success.
 But, the solutions that can be used to better manage
risk, increase transparency and build confidence are
often themselves the source of new risks, which
may go unnoticed.

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 Accountability and Trust
Accountability in emerging technologies includes
 The obligation of an individual to account for
its activities or action.
 Accepting responsibility for its action
 Disclosing the results in a transparent manner.
 Responsibility for money or other entrusted
property.

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 Quiz (10 points)
1. What is the Ethics of technology
2. What is Digital Privacy?
3. Mention the three components of
digital privacy
4. List the four components of digital
privacy principles

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