CHAPTER 4

Personal, Legal, Ethical, and Organizational Issues

Learning Objectives:
4-1 Discuss information privacy and methods for improving the privacy of information.
4-2 Explain the general data protection regulation.
4-3 Explain the privacy issues of e-mail and data collection in a business setting.
4-4 Examine the ethical issues and censorship of information technology.
4-5 Discuss the principles of intellectual property and issues related to the infringement of intel-
lectual property.
4-6 Examine the impact of information technology on society: the digital divide, telecommuting,
and health issues.
4-7 Describe green computing and the ways it can improve the quality of the environment.

Terms to learn in this chapter:

Acceptable use policy Digital divide Log files

Accountability Fake news Nonrepudiation

Business networking ethics General data protection Social media networking

regulation (GDPR) ethics
Cookies
Green computing Spam
Cybersquatting
Intellectual property Virtual organizations
Deepfakes

Privacy Issues

Information technologies have brought many benefits, but they have also created concerns about
privacy in the workplace. For example, employers now search social networking sites such as Face-
book to find background information on applicants, and this information can influence their hiring
decisions.

Two relatively recent ethical issues related to social media are fake news and deepfakes with serious
political and or financial consequences. Fake news is news, stories, or hoaxes created to intention-
ally misinform or deceive readers. Deepfakes are fake videos or audio recordings that look and
sound just like the real thing.

Several federal laws now regulate the collecting and using of information on people and corpora-
tions, but the laws are narrow in scope and contain loopholes.

There are three important concepts regarding the Web and network privacy:
Source of Information: MIS 10 – Management Information Systems – 10th Edition – Bidgoli - Cengage
 1. Acceptable use policies - a set of rules specifying the legal and ethical use of a system
and the consequences of noncompliance.
2. Accountability - refers to issues involving both the user’s and the organization’s respons-
ibilities and liabilities.
3. Nonrepudiation - a method for binding all the parties to a contract.

To guard against possible legal ramifications and the consequences of using the Web and networks,
an organization usually establishes an acceptable use policy, which is a set of rules specifying the
legal and ethical use of a system and the consequences of noncompliance.

Because of concerns about privacy, hardware or software controls should be used to determine
what personal information is provided on the Web.

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

GDPR covers a series of laws in order to protect European Union (EU) citizens’ personal data includ-
ing genetic data, health, racial or ethnic origin, and religious beliefs. The goal is to create more con-
sistent protection of consumer and personal data across EU nations, and it applies to each member
state of the European Union.

The key components include:

 User consent must be given for any type of processing of personal information.
 Collected data must be anonymized in order to protect privacy.
 Users must be notified regarding any types of data breaches within 72 hours of learning of
the breach.
 Data transfer across borders must be safely done.
 Certain companies are required to appoint a data protection officer to oversee GDPR compli-
ance.

The following are major business benefits of GDPR compliance:

 Improved consumer confidence

 Better data security
 Reduced maintenance costs by retiring any data inventory software and legacy applications
that are no longer GDPR compliant.
 Better alignment with evolving technology
 Better decision making by using customer information effectively.

Email

Although e-mail is widely used, it presents some serious privacy issues. One issue is junk e-mail, also
known as spam—unsolicited e-mail sent for advertising purposes. Usually, spam is sent in bulk using
automated mailing software, and many spammers sell their address lists. Spamming has also created
decency concerns because this e-mail often contains explicit language or nudity and can be opened
by children.

Data Collection on the Web

The number of people shopping online is increasing rapidly because of convenience, the array of
choices, and lower prices. Many customers, however, are reluctant to make online purchases be-
cause of concerns about hackers getting access to their credit card numbers and charging merchand-
ise to their accounts. Some Web sites require you to enter your name, address, and employment in-

Source of Information: MIS 10 – Management Information Systems – 10th Edition – Bidgoli - Cengage
formation before you are allowed to use the site. Privacy issues include the concern that this per-
sonal information will be sold to telemarketing firms, and consumers do not want to be bombarded
with spam.

Two commonly used technologies for data collection are:

1. Cookies - small text files with unique ID tags that are embedded in a Web browser and saved
on the user’s hard drive.
2. Log Files - generated by Web server software, record a user’s actions on a Web site.

Ethical Issues of Information Technologies

Computer Network Ethics

Computer network ethics include two types of ethics:

 Social media networking ethics

o Three main principles of social media ethics include:
Authenticity—Members should be trustworthy and sincere.
Transparency—Members should be honest and open with no hidden agenda
Communication—Members should be open to know other members and be
able to communicate openly.
 Business networking ethics - advocates that in order to maintain a business network, not
only should the organization provide open and fair access to all authorized users.
o Three types of networking, includes:
Utilitarian networking—Ensures that the networking is a true utility, truth-
ful, and is not wasting its users’ time.
Emotional networking—Ensures that users will empathize with being ethical
in all situations and emotion should not play a role.

Source of Information: MIS 10 – Management Information Systems – 10th Edition – Bidgoli - Cengage
 Virtuous networking—Ensures that all parties will act in good faith by shar-
ing honest goals and participating in legitimate activities.

Censorship
No organization controls the whole Web, so who decides what content should be on it?
Two types of information are available on the Web:
- Public information, posted by an organization or public agency, can be censored for public
policy reasons—such as not allowing military secrets to be published, lest the information
fall into enemy hands.
- Public information can also be censored if the content is deemed offensive to a political, reli-
gious, or cultural group.

Intellectual Property

A legal umbrella covering protections that involve copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, and patents
for “creations of the mind” developed by people or businesses.

Intellectual property can be divided into two categories:

- Industrial property (inventions, trademarks, logos, industrial designs, and so on)

- Copyrighted material, which covers literary and artistic works.

One aspect of intellectual property that has attracted attention recently is cybersquatting, also
known as domain squatting, which is registering, selling, or using a domain name to profit from
someone else’s trademark.

The Impact of Information Technology in the Workplace

Although information technology has eliminated some clerical jobs, it has created many new jobs
(described in Module 1) for programmers, systems analysts, database and network administrators,
network engineers, Webmasters, Web page developers, e-commerce specialists, chief information
officers, and technicians.

Information technologies have a direct effect on the nature of jobs. Telecommuting, also known as
virtual work, has enabled some people to perform their jobs from home (especially after the COVID-
19 break out).

By handling repetitive and boring tasks, information technologies have made many jobs more inter-
esting, resulting in more worker satisfaction.

Another impact of information technology is the creation of virtual organizations, which are net-
works of independent companies, suppliers, customers, and manufacturers connected via informa-
tion technologies so they can share skills and costs and have access to each other’s markets.5

Green Computing

Green computing involves the design, manufacture, use, and disposal of computers, servers, and
computing devices (such as monitors, printers, storage devices, and networking and communications
equipment) in such a way that there is minimal impact on the environment.

A successful green computing strategy cannot be fully implemented without the cooperation of both
the private and the public sector. Furthermore, both employees and top management must be in-
volved.

Source of Information: MIS 10 – Management Information Systems – 10th Edition – Bidgoli - Cengage