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Understanding Ethical, Social and Political Issues Related To It

This document discusses the ethical, social, and political issues related to information technology. It notes that IT can have both beneficial and harmful effects on society and individuals. Some key points made include: - IT raises new ethical questions as it enables both efficiency gains and job losses. It can empower citizens but also enable new forms of crime. - As computing power and data storage costs decline, more personal data can be processed and stored, increasing privacy and security concerns. - Real-world dilemmas discussed include monitoring employee email/internet usage, and aggregating consumer data which improves information but increases privacy and security risks. - Principles of technology ethics discussed are proportionality, justice, and minimizing unnecessary risks. Institutions

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javed alam
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60 views12 pages

Understanding Ethical, Social and Political Issues Related To It

This document discusses the ethical, social, and political issues related to information technology. It notes that IT can have both beneficial and harmful effects on society and individuals. Some key points made include: - IT raises new ethical questions as it enables both efficiency gains and job losses. It can empower citizens but also enable new forms of crime. - As computing power and data storage costs decline, more personal data can be processed and stored, increasing privacy and security concerns. - Real-world dilemmas discussed include monitoring employee email/internet usage, and aggregating consumer data which improves information but increases privacy and security risks. - Principles of technology ethics discussed are proportionality, justice, and minimizing unnecessary risks. Institutions

Uploaded by

javed alam
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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UNDERSTANDING ETHICAL, SOCIAL AND

POLITICAL ISSUES RELATED TO IT


IT SECURITY, ETHICS, AND SOCIETY

 IT has both beneficial


and harmful effects on
society and people
 Manage work activities
to minimize the harmful
effects of IT
 Optimize the beneficial
effects

2
ETHICS
• Principles of right and wrong

• Assumes individuals are acting


as free moral agents to make
choices to guide their behavior
ETHICAL ISSUES RELATED TO IT

 Info systems raise new ethical questions for


 Individuals
 Improveefficiency
 Cause many to lose jobs

 Societies
 Empowered citizen to better manage public issues
 Enable criminals to commit crime much easier
Information systems and Ethics
 Information
systems raise new ethical
questions because they create opportunities
Intense ( strong) social change,
Threatening existing distributions of power
Money
Rights
Obligations

New kinds of crime


THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ETHICAL, SOCIAL, AND
POLITICAL ISSUES IN AN INFORMATION SOCIETY

 Society as a calm pond


 IT as rock dropped in pond, creating
ripples of new situations not covered by
old rules
 Social and political institutions cannot
respond overnight to these ripples—it may
take years to develop etiquette,
expectations and laws
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ETHICAL, SOCIAL, AND
POLITICAL ISSUES IN AN INFORMATION SOCIETY
FIVE MORAL DIMENSIONS OF THE INFORMATION
AGE
• Information rights and obligations
(about ourselves, organization)

• Property rights and obligations


(protection of intellectual property rights)

• Accountability and control


(who will be held accountable if harm is done)

• System quality (standards of data and system quality)

• Quality of life (preservation of values, culture)


KEY TECHNOLOGY TRENDS THAT RAISE ETHICAL ISSUES

• Changes in technology have some obvious


positive consequences, but also create some
potentially or actual negative consequences.

• Computing power doubles every 18 months:


Dependence on computer systems increases,
and it becomes more cost effective to process
massive amounts of personal information.
KEY TECHNOLOGY TRENDS THAT RAISE ETHICAL ISSUES

 Rapidly declining data storage costs


 Lowers the cost of creating huge databases composed of private
information
 Data-mining advances
 Increases the ability of firms and governments to track the
movement of citizens throughout the life

 Networking advances and the Internet


 Remotely accessing personal data
SOME REAL-WORLD IT ETHICAL DILEMMAS
• Using systems to increase efficiency, and causing
unemployment
• Using systems to monitor employee e-mail to protect
valuable assets, but decreasing employee privacy
• Monitoring employee use of the Internet at work,
decreasing employee privacy

• Using huge databases to aggregate consumer


information, reducing the costs of information, but
increasing the chance of losing personal data to
criminals, terrorists, or others unethical work
PRINCIPLES OF TECHNOLOGY ETHICS
 Proportionality - The good achieved by the technology
must outweigh the harm or risk; there must be no
alternative that achieves the same or comparable benefits
with less harm or risk

 Justice
 The benefits and burdens of the technology should be distributed
fairly
 Those who benefit should bear their fair share of the risks

 Minimized Risk - The technology must be implemented so


as to avoid all unnecessary risk

12

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