Spring-2025

8th Semester (CS & DS)

Turn off your Cell phone

IT-406: ETHICAL & LEGAL
ISSUES IN COMPUTING
Ismat Ullah Khan Marwat
Assistant Professor
Department of Computer Science & IT
University of Engineering & Technology,
Peshawar
[email protected]
 TEXT BOOK
1. [Kenneth, E. Himma, Herman, T. Tavani]
The Handbook of information and computer
ethics
2. [Luciano, Floridi] The Cambridge Handbook
Thank you for
of Information andyour patience and
computer ethics
participation
3. Computer Ethics – A case-based approach
???
by Robert N. Barger
4. Ethical and Social Issues in the Information
Age by Joseph MiggaKizza
5. [Sara, Baase] A Gift of Fire Social, Legal,
and Ethical Issues
6. [Stacey L. Edgar] Morality and Machines –
Second Ed
 REFERENCE BOOKS

Thank you for your patience and

participation

Any latest
??? book/online resources
 Agenda
 Course description & objectives
 Computer Ethics
 Difference
Thank youBetween Lawandand Ethics
for your patience
participation
 The Subjects of Ethics
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 History of Computer Ethics
 Diversity of Ethical Issues
 Vacuum of Policies
 Course Description
This course aims to equip the student
with the intellectual tools to make
effective, reasoned and justifiable
moral decisions relating to the IT
domain within appropriate legal and
social frameworks.
 COURSE OBJECTIVES
This course is designed to:
• Explore the nature/characteristics and
principles of ethics-- including personal,
professional, and corporate ethics -- in
a computing context.
• Address the interplay/relationship between
ethics on the one hand and law,
society, politics, economy, justice,
responsibility, honesty on the other.
(Compare with the Islamic principles)
• Explore specific ethical issues raised by the
ubiquity of computer and information
technology in today's society.
 COURSE OBJECTIVES
• Review and analyses the effects of
computer technology on the society, and
to anticipate/predict the impact of that
technology on individuals,
companies and the wider
community.
• Select from the many algorithms for the
implementation of computer applications
those that will not only satisfy the needs
of the economy but also those that will
have higher factors of safety, greater
sensitivity to user needs, and
increased reliability.
 COURSE OBJECTIVES
• Interpret/understand the social and legal
context in which a particular system is
being used and deduce its likely impact.
• Develop/utilize strategies and
policies to address a range of
ethical, social, and legal issues
arising from developments in computing.
• Distinguish between the various forms of
intellectual property (patent,
copyright, trademark, and trade
secret).
• Evaluate the privacy issues related to
ETHICS
“The discipline dealing with what
is good and bad or right and
wrong or with moral duty and
obligation.”

“The rules of conduct

recognized with respect to a
particular class of human actions
or a particular group, culture, etc.”

“That branch of philosophy

dealing with values relating to
human conduct, with respect to
the rightness and wrongness of
certain actions and to the
goodness or badness of the
motives and ends of such
actions.”
 ETHICS
Philosophy is the study of the general and fundamental
nature of reality, existence, knowledge, values,
reason, mind, and language
Philosophy: is an academic discipline that exercises
reason and logic in an attempt to understand reality
and answer to fundamental questions about knowledge, life,
morality and human nature.
Greeks word – meaning – LOVE OF WISDOM
(perception/insight/sense/intelligence etc)
Questions:
What is the meaning and purpose of life
How do we know what we know ?
Does ALLAH exist ?
In philosophy, the study of the basic meaning of reality is called
metaphysics – it is concerned with explaining the features of
reality that exist beyond the physical world and our
immediate senses. Therefore, metaphysics uses logic based
on the meaning of human terms.
 Computer Ethics
“Computer Ethics is a branch of practical philosophy
which deals with how computing professionals should
make decisions regarding professional and social
conduct.”
“Computer ethics deals with the procedures, values
and practices that govern the process of consuming
computing technology and its related disciplines without
damaging or violating the moral values and beliefs
of any individual, organization or entity”.
Freedom of expression ?
Gender equality or biasedness ?

“Computer ethics is a concept in ethics that addresses

the ethical issues and constraints that arise from the use
of computers, and how they can be mitigated or
prevented.”
 Computer Ethics

According to James H. Moore, who is

believed to have first coined the phrase
“computer ethics,” computer ethics is
the analysis of the nature and social
impact of computer technology, and the
corresponding formulation and
justification of policies for the ethical
 Computer Ethics
• “Computer ethics” also has been
used to refer to a kind of
professional ethics in which
computer professionals apply codes
of ethics and standards of good
practice within their profession.
• In addition, other more specific
names, like “cyberethics” and
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-computer/
 Computer Ethics
For example

While it is easy to duplicate copyrighted

electronic (or digital) content, computer
ethics would suggest that it is wrong to do
so without the author's approval. And while
it may be possible to access someone's
personal information on a computer system,
computer ethics would advise that such an
action is unethical.
Thank you for your patience and
participation

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The Distinction between Law and
Ethics
Unethical but legal
• Making advertising or marketing claims that you know
will mislead people
• Divorce
• Drinks
• Prostitution
Ethical but illegal
It is illegal to run a traffic light or over speed even
though it is ethical if someone's life depended on it…
like if you had to rush them to the hospital. Also for a
judge and a teacher.
It is illegal to work "off the clock" (voluntarily or not) if
you are an hourly employee even though it might be the
ethical thing to do in order to help the company progress
forward.
It is illegal to let someone else use your prescription
asthma inhaler even though it might be the ethical thing
The Distinction between Law and Ethics

“In law a man is guilty when

he violates the rights of
others.

In ethics he is guilty if he only

thinks of doing so.”

Immanuel
Thank you for your patience and
participation

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 The Subjects of Ethics
• By “subjects of ethics,” means those
persons to whom ethics applies.
• The subjects of ethics are basically
individual human beings. Human
beings are the subjects of ethics
because they are free in their actions
and therefore are responsible.
• To the extent that a person’s actions
or choices are constrained in some
way, then to that same extent a
person is not acting or choosing
freely.
 Cont…
• Besides individuals,
corporate/organization (artificial
person) may also be the subjects of
ethics.

Institutions and organizations must

bear responsibility for their corporate
activity just as individuals bear
responsibility for their individual
activity.
History of Computer Ethics
1940s and 1950s
• MIT professor Norbert Wiener during World
War II (early 1940s); he helped to develop
an antiaircraft cannon capable of shooting
down fast warplanes
• In 1950 Wiener published his monumental
computer ethics book, “The Human Use
of Human Beings cybernetics and
society” which not only established him
as the founder of computer ethics, but far
more importantly, laid down a
comprehensive computer ethics
foundation which remains today – half a
http://dehn.slu.edu/courses/fall06/493/ComputerEthics.html
century later (more than)
History of Computer Ethics
• Wiener's foundation of computer
ethics was far ahead of its time, and
it was virtually ignored for decades.
• In his view, the integration of
computer technology into society will
eventually constitute the remaking of
society -- the "second industrial
revolution".

http://dehn.slu.edu/courses/fall06/493/ComputerEthics.html
History of Computer Ethics
1960
In the mid 1960s, Donn Parker of SRI (Stanford
Research Institute)International in Menlo Park,
California began to examine unethical and illegal
uses of computers by computer professionals. "It
seemed," Parker said, "that when people entered
the computer center they left their ethics at the
door.“

He collected examples of computer crime and

other unethical computerized activities. He
published "Rules of Ethics in Information
Processing" in Communications of the ACM in 1968,
and headed the development of the first Code of
Professional Conduct for the Association for
Computing Machinery (eventually adopted by the
ACM in 1973).
History of Computer Ethics
1970s
During the late 1960s, Joseph Weizenbaum, a
computer scientist at MIT in Boston, created a
computer program that he called ELIZA
In the mid 1970s, Walter Maner (then of Old Dominion
University in Virginia; now at Bowling Green State
University in Ohio) began to use the term "computer
ethics" refer to that field of inquiry dealing with
ethical problems aggravated/exaggerated,
transformed or created by computer technology.
Maner offered an experimental course on the subject at
Old Dominion University.
In 1978 he also self-published and
disseminated his Starter Kit in Computer
Ethics, which contained curriculum materials
History of Computer Ethics
1980s
In the mid-80s, James Moore of Dartmouth
College published his influential article
"What Is Computer Ethics?“
Deborah Johnson of Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute published Computer Ethics , his
first textbook
1990s-Onward
History of Computer Ethics
Today’s computer ethics primarily focusses on the
moral principles guiding the use of digital
technology.
Key aspects of computer ethics today
include:
• Data Privacy
• Cybersecurity
• Intellectual Property Rights
• Online Conduct
 Scope

Consider scenarios on coming

slides
Scenario 1
Scenario 2
Scenario 2 Cont….
Scenario 3
 Varieties of Questions
1st Scenario raises a question for
personal decision making and
inextricably tied to law.
• Is it morally permissible for
individual to break the law?
• If so when the law breaking
justified?
2nd Scenario also raises a question for
individual decision making, but here the
decision has to do with establishing a
policy for company.. Good for company
but at what expense.
 Varieties of Questions
3rd Scenario raises a question not only
personal values but much has to do
with the profession of computing.
• That is computing professionals
have a collective responsibility to
ensure that computing serve
humanity as well
.
Diversity of Ethical issues

All the previous slides shows that

there can be various issues
New Possibilities and a Vacuum of
Policies
Computer and IT is not the first technology to
raise moral concerns.
• Nuclear power, atom bomb
New technologies seems to pose ethical issues
when they create new possibilities for human
• Stem cell research, cloning? Stem cells therapy
; used to replace the dead cells
• Should I donate my organs for transplantation
(stem cells)
• Should we gather information about individuals
New possibilities created by technologies are not
always good. Have mixed values
They should be evaluated, legally, morally as well as
economically and environmentally
• Should Kala Bagh dam be constructed??
New Possibilities and a Vacuum of
Policies
Technical possibilities are sometimes rejected after
evaluation
• Biological weapon also known as Germs
bomb( assume covid-19 etc),
• Nuclear weapons
So it is with computer. Enormous possibilities
• Man reached moon, exploring mars and universe
• Made human life a comfort, Countless things
But at same time
• Computer is inherent and most important part of
weapons of mass destructions (WMDs)
So the possibilities created by computer and
information technology needs to be evaluated
• Morally, legally and in other ways (economically,
environmentally etc.)
James Moore (1985)
Professionals face new ethical questions
due to the use of computer technology
"vacuum of rules or policies" leaves these
computer professions with no guidance

So

Computer Ethics should determine

what our policies should be ???
 Vacuum of policies
Early computing took place in businesses,
government, and educational institutions, the
privacy of files was not so obvious. (Lack of policies
about the ownership of software). It wasn’t clear
that software should be considered private property
as well.
But now things are changing. Much more
awareness than previous.
Initially there were no formal policies or laws
prohibiting access to information stored on a
mainframe computer.
Today, it may seem obvious that computer files
should be treated as private.
It wasn’t clear whether software be considered
private property at all. It was understood simply to
 Vacuum of policies
However with advancement, new
policy vacuum get created.
• Is it ethical for a company to
place a cookie on the computer of
a person who visit their site ?
• Is data mining morally acceptable
?
• Who should be responsible for
wrong information on electronic
bulletin boards?
• Should surgery be performed
 Filling the Vacuum
It’s a complex issue.
We find moral landscape that is fluid and
sometimes politically controversial.
• Is internet an appropriate domain for
free and controlled expression?
• So can we distinguish different types of
expression and protect them in different
way?
• Can we protect children while not
diminishing adult expression and access?

So what are the ways available??

 Traditional Account
All that is necessary to take traditional
moral norms and the principle on which
they are based and apply them to new
situations (precedence)
E.g. existing law about copyright has been
extended to the computer software.
This account is important both as
descriptive and as a normative (describes
how should be filled and recommends)
But does it solves the problems?.
 Traditional Account
Like it describe to do something in a
specific situation
Or recommends to extend existing norms
and laws.
• Can these be followed. Just consider
different cultural and religious norms.?
• Has the technology matured or
growing??
• Applying copyright and patent law to
software was so difficult as software is
totally different.
• Can we simply extend existing laws as
Thank you for your patience and
participation
???