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Chapter 1 Introduction Dr. Alaa El-Halees
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Outline Ethics Law and ethics Improving Corporate Ethics Professional Ethics Computer Ethics Kinds of Information Ethics IT professional issues
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Ethics The standards that determine whether an action is good or bad are called ethics
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Ethics Ethics is the field of study that is concerned with questions of value, i.e., judgments about what human behavior is "good" or "bad" in any given situation.
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Example The ATM Machine Can find it anytime Can find it anywhere Fast Cheap Also, Impact on employment unfriendliness and customer service Crime Privacy Errors and dependability So, are ATM’s a good or a bad
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Why we need to study Ethics Some Chooses are clear Most of us know that stealing, lying, and cheating are wrong These three actions are commonsense morality Others are Not Some ethical choices are harder when the situation is not as clear Lying may be wrong but if you visit a sick friend is it wrong to exaggerate how well they look? Some might lie about how the friend looks to achieve a perceived higher good Is it wrong to steal food is one is starving?
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What is ethical What is ethical? Sociologist replies the following: 1) "Ethics has to do with what my feelings tell me is right or wrong." 2) "Ethics has to do with my religious beliefs." 3) "Being ethical is doing what the law requires." 4) "Ethics consists of the standards of behavior our society accepts.
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Ethics - Example In 2011, an estimated 43 percent of all personal computer software in circulation worldwide was pirated—at a commercial value of $63 billion (USD). Zimbabwe (92%), Georgia (91%), Bangladesh (90%), Libya (90%), and Moldova (90%) are consistently among the countries with the highest rate of piracy. The United States (19%), Luxembourg (20%), Japan (21%), and New Zealand (22%) are consistently among the countries with the lowest piracy rate
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Ethics - Example Examples: Many employees might have their e-mail and Internet access monitored while at work, as employers struggle to balance their need to manage important company assets and work time with employees’ desire for privacy and self direction.
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Ethics -Example Millions of people have downloaded music, movies and multimedia at no charge and in apparent violation of copyright laws at tremendous expense to the owners of those copyrights.
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Ethics -Example Organizations contact millions of people worldwide through unsolicited e-mail (spam) as an extremely low-cost marketing approach.
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Ethics -Example Hackers break into databases of financial and retail institutions to steal customer information, then use it to commit identity theft—opening new accounts and charging purchases to unsuspecting victims.
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Ethics -Example Students around the world have been caught downloading material from the Web and plagiarizing content for their term papers
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Why Should we Care About Ethics So many ethical situations that we encounter each day that we should care. Some unethical actions can violate law. Others, though not illegal, can have drastic consequences for our careers and reputations. We should care about ethics for our own self interest.
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Outline Ethics Law and ethics Professional Ethics Computer Ethics Kinds of Information Ethics IT professional issues
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Law and Ethics Laws are written, approved, and then enforced by the level of government where they were written.
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Law and Ethics Ethics are contain a sense of right and wrong in regard to proper behavior. For example If a Doctor is unable to help you with your problem he has an ethical responsibility to refer you to a specialist, but there is not a law saying that he has to do that.
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Policy Vacuum Technology is changing faster than law. A policy vacuum is said to exist when there is no sufficiently standard law to govern a given situation. Example: In 1966, a programmer used computer code to keep his checking account from being flagged as overdrawn. When the bank discovered the crime the programmer could not be charged with a computer crime because no computer crime law existed. He was charged with making false bank records.
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Policy Vacuum and Computer Ethics A typical problem in Computer Ethics arises because there is a policy vacuum about how computer technology should be used. Computers provide us with new capabilities and these in turn give us new choices for action. Often, either no policies for conduct in these situations exist or existing policies seem inadequate. A central task of Computer Ethics is to determine what we should do in such cases, that is, formulate policies to guide our actions.
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Relationship between Ethics and Law The relationship between ethics and law leads to four possible states LegalNot Legal Ethical Not Ethical I I III IV
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Relationship between Ethics and Law I. Ethical and Legal Buying a spreadsheet program and using it to do accounting for clients II.Ethical but not Legal Copying copyrighted software to use only as a backup, even when the copyright agreement specifically prohibits copying for that purpose
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Relationship between Ethics and Law III. Not Ethical but Legal Revealing data that was expected to remain confidential – for example, gossiping by data entry operators, about the salary data they are processing Using a pirated version of a software product in a country that has no software copyright laws (policy vacuum) IV. Not Ethical and Not Legal Pirating copyrighted software Planting viruses in someone else’s computer system
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Outline Ethics Law and ethics Improving Corporate Ethics Professional Ethics Computer Ethics Kinds of Information Ethics IT professional issues
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Improving Corporate Ethics The risk of unethical behavior is increasing, so the improvement of business ethics is becoming more important. The following sections explain some of the actions corporation can take to improve business ethics. 1) Appointing a Corporate Ethics Officer Provides an organization with vision and leadership in the area of business conduct. Ideally, the corporate ethics officer should be a well-respected, senior-level manager who reports directly to the CEO.
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Improving Corporate Ethics 2) Establishing a Corporate Code of Ethics A code of ethics is a statement that highlights an organization’s key ethical issues and identifies the every values and principles that are important to the organization and its decision making.
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Improving Corporate Ethics 3) Conducting Social Audits In a social audit, an organization reviews how well it is meeting its ethical and social responsibility goals, and communicates its new goals for the upcoming year.
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Improving Corporate Ethics 4) Requiring Employees to Take Ethics Training One approach is through a comprehensive ethics education program that encourages employees to act responsibly and ethically. Such programs are often presented in small workshop formats in which employees apply the organization’s code of ethics to hypothetical but realistic case studies.
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Improving Corporate Ethics 5) Including Ethical Criteria in Employee evaluation Managers can ensure that employees are meeting performance expectations if they monitor employee behavior and provide feedback.
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Outline Ethics Law and ethics Improving Corporate Ethics Professional Ethics Computer Ethics Kinds of Information Ethics IT professional issues
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Professional Ethics Concerns one’s behavior and practice when carrying out Professional work e.g. consultant, researcher, nurse, doctor, Journalist…etc.
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Professional Ethics Professional Ethics must take into accounts: Relations between professionals and clients Relation between profession and society Relations among professionals Relations between employee and employer
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Outline Ethics Law and ethics Improving Corporate Ethics Professional Ethics Computer Ethics Kinds of Information Ethics IT professional issues
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Information Technology Ethics Computer ethics are the moral guidelines that govern the use of computers and information systems
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Information Technology Ethics Information technology ethics identifies and analyzes the impacts of information technology on such social and human values as health, wealth, work, opportunity, freedom, democracy, knowledge, privacy, security, etc.
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Why we study IT Ethics Because doing so will make us behave like responsible professionals. Because doing so will teach us how to avoid computer abuse and catastrophes. Because the advance of computing technology will continue to create temporary policy vacuums.
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Outline Ethics Law and ethics Professional Ethics Computer Ethics Kinds of Information Ethics IT professional issues
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Kinds of IT Ethics The subject of IT Ethics can be divided into three main areas. These are not mutually exclusive, but provide domains of the field in broad 1) Computer Usage issues, 2) Social and economical issues 3) IT professional issues, Computer Ethics Social computer Professional
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Computer Usage issues 1) Privacy 2) Intellectual property 3) Computer Abuse
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Privacy Privacy is a social arrangement that allows individuals to have some level of control over who is able to gain access to their personal information. Privacy used to mean making sure no one found your credit card sales receipt or got a copy of your e-mail, or any information about you from institutional database (i.e. you grade record in university).
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Intellectual property Intellectual property is any unique product of human intellect that has commercial value. Examples of Intellectual property are books songs,paintings, Invention, chemical formulas,computer programs and Websites.
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Computer Abuse The word abuse means that something is used beyond its normal use. Computer Abuse refers to the use of computer that is seen as harmful. Computer Abuse The unauthorized use of, or access to, a computer for purposes contrary to the wishes of the owner of the computer or the data held thereon.“
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Computer Abuse Examples of Computer Abuse: Hacking. Computer Virus Spam Denial-of-Service
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Social and Economical issues Each new development in information technology raises new social, economic, ethical and moral issues. Social and economic field focusing on the consequence of computing technologies on social and economic contexts
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Social and Economical issues “I am amazed when I meet computer professionals in business and industry or even computer science teachers in colleges and universities who fail to recognise that their profession has social and ethical consequences” Professor Terrell Ward Bynum Director, Research Center on Computing
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social and economical issues 1) Computer and Unemployment 2) The Digital Divide 3) Freedom of Expression 4) Pornography 5) Computer and Health 6) Computer and Education 7) Computer and environment
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Automation and Unemployment Computers don't require sleep, they don't get tired, they don't go home ill or take time off for rest and relaxation. At the same time, computers are often far more efficient than humans in performing many tasks. This encourage people to replace humans with computerized devices.
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Automation and Unemployment Indeed, in the industrialized world many workers already have been replaced by computerized devices -- bank tellers, auto workers, telephone operators, typists, graphic artists, security guards, assembly-line workers, and on and on. In addition, even professionals like medical doctors, lawyers, teachers, accountants and psychologists are finding that computers can perform many of their traditional professional duties quite effectively.
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The Digital Divide A term used to describe the difference between people who have access to the resources to use new information and communication tools, such as the Internet, And people who do not have the resources and access to the technology..
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The Digital Divide The term also describes the difference between those who have the skills, knowledge and abilities to use the technologies and those who do not. The digital divide can exist between those living in rural areas and those living in urban areas, between the educated and uneducated, between economic classes, and on a global scale between more and less industrially developed nations
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Freedom of Expression The digital revolution has reduced the costs of copying and distributing information drastically, to very small cost. This makes it easier for people to talk to and work with each other. Equally important, the digital revolution provides common standards and protocols for storing information and moving it from one place to another. These common standards make it easier for people to adjust with digital information.
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Freedom of Expression Lowering the costs of transmitting, distributing, creating, and modifying information has important democratizing and decentralizing effects.
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Pornography As our families become increasingly intertwined with internet, the more active role we must take to protect our children from Internet pornography. Although nothing can take the place of a well-informed parent that takes an active part in their children's online activities, Internet filter software adds a strong, additional layer of defense-giving parents an added measure of control and further peace of mind.
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Computer and Health These days, there are many people spending too much time on the internet while they may not realize themselves where or not it is too much. Therefore can be another type if addiction that have invaded the human
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Computer and Health Working with computers for long periods of time can cause: Stress Eyestrain Wrist injuries Neck and back problems Employers can be sued if they do not take steps to protect employees
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Computer and Education What is the Perfect Classroom? Clean white wall in front of the room Show video clips Project an computer screen image Write with special pens Touch sensitive Printing abilities Networked to each Student’s PDA
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Computer and Education Young Children Education needs to be visually stimulating actively involved Education starts at a very early age - 1 year Programs to teach colors, ABC, even foreign languages stressing participatory learning
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Computer and Education High School and Beyond Intelligent tutoring programs adapts based upon student responses Computer based tutorial Computer Simulation Simulation games
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Computer and Education High School and College Research Web searching Distance Learning Two way - Moodle Virtual University
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Computer and environment "Each year, between 20 and 50 million tons of electronic waste is generated globally. Most of it winds up in the developing world.” It called E-trash or E- Waste
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Computer and environment If computers thrown away, these computers can release toxins to the environment, potentially polluting the groundwater we drink and the air that we breathe. Recycling the resources in computers also eliminates the need to obtain these elements from nature, decreasing production impact on the environment
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Outline Ethics Law and ethics Professional Ethics Computer Ethics Kinds of Information Ethics IT professional issues
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Codes of conducts definitive sets of ethical standards such as: - Software Engineering Code of Ethics - Code of Ethics for Web Developer - Code of Ethics for Multimedia Developer - Code of ethics for Game Developers -
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IT professional issues Software Engineering Code of Ethics The Code contains Principles related to the behavior of and decisions made by professional software engineers Example Approve software only if they have a well-founded belief that it is safe, meets specifications, passes appropriate tests, and does not diminish quality of life, diminish privacy or harm the environment.
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IT professional issues Code of Ethics for Website Developer Web Developer shave a responsibility to make Internet as safe, as efficient and non-violent as possible. Example: Is it Ethical to design of any web sites, repeating windows or loops which lock the visitor into the web site
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Code of Ethics for Multimedia Developer Multimedia developers generate and operate graphic images, animations, sound, text and video into combined multimedia applications IT professional issues
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Example: When individuals take a part in multimedia project, the producer should obtain a release. A release is a formal written permission from the person to use their images, video or sound. IT professional issues
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Code of ethics for Game Developers As creators of interactive media, the developers Video Games should recognize the importance of the effect of ideas communicate through art.
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IT professional issues Example New research, from University of Adelaide, states that video games that contain gambling could be working as a gateway to real gambling.
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