1. CS417 Social and Ethical Issues in Computing
Adapted by:
Helala AlShehri
Original Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye”

2. Introductory preview to the developments, issues, themes and ethics.
Chapter 1: Unwrapping the gift

3. Outline Rapid Pace of Change New Developments and Dramatic Impacts
Issues and Themes
Ethics

4. The Ubiquity of Computers and the Rapid Pace of Change
The digital computer is a key technology of the modern era
It has been central and essential to key operations in modern industrial society.
Their impact will most likely increased over the next century.
Ubiquity: the capacity to be everywhere especially at the same time
It has been central and essential to key operations in modern industrial society: Including manufacturing, transport and distribution, government, the military, health services, education and research.
With pcs and floppy disks came computer viruses and the beginnings of a huge challenge to the concept of copyright. WHAT IS IT??
With came spam. DISADVANTAGE
With increased storage, speed, and connectivity came databases with details about our personal and financial lives. EX
With the web , browsers, and search engines, came easy access to pornography by children and more threats to privacy and challenges to copyright.
Online commerce brought identity theft and a variety of scams.
Cell phones increase risks of car accidents.
Discussion of social issues related to computers often focus on problems, and indeed we examine problems created by computer technologies throughout this book. Recognizing the benefits is important too.
As a summery:
We are vulnerable to their malfunction and misuse, creating problems such as computer crime, software theft, hacking, viruses, invasions of privacy, an over-reliance on intelligent machines and workplace stress, each of which has created one or more ethical dilemmas for the computer profession.

5. The Ubiquity of Computers and the Rapid Pace of Change
Problems accompany the conveniences and wonders of new computer technologies and applications:
Increased storage, speed, and connectivity
PCs, floppy disks
Web, browser, search engines
Online Commerce
Cell phones
With pcs and floppy disks came computer viruses and the beginnings of a huge challenge to the concept of copyright. WHAT IS IT??
With came spam. DISADVANTAGE
With increased storage, speed, and connectivity came databases with details about our personal and financial lives. EX
With the web , browsers, and search engines, came easy access to pornography by children and more threats to privacy and challenges to copyright.
Online commerce brought identity theft and a variety of scams.
Cell phones increase risks of car accidents.
Discussion of social issues related to computers often focus on problems, and indeed we examine problems created by computer technologies throughout this book. Recognizing the benefits is important too.
As a summery:
We are vulnerable to their malfunction and misuse, creating problems such as computer crime, software theft, hacking, viruses, invasions of privacy, an over-reliance on intelligent machines and workplace stress, each of which has created one or more ethical dilemmas for the computer profession.

6. New Developments and Dramatic Impacts
Several phenomena resulting from computer technology and the Internet that affect the society.
Blogs (Word made up from ‘web log’):
Began as outlets for amateurs who want to express ideas or creativity
Blogging began slowly, shortly before 2000, and took of in the early 2000s with the help of several development.
Appealing because present personal views, are funny and creative, and present a quirky perspective on current events
Now used as alternatives to typical news and for business public relations
Popular blogs have 100,000 to 500,000 readers per day and can peak at several million views per day
The following is a list of advantages and disadvantages of the computer: Disadvantages: 1. It can have negative effects on your social life and interactions with other people if you do not maintain the balance between time online and offline. 2. It may have a negative effect on your eyesight due to radiation, 6. Sitting in front of a computer for too long without exercise can cause a weight gain. Advantages: 1. It helps you automate various tasks that you cannot do manually,2. It helps you organize your data and information. 3. It has much more computing and calculating power then an ordinary human, It can help you communicate with friends, coworkers and other contacts.
In this section, we consider a brief sampling of such phonemena to illustrated the amazingly varied uses people find for new tools and technolgies.
Blogs: extremely popular, and they have a lot of impact on how people get news and entertainment.
Amateurs: a person who engages in a study, sport, or other activity for pleasure rather than for financial benefit or professional reasons.
Developments help the blogs to spread: SW to make blogging easy for nontechnical people, sites hosting blogs for free, sites indexing blogs, search tools, and software to alert readers whenever their favorite blogs are updated.
Appeal to people for several reasons: present personal views, are funny and creative, and present a quirky perspective on current events
Also, the independence of the bloggers attracts readers; it suggests a genuine connection with what ordinary people are thinking and doing, not filtered through major news companies or governments.
Popular blogs have 100,000 to 500,000 readers per day and can peak at several million views per day when they carry an important story or scoop

7. New Developments (cont.)
Video Sharing:
Rise of amateur videos on the web
Boom of websites like Youtube and Myspace
Many videos on the web can violate copyrights owned by entertainment companies
Less than 2 years after YouTube’s founding in 2005, people posted more than 65,000 videos a day and watched videos more than 100 millions times a day. Almost 30 million people viewed one particular video on MySpace; that is more than the number who watch most television shows.
Actually, silly videos sometimes attract big audiences. Why? Perhaps it indicates that people go these sites mostly for fun and relaxation

8. New Developments (cont.)
Cell Phones:
Can now be used for travel, last minute planning, taking pictures and downloading music
Talking on cell phones while driving is a problem
Cell phones can interfere with solitude, quiet and concentration
Cameras in cell phones and privacy issues
1- uses of cell phone
2- to be sure, new problems showed up with cell phone
Talking on cell phones while driving increases the risk of accident. Some states have passed laws prohibiting use of hand-held devices. Recent studies show hands-free devices, while freeing up the hands, do not reduce distractions, particularly among young adult and teenage drivers who often text message while driving.
Privacy: the state of being private.
Solitude: is a state of being alone without being lonely and can lead to self-awareness we can turn off our phones when we need … but some people can disturb us by their mobile
Cameras obviously have many valuable uses, but the fact that so many people carry them afects our privacy in public and nonpublic places So, Cameras in cell phones threaten privacy. Where is the line between capturing news events and evidence of crimes, and voyeurism?

9. New Developments (cont.)
Social Networking:
First online social networking site was in 1995
Myspace, founded in 2003 had roughly 100 million member profiles by 2006
Facebook was started at Harvard as an online version of student directories available at many colleges.
Provided a photo and a little bit of information about each student.
Facebook, one of the first social-networking sites, started at..
People found unexpected uses of social-networking sites, some good, some bad, some just quirky.
Friends may post racy profiles of friends as pranks, sometimes generating laughs, and sometimes generating serious embarrassment and other problems.
False identity
Sites like Second Life ( combine many of the features of social networking sites with the 3-D aspects of video games. What new problems/benefits arise when a person can take on a physical persona (an avatar) that may be completely different from who they are in real life? Some people with physical disabilities can interact with others without revealing their handicap.
What is Second Life?
Second Life is a 3D world where everyone you see is a real person and every place you visit is built by people just like you.

10. New Developments (cont.)
Collaboration:
Wikipedia, the online, collaborative encyclopedia
Open Directory Project (ODP)
Some collaborative projects have dangerous results.
Wikipedia;
Free online encyclopedia it illustrates another phenomenon new with the Internet: publication with no editorial board in control.
Thousands of voulnteers, not carefully selected scholars, write and continually edit and update Wikipedia. Anyone who chooses to participate can do so. Encyclopedias are normally written by expert scholars selected by editorial boards.
Some articles have some errors. Some are poorly written, some clearly biased.
People worry that the lack of editorial control means no accountability, no standards for quality, no way or the ordinary person to judge the value of the information.
ODP: Scientest collaborate on research with scientists in other countries much more easily and more often than they could without the Interent.
Informal communities of programmers, scattered around the world, create and maintain free sw.
Anti-abortion activists created a Web site for containing the names and home addresses of doctors who perform abortions; some o them were killed

11. New Developments (cont.)
What’s Next?
Medical records on chips attached to medical bracelets
Biological and computer sciences will combine new ways to insert micro-processors or controlled devices on human bodies
What will be the impact of wearware-(wearable computers)?
Thinking about the issues and arguments discussed in this book should help prepare us to face the issues these new application raise.

12. Introduction to Some Issues and Themes
Some negative impact of the new technology
Unemployment.
Alienation.
Poor Customer Service.
Crime.
Loss of Privacy.
Errors
Some positive impact of the new technology
Convenience.
New types of jobs.
More options for transactions.
Improvements in crime-fighting.
Small error rate.
Analyzing and evaluating the impact of a new technology can be difficult. Some of the changes are obvious. some are more subtle.
Even when benefits are obvious, their costs and side effects might not be, and vice versa.
Q: Which positive OR negative aspects of new technology have you experienced?

13. Introduction to Some Issues and Themes
ATM/online banking example
Negative Impacts
Positive Impacts
Number of people working as bank teller is dropped
Unemployment
Human contact between the customer and the teller is removed
Alienation & poor customer service
People are roped after withdrawing cash at ATM.
crime
Every transaction is recorded in the database.
Loss of privacy
An error in the computer program of the ATM for a large New York bank cause accounts to be debited twice.
Error
Automation causes changes in the jobs people do
Unemployment
Automated systems can handle many services that people used to provide
Alienation & poor customer service
The banking industry developed many approaches to reducing ATM crime (emergency button, cameras,…etc.)
crime
The records kept are not serious privacy problem.
Loss of privacy
The New York bank corrected the error quickly. The error rate of ATM is quite small.
Error
We use an early application, the automated teller machine (ATM), and a Web application, online banking, to introduce some issues we discuss in more detail thought the book.
Why do we use ATMs and online banking? Because they are convenient. They enable us to check our account balance, withdraw cash… at any time of day or night, at locations that are more accessible than our bank branch. BUT what are the negative aspects?
** In groups, try to do similar analysis for , say, cell phones or for ordering medicines from a website
an early application, the ATM/online banking example, to introduce some issues.

14. Introduction to Some Issues and Themes
Sources for Solutions to Problems (P.42) :
Technology.
Management.
Law.
Education.
The market.
Q: Describe how one of the above provides a solution to a problem created by new technology.
PAGE42
Solutions for problems that result from new technologies come from more or improved technology, the market, management policies, education and public awareness, volunteer efforts, and law.
Through this course, when we consider problem we consider solutions from several categories:
Technology. Technical solutions involve Hw and SW. ATM:
HW improved lighting near ATMs to reduce crime ,
SW correct errors (SW can prevent the double-debit problem we described early)
Management: management Solutions are helpful business policies monitor the ATM health and cash status, initiate fixes, distribute screen content and software patches remotely, giving us direct accountability for managing and driving superior performance in ATM network availability.
Law: legal solutions include effective law enforcement, criminal penalties,… Hail Story: Entertainment card
Education: computer & ATM users should be educated about the tool used
The market: market mechanisms , such as competition and consumer demand, generating many improvements Online banking through mobile application based on user demands.

15. Discussion Question
Software theft is one of the new social problems caused by computerization.
Explain the serious impacts of this issue.

16. Ethics Study of what it means to “do the right thing”
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 use of such technology
Study of what it means to “do the right thing”
Assumes people are rational and make free choices
Rules to follow in our interactions and our actions that affect others
We might view ethical rules as fundamental and universal or we could view them as rules we make up
In this section , we introduce several ethical theories. We discuss some distinction between ethics and laws for example that are important to understand when tackling ethical issues
Moore’s definition focuses on the human actions that are routed in computer technology or
influenced by computer technology. In other words, it is an analysis of the val-ues of human actions influenced by computer technology. Computer influence
on human actions is widespread throughout the decision-making process preceding an action.
 Ethical theoreis assumes people are rational …neither of these conditions is always absolutely true. People act emotionally, and they make mistakes. Free choices and use of rational judgment are capacities and characteristics of human beings

17. Ethics Ethical Dilemmas for Computer Users:
Some of these dilemmas are new (such as copying software), while others are new version of older problems dealing with right and wrong, honesty, loyalty, responsibility, confidentiality, trust, accountability, and fairness.
Users face some of these problems while computer professionals face all of them.

18. Ethics Ethical Dilemmas for Computer Users:
ACM (Association for Computing Machinery)
IEEE-CS (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers - Computer Society
BCS (British Computer Society)
IFIP (International Federal for Information Processing) have developed professional codes to cover these.
Which is more important: access to affordable software or intellectual property rights? How do we protect developers so that they have the necessary incentive to be creative?
Is hacking always wrong? Creating viruses?
Who is responsible when a computer system fails to perform as it is supposed to? What kind of warranty should there be and from whom?
What information on a database should be private? When are they doing us a service by providing that information?
To what extent can we trust intelligent systems? Should we fund military systems?
How should health hazards in the workplace be handled? Should we allow employers to monitor employee activities?

19. Ethics A variety of ethical views: Deontology Utilitarianism
Natural rights
For centuries in different societies human actions have been judged good or bad,
right or wrong, based on theories or systems of justice developed, tested, revised,
and debated by philosophers and/or elders in that society. Such theories are commonly
known as ethical theories
Although there is much agreement about general ethical rules, there are many different theories about how to establish a firm justification for the rules and how to decide what is ethical in specific cases.
Here , we give very brief descriptions of a few approaches to ethics.

20. Ethics Theories: Deontology
People have a duty to do the right thing, even if it produces a bad result.
It would be wrong to tell a lie in order to save a friend.
One problem: no importance for consequences.
Kant thought that it was possible to develop a consistent moral system by using reason.
This would apply to any rational beings in any universe that might ever exist
The theory of deontological reason does not concern itself with the consequences of the action but rather with the will of the action.
An action is good or bad depending on the will inherent in it. According to deontological theory, an act is considered good if the individual committing it had a good reason to do so. This theory has a duty attached to it. In fact, the word “deontology” comes from two Greek words, deon meaning duty, and logos meaning science[2]. For example, we know that killing is bad, but if an armed intruder enters your house and you kill him or her, your action is good, according to deontologists. You did it because you had a duty to protect your family and property
Immanuel Kant (Philosopher often presented as the prime example of a deontologist) contributed many important ideas to ethical theory. (Here 3 of them are mentioned).
Universality: we should follow rules of behaviour that we can universally apply to everyone.
Logic: Kant believed that rationality is the standard of what is good.
One must: here Kant stated a principle about interacting with other people
One Pb.: Kant took an extereme position on the absolutism of ethical rules. He argued for example, that it is always wrong to lie. Most people would agree that there are cases in which even very good, universal rules should be broken , because of the consequence.

21. Ethics Theories: Utilitarianism
Maximize utility (happiness):
This theory puts a group’s interest and happiness above those of an individual, for the good of many.
Person’s utility: what satisfies the person’s needs and values.
Calculating the “net” utility by considering the consequences.
An action is right if it tends to increase aggregate utility, wrong otherwise.
Act utilitarianism: Choose the best act to maximize happiness
Rule utilitarianism: Choose the best rule to maximize happiness
Unlike egoism, this theory puts a group’s interest and happiness above those of an individual, for the good of many. Thus, an action
is good if it benefits the maximum number of people. Among the forms of utilitarianism are the following:
• Act utilitarianism: tells one to consider seriously the consequences of all actions before choosing the one with the best overall advantage, happiness in this case, for the maximum number of people [3]. for each action, we consider the impact of each action on the utility and judge based on it.
• Rule utilitarianism: tells one to obey those rules that bring the maximum happiness to the greatest number of people. Rule-utilitarianism
maintains that a behavioral code or rule is good if the consequences of adopting that rule are favorable to the greatest number of people (ethical rule)

22. Liberties Liberties are also called negative rights Right to life
Don’t stop me from having these rights.
Right to life
Right to liberty
Right to property
How, by respecting to the a set of fundamental rights to others including …
These rights are some times called natural right because they come from nature, or can be derived from the nature of huminty.

23. Claim Rights Positive rights Food? Shelter? Medical treatment?
An obligation to do something for me
Food?
Shelter?
Medical treatment?

24. Ethics Difference between wrong and harm
Personal preference and ethics
Law and Ethics:
Ethical acts may be illegal
Illegal acts may be ethical
Some legislation relate to ethical concerns and some do not