4.1 © 2007 by Prentice Hall Week 04 Chapter 4: Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems Chapter 4: Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems

4.1 © 2007 by Prentice Hall

Week 04Week 04

Chapter 4:Chapter 4:

Ethical and Social Issues Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systemsin Information Systems

Chapter 4:Chapter 4:

Ethical and Social Issues Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systemsin Information Systems


LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Management Information SystemsManagement Information SystemsChapter 4 Ethical and Social Issues in Information SystemsChapter 4 Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems

• Analyze the relationships among ethical, social, and political issues that are raised by information systems.

• Identify the main moral dimensions of an information society and specific principles for conduct that can be used to guide ethical decisions.

• Evaluate the impact of contemporary information systems and the Internet on the protection of individual privacy and intellectual property.

• Assess how information systems have affected everyday life.


Does Location Tracking Threaten Privacy?

• Problem: New opportunities from new technology and need for greater security.

• Solutions: Redesigning business processes and products to support location monitoring increases sales and security.

• Deploying GPS and RFID tracking devices with a location tracking database enables location monitoring.

• Demonstrates IT’s role in creating new opportunities for improved business performance

• Illustrates how technology can be a double-edged sword by providing benefits such as increased sales and security while compromising privacy.



Understanding Ethical and Social Issues Related to Systems

• Ethics : principles of right and wrong that individuals, acting as free moral agents, use to make choices to guide their behaviors.

• Information systems were instrumental in many of frauds.

• In many cases, the perpetrators of the crimes artfully used financial reporting information systems to bury their decisions from public scrutiny in the vain hope they would never be caught.




• Recent examples of failed ethical judgment by managers:• Enron: Top three executives convicted for

misstating earnings using illegal accounting schemes and making false representations to shareholders. Bankruptcy declared in 2001.

• WorldCom : second-largest US telecommunications firm. Chief executive convicted for improperly inflating revenue by billions using illegal accounting methods. Bankruptcy declared in July 2002 with $ 41 billion in debts.




• Recent examples of failed ethical judgment by managers (cont.):• Brocade Communications: CEO convicted for

backdating stock options and concealing millions of dollars of compensation expenses from shareholders.

• Parmalat : Ten executives in Italy’s eighth-largest industrial group convicted for misstating more than $5 billion in revenues, earnings, and assets over several years.

• Bristol-Myers Squibb : Pharmaceutical firm agreed to pay a fine of $150 million for misstating its revenues by $ 1.5 billions, and inflating its stock value.




• IT can be used to achieve social progress, but it can also be used to commit crimes and threaten cherished social values.

• Ethical issues have been given new urgency by the rise of the Internet and e-commerce: the appropriate use of customer information, the protection of personal privacy and the protection of intellectual property.



Ethical Issues Raised by Informations Systems

• Establishing accountability for the consequences of IS

• Setting standards to safeguard system quality that protects the safety of the individual and society

• Preserving values and institutions considered essential to the quality of life in an information society.




• A model for thinking about ethical, social, and political issues

• Five moral dimensions of the information age• Information rights and obligations• Property rights and obligations• Accountability and control• System quality• Quality of life

• Key technology trends that raise ethical issues



The Relationship Between Ethical, Social, and The Relationship Between Ethical, Social, and Political Issues in an Information SocietyPolitical Issues in an Information Society

Figure 4-1

The introduction of new information technology has a ripple effect, raising new ethical, social, and political issues that must be dealt with on the individual, social, and political levels. These issues have five moral dimensions: information rights and obligations, property rights and obligations, system quality, quality of life, and accountability and control.




Technology Trends that Raise Ethical Issues

1. Trend: Computing power doubles every 18 months• Impact: More organizations depend on computer systems for

critical operations.

2. Trend: Data storage costs rapidly• Impact: Organizations can easily maintain detailed databased

on individuals.

3. Trend: Data analysis advances• Companies can analyze vast quantities of data gathered on

individuals to develop detailed profiles of individual behavior.

4. Trend: Networking advances & the Internet• Copying data from one location to another and accessing

personal data from remote locations are much easier.



Five moral dimensions of the information age

1. Information rights and obligations• The rights that individuals & organizations have with respect

to information that pertains to themselves.

2. Property rights and obligations• The rights that individuals & organizations have with respect

to property in a digital society.

3. Accountability and control• The mechanisms for assessing responsibility for decisions

made and actions taken.

4. System quality• Standards of data & system quality that should protect

individual rights & the safety of society.

5. Quality of life• Values that should be preserved in an information &

knowledge-based society?





• Read the Interactive Session: Management, and then discuss the following questions:

• Do data brokers pose an ethical dilemma? Explain your answer.

• What are the problems caused by the proliferation of data brokers? What management, organization, and technology factors are responsible for these problems?

• How effective are existing solutions to these problems?

• Should the U.S. federal government regulate private data brokers? Why or why not? What are the advantages and disadvantages?

Data for Sale


• Basic concepts: responsibility, accountability,

liability

• Ethical analysis

• Candidate ethical principles

• Professional codes of conduct

• Some real-world ethical dilemmas

Ethics in an Information Society



• Basic concepts: • Responsibility: a key element of ethical action, means you

accept the potential costs, duties & obligations for the

decisions you make. • Accountability: a feature of systems & social institutions,

means that mechanisms are in place to determine who

took responsible action, who is responsible.• Liability: a feature of political systems in which body of

laws is in place that permits individuals to recover the

damages done to them by other actors, systems or

organizations.




• Ethical Analysis: • Identify & describe clearly the facts.• Define the conflict or dilemma & identify the

higher-order values involved.• Identify the stakeholders• Identify the options that you can reasonably take• Identify the potential consequences of your

options




• Candidate Ethical Principles: • Golden Rule: “Do unto other as you would have

them do unto you”• Immanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative: “If an

action is not right for everyone to take, it is not

right for anyone”• Descartes’ rule of change: “If an action cannot

be taken repeatedly, it is not right to take at all”• Utilitarian Principle: “Take the action that

achieves the higher or greater value”




• Candidate Ethical Principles (cont.)• Risk Aversion Principle: “Take the action that

produces the least harm or the least potential

cost”• Ethical ‘no free lunch rule’ : “Assume that

virtually all tangible and intangible objects are

owned by someone else unless there is a

specific declaration otherwise. If something

someone else has created is useful to you, it has

value, and you should assume the creator wants

compensation for this work.”




• Information rights: Privacy and freedom in the

Internet Age• The European directive on data protection

• Internet challenges to privacy

• Technical solutions

• Property rights: Intellectual property• Trade secrets

• Copyright

• Patents

• Challenges to intellectual property rights

The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems





How Cookies Identify Web VisitorsHow Cookies Identify Web Visitors

Figure 4-3Cookies are written by a Web site on a visitor’s hard drive. When the visitor returns to that Web site, the Web server requests the ID number from the cookie and uses it to access the data stored by that server on that visitor. The Web site can then use these data to display personalized information.


• Accountability, liability, and control• Computer-related liability problems

• System quality: Data quality and system errors

• Quality of life: Equity, access, and boundaries

• Balancing power: Center versus periphery

• Rapidity of change: Reduced response time to competition

• Maintaining boundaries: Family, work, and leisure

• Dependence and vulnerability




• Quality of life: Equity, access, and boundaries (cont’d)

• Computer crime and abuse

• Employment: Trickle-down technology and reengineering

job loss

• Equity and access: Increasing racial and social class

cleavages

• Health risks: RSI, CVS, and Technostress






The The Spamming Spamming ProblemProblem

Figure 4-5 This figure shows the major types of products and services hawked through spam e-mail messages and the industries that receive the most spam.


• Read the Interactive Session: Organizations, and then discuss the following questions:

• Does use of the Internet by children and teenagers pose an ethical dilemma? Why or why not?

• Should parents restrict use of the Internet by children or teenagers? Why or why not?

The Internet: Friend or Foe to Children?




• What ethical, social and political issues are raised by IS ?

• The main ethical, social, and political issues raised by IS center around information right and obligations, property rights & obligations, accountability & control, system quality, and quality of life.


Review Summary


• What specific principles for conduct can be used to guide ethical decisions ?

• Six ethical principles for judging conduct include :

a. Golden Rule

b. Immanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative

c. Descartes’ rule of change

d. Utilitarian Principle

e. Risk Aversion Principle

f. Ethical “no free lunch”

• Those principles should be used in conjunction with an ethical analysis.


Review Summary


• Why do contemporary IS technology and the Internet pose challenges to the protection of individual privacy and intellectual property ?

• Traditional copyright laws are insufficient to protect against software piracy because digital material can be copied so easily and transmitted to many different locations simultaneously over the Internet.


Review Summary


• How have IS affected everyday life ?

• Computer errors can cause serious harm to individuals & organizations.

• Poor data quality is also responsible for disruptions and losses for businesses.

• Jobs can be lost when computers replace workers or task become unnecessary in reengineered business processes.

• Widespread use of computer increases opportunities for computer crime and computer abuse.

• Computers can also create health problems, such as RSI, computer vision & technostress.


Review Summary

Documents

4.1 © 2007 by Prentice Hall Week 04 Chapter 4: Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems Chapter 4: Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems