CS 3043 Social Implications Of Computing 9/18/2015© 2004 Keith A. Pray 1 Class 5 Professional Ethics Keith A. Pray Instructor socialimps.keithpray.net

CS 3043 Social Implications Of Computing*
Here’s the title slide. Excited already, aren’t you?
CS 3043 Social Implications Of Computing
© 2007 Keith A. Pray
The Point:
“The ability to share files was one the reasons the internet was first used; scientists wanted to share research information. As the internet evolved and more people joined; filesharing systems sprung up. Users used these systems to share both legal and illegal (copyrighted) files.
Sharing copyright material is unethical because it is stealing.
*
*
This is a good way to make a point, simply state it. Some may find it easier to begin with the point, but as long as it occurs fairly quickly all is good.
Justify Point:
“Some people argue that it is not stealing because you are not taking anything tangible. Stealing is defined as taking or appropriating (another’s property or idea) without permission. The pro-filesharing argument seems to have forgotten about intellectual property. The makers of copyrighted material took time, effort and money to develop it. Think about a movie. Hundreds of people worked on it, from the person who wrote the script, to the props person who searched high and low to find the perfect apple pie for some scene. These people need to make a living and when file-sharers steal the movie without paying for it the film industry loses money because their intellectual property was stolen. The cost of the physical CD or DVD is only a small part of the cost of developing material.
The point was clearly the result of a thought process.
Defend Against Counterpoint:
“There are arguments from filesharers who try to justify their action by saying that filesharing is not bad because they would have never bought the CD anyway. That is analogous to someone saying that it is okay to steal a plasma screen television because they would have never bought it anyway. Others argue that filesharing helped them discover a new artist. This argument is also incredibly flawed. If the recoding company wants to market an artist by allowing certain songs to be released and free to download, that is their prerogative . It’s not up to the users to determine when it’s okay to download files that are not theirs even if they believe that it is beneficial to the artist. It’s up to the owner of the material.”
*
*
Here is a clearly stated counterpoint and a defense against it.
Ethics: No definition provided.
Give a shot at providing one for the purposes of this class.
Prostitution as a Profession
In The Netherlands Prostitution is regulated as extensively as pharmacies are here. Prostituted are required to have a clean bill of health to work and are required to have a government certification to practice Prostitution. Prostitution is also unionized in the Netherlands and standard for the various forms of prostitution are regulated by the unions.
In Nevada the state government regulated Prostitution to a much higher degree and restricts when and where it can be conducted and what forms can be practiced. Due to the small nature of the business (apx 300 Prostitutes in all in 2004) no unionization has occurred but from brothel to brothel the procedure for receiving a client and conducting services has been standardized.
*
*
Where male prostitutes treated differently than female prostitutes as far as this material is concerned?
*
*
Has Craig made a good case for prostitution being categorized as a profession? I do not see a formal education or required skill set. Standards of performance seem to be missing as well. Do they have a code of ethics?
Licensing vs. Certification - Bob Darneille
Licensing is performed by governmental entities and professional associations to whom the government has delegated, and is done with the purpose of ensuring breadth and depth of knowledge in a field.
Texas has begun licensing software engineers
Licensing criteria for software engineers is currently under debate within IEEE.
Certification is performed by technology vendors and third-party organizations, and is done with regards to an individual’s level of skill with particular pieces of software or technology.
Sample technology vendors sponsoring certifications for users of their technologies:
Microsoft Corporation, Apple Inc., Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, MySQL, Novell, Oracle Corporation, Red Hat, and Sun Microsystems
Sample third-party organizations sponsoring certifications:
Linux Professional Institute, SANS Institute, Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA), and XML Master
associations to whom the government has delegated. Certification is
performed by technology vendors, professional organizations, and other
third-party organizations.
Licensing is a legal, mandatory process done with the purpose of ensuring
breadth and depth of knowledge in a field. Certification is a voluntary
process done with the purpose of ensuring an individual's level of skill
with respect to particular pieces of software or technology.
When it comes to software engineering and computer technology in general,
there are numerous certifications available from many organizations. For
example, Microsoft Corporation provides certifications for Technology
Specialists, IT Professionals, Professional Developers, Desktop Support
Technicians, Learning Consultants, Systems Administrators, Systems
Engineers, Database Administrators, Trainers, Application Developers,
Solution Developers, Microsoft Office Specialists, and (solutions and
infrastructure) Architects. Apple Inc., Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard,
IBM, MySQL, Novell, Oracle Corporation, Red Hat, and Sun Microsystems are
among other technology vendors sponsoring certifications for users of
their technologies. There are also a variety of third-party organizations
sponsoring user certifications. Among these are Linux Professional
Institute, SANS Institute, Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA),
and XML Master.
Examples of licensing:
engineers in 1998.
engineering program).
While certifications and licensing both exist with regards to software
engineering, it must be noted that the use of certifications vastly
surpasses the use of licensing.
-----
*
*
We have material prepared by students for the topics in bold.
Client and Employer
“Software engineers shall act in a manner that is in the best interests of their client and employer, consistent with the public interest (Baase, pg. 441).”
Being open about your capabilities/limitations
Keeping things confidential that you were asked to
Don't keep concerns about project to yourself
In August of 2006, AOL's research department released a file containing twenty million search keywords for over 650,000 users for research purposes. They said that there was no way to tie any user to a specific person, but within days the media at large had done so.
Profession
In 2005, some of the CDs that Sony BMG released contained a rootkit that secretly installed itself on computers that it was run on. It ran and installed itself on the user's computer without the knowledge or consent of the user. Trying to remove the software caused the operating system …
Just last month, schools in the UK started taking the fingerprints of children claiming that . A lot of conscious people raised hell, sites like http://www.leavethemkidsalone.com/ were created and experts like Bruce Schneier were called upon to discuss the issue. One of the associated risks was …
*
*
In 2005, some of the CDs that Sony BMG released contained a rootkit that secretly installed itself on computers that it was run on. It ran and installed itself on the user's computer without the knowledge or consent of the user. Trying to remove the software caused the operating system to be damaged. The software company that developed the rootkit for Sony BMG, First4Internet, violated rules 6.01 and 6.05, because they did not try to develop an environment that acted ethically and they promoted their own interest in the expense of damaging the reputation of the profession.
Just last month, schools in the UK started taking the fingerprints of children claiming that . A lot of conscious people raised hell, sites like http://www.leavethemkidsalone.com/ were created and experts like Bruce Schneier were called upon to discuss the issue. One of the associated risks was identity theft, and that the schools were in no way protected enough to be trusted with the valuable data. One of the counter-claims the schools / manufacturers made was that the system did not store an actual fingerprint, so reverting to the fingerprint image was nearly impossible. This was the truth, but not the entire truth. What was not said that instead of the fingerprint itself, a fingerprint template is stored, which is a standardized form of descriptive data just as valuable as the fingerprint itself – the police and the government use exactly these all the time. Thus, they violated 6.07, because they made misleading and deceptive claims.
Colleagues
“Software engineers shall be fair to and supportive of their colleagues (Baase, pg. 445).”
Help your colleagues
Be fair when asked to review something for a colleague
Do not take credit for what is not yours
Example: ???
Avoid harm to others
Be honest and trustworthy
Honor property rights including copyrights and patent
Give proper credit for intellectual property
Respect the privacy of others
Honor Confidentiality
*
*
We have material prepared by students for the topics in bold.
Be fair and take action not to discriminate
Included in most professional codes of ethics, as well as many personal ones
Incorporated into federal laws prohibiting discrimination by employers
Discrimination lawsuits filed all the time
Computer industry prone to age discrimination, assumed older people cant keep up with technology
Marshall Tanick, employment lawyer, says larger groups of plaintiffs have greater chance of success
Does something become more unethical if you do it to more people?
Be fair and take action not to discriminate.
This is one of the “General Moral Imperatives” in the ACM Code of Ethics. What does it mean? Just what it says: Do not discriminate, namely on the basis of race, sex, religion, age, disability, etc. This moral guideline is found in many other places as well, such as The Software Engineering Code of Ethics, the IEEE Code of Ethics, and just about any ethical codes regarding a profession. It is also a part of many people’s personal codes of ethics. This ethical issue has been incorporated into numerous U.S. Federal laws prohibiting discrimination by employers.
Being Federal law, examples of discrimination turn up all the time in the form of lawsuits. In 2004 Best Buy was accused of laying off IT workers over the age of 40 because they were too old. Also in 2004, two women filed suit against EMC on the grounds of sexual discrimination. In 2003 an ex-employee of Sun Microsystems claimed that the company laid off workers who were of older age or various races in favor of young Indian workers. These kinds of discrimination can be found everywhere, and can stem from racism, religion, or monetary issues
ACM Code of Ethics, 1.4. Sara Baase, A Gift of Fire. Pearon Education, 2003, p. 448.
Software Engineering Code of Ethics, 8.07. Sara Baase, A Gift of Fire. Pearon Education, 2003, p. 445.
IEEE Code of Ethics. 2006. Accessed 11/6/07. http://www.ieee.org/portal/pages/iportals/aboutus/ethics/code.html
Federal Laws Prohibiting Job Discrimination. 5/24/02. Accessed 11/6/07. http://www.eeoc.gov/facts/qanda.html
Being Federal law, examples of discrimination turn up all the time in the form of lawsuits. In 2004 Best Buy was accused of laying off IT workers over the age of 40 because they were too old. Also in 2004, two women filed suit against EMC on the grounds of sexual discrimination. In 2003 an ex-employee of Sun Microsystems claimed that the company laid off workers who were of older age or various races in favor of young Indian workers. These kinds of discrimination can be found everywhere, and can stem from racism, religion, or monetary issues.
Carol Sliwa, Best Buy Hit With Lawsuit Over Layoffs of IT Workers. 11/22/04. Accessed 11/7/07. http://www.computerworld.com/careertopics/careers/labor/story/0,10801,97691,00.html
Nancy Gohring, EMC could face class action discrimination lawsuit. 9/12/07. Accessed 11/7/07. http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/09/12/EMC-could-face-class-action-discrimination-lawsuit_1.html
Lisa M. Bowman, Ex-Sun workers files discrimination suit. 3/18/03. Accessed 11/7/07. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/itmanagement/0,1000000308,2132173,00.htm?r=1
KAP: I don’t see specific example.
Respect the privacy of others
AOL releases search information publicly for “research use” (Aug. 2006)
Data comprised 19 million Web searches performed by 658,000 users from March through May
Google refused to submit similar information to the Department of Justice (until compelled by court to comply)
HP private investigator got phone records of executives (Sep. ’06)
He posed as the people involved to access the information, without their consent
Data submitted to the Attorney General of California
*
*
There have been two big issues regarding the respect for privacy last
years. In one of them, AOL published the searches performed through their
search engine, making them publicly available for research purposes. Many
argued that this information must have been kept secret,and not shared
with others. In another case, private investigators hired by HP to look
into an internal information leakage suspicion unlawfully obtained phone
records of HP's executives. They did this by impersonating them to the
phone company, without having a warrant.
Facebook's news feed privacy issue
Confidentiality breach
Why?
List stakeholders.
*
*
How do we formally reason about Ethics? Here’s a suggestion from the book.
Identify rights of stakeholders
Analyze each option.
*
*
How do we formally reason about Ethics? Here’s a suggestion from the book.
Answer short individual questions assigned during class.
Search online for information about yourself and post on myWPI.
Create your own thread on the discussion board and list what you found… or a brief description if you’d rather not share details.
Can any of this data be used to cause harm?
Specify if you authorized use of the data?
If not, request its use be discontinued and post the correspondence, minus any personal information you wish to exclude.
Try digging deeper than a search engine’s (Google, etc.) results.
Cite where Chapter 2 describes your experiences.
Try finding stuff out about your classmates and post what you find and where to their threads.
*
*
*

Documents

CS 3043 Social Implications Of Computing 9/18/2015© 2004 Keith A. Pray 1 Class 5 Professional Ethics Keith A. Pray Instructor socialimps.keithpray.net