BUS 516

Computer Information Systems

Ethical and Social Issues in
Information Systems
 The dark side of big data

Predictive policing Insurance rates

Computerized hiring

Technology can be a double edged sword

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 What is ethics?

Individuals acting as free moral agents

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Ethical, social, and political issues
raised by information systems

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Technology trends that raise ethical issues

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You generate digital information about
YOURSELF

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You generate digital information about
YOURSELF

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You generate digital information about
YOURSELF
Put together and mined properly, this information
could reveal

your credit information

your driving habits,
your tastes,
your associations,
what you read and watch,
and your political interests

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You generate digital information about
YOURSELF

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You generate digital information about
YOURSELF
The use of computers to combine data from multiple sources
and create digital dossiers of detailed information on
individuals is called profiling.

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You generate digital information about
YOURSELF

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Information Rights: Privacy and Freedom in
the Internet Age

Privacy is the claim of individuals to be left alone, free from

surveillance or interference from other individuals or organizations,
including the state.

Fair Information Practices (FIP)

Informed Consent

Digital Security Act, Bangladesh

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Internet Challenges to Privacy
Cookies

Cookies are small text files deposited on a computer hard drive

when a user visits websites.

Cookies identify the visitor’s web browser software and track

visits to the website.

When the visitor returns to a site that has stored a cookie, the
website software searches the visitor’s computer, finds the cookie,
and knows what that person has done in the past.

It may also update the cookie, depending on the activity during the
visit. In this way, the site can customize its content for each visitor’s
interests.

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Internet Challenges to Privacy
Cookies

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Internet Challenges to Privacy
Cookies

Websites using cookie technology cannot directly obtain visitors’

names and addresses.

However, if a person has registered at a site, that information can be

combined with cookie data to identify the visitor.

Website owners can also combine the data they have gathered from
cookies and other website monitoring tools with personal data from
other sources, such as offline data collected from surveys or paper
catalog purchases, to develop very detailed profiles of their visitors.

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Internet Challenges to Privacy
Web beacons / bugs

Web beacons , also called web bugs (or simply tracking files), are tiny
software programs that keep a record of users’ online clickstreams.

They report this data back to whomever owns the tracking file
invisibly embedded in e-mail messages and web pages that are
designed to monitor the behavior of the user visiting a website or
sending e-mail.

Web beacons are placed on popular websites by third-party firms who

pay the websites a fee for access to their audience.

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Internet Challenges to Privacy
Web beacons / bugs

50 sites

3,180
5 times
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Internet Challenges to Privacy
Web beacons / bugs

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Internet Challenges to Privacy
Spyware

Spyware can secretly install itself on an Internet user’s computer by

piggybacking on larger applications.

Once installed, the spyware calls out to websites to send banner

ads and other unsolicited material to the user, and it can report
the user’s movements on the Internet to other computers.

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Internet Challenges to Privacy

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Internet Challenges to Privacy
A recent study found that 88 percent of 400,000 websites had at
least one Google tracking bug.

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Internet Challenges to Privacy

Opt out model X

Opt in model √

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Internet Challenges to Privacy
Technical Solutions

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Property Rights: Intellectual Property

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Challenges to Intellectual Property Rights

Global Software Piracy rate in 2015

39%
Music Books Video

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Computer-Related Liability Problems
Who is liable for any economic harm caused to individuals or
businesses whose credit cards were compromised?

Are information system managers responsible for the harm that

corporate systems can do?

If a computer software is part of a machine, and the machine injures

someone physically or economically, can the producer of the software
and the operator be held liable for damages?

What about software as a service? ATMs?

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System Quality: Data Quality and
System Errors

December 24, 2012

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 System Quality: Data Quality and
System Errors

What is an acceptable, technologically feasible

level of system quality?

At what point should system managers say, “Stop testing,

we’ve done all we can to perfect this software. Let’s go
live!”

What if the product was not offered on the marketplace?

Would social welfare as a whole falter and perhaps even
decline?

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 System Quality: Data Quality and
System Errors
Three principal sources of poor system performance are -

(1) software bugs and errors,

(2) hardware or facility failures caused by natural or other

causes,

(3) poor input data quality

Few companies routinely measure the quality of their

data, but individual organizations report data error
rates ranging from 0.5 to 30 percent.

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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

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Quality of Life: Equity, Access, and
Boundaries

Computer Crime and Abuse

Equity and Access: Increasing Racial and Social

Class Cleavages

Health Risks: RSI, CVS, and Cognitive Decline

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